Locking banana plugs
- Thread starter Tim F
- Start date
KaCsa makes some solid banan plugs with locking mechanism. Series is called BP-283 as is available in few finishes.
If your pockets are deeper WBT makes excellent angled banana plugs, series name WBT 0610.
I have long used the gold-plated locking banana plugs sold by Blue Jeans Cables. I use these in conjunction with Belden or Canare speaker cables also sold by Blue Jeans, If you buy both the plugs and the cables from Blue Jeans, Blue Jeans uses its ultrasonic welding process to connect the cable strands directly to the plugs without solder. No solder is as good as no solder at all, and the connections don't tarnish over time, unlike ordinary bare wire connections.
You could also just buy the Blue Jeans locking bananas separately and use other types of speaker cable with them, but then you will either have to solder your cable to the plug and that will take a high wattage soldering iron since the mass of the plug is high and thus takes a lot of heat to get a good solder connection; or you can clamp the bare wire to the inside tunnel of the banana plug with the included set screw. Bought separately, these Blue Jeans locking bananas are only $9 a pair.
I have never had one of these plugs fail in any way, much less bend.
Caveat: If your binding posts have large holes in them, you can choose to insert the entire prong part of the banana plug into that hole and clamp down hard on the prongs by both expanding the leaves and tightening the binding post nut onto the plug prongs. This process WILL damage the prongs of any locking banana plug by scraping, indenting, and/or bending them, but you will also get a very solid connection that way, more solid than possible through just locking the prong leaves to the inside of the binding post tunnel. I've done it both ways, the intended way and this damaging way. Take your pick.
You could also silly amounts of money on very high quality locking bananas from WBT or Cardas. Note, however, that some of those are meant for use in combination with speakers cables which are already terminated with spade lugs. If you want to use bare wire, make sure you buy the correct version. If you have cables already terminated with spade lugs, you usually will not need to use locking banana plugs.
You could also just buy the Blue Jeans locking bananas separately and use other types of speaker cable with them, but then you will either have to solder your cable to the plug and that will take a high wattage soldering iron since the mass of the plug is high and thus takes a lot of heat to get a good solder connection; or you can clamp the bare wire to the inside tunnel of the banana plug with the included set screw. Bought separately, these Blue Jeans locking bananas are only $9 a pair.
I have never had one of these plugs fail in any way, much less bend.
Caveat: If your binding posts have large holes in them, you can choose to insert the entire prong part of the banana plug into that hole and clamp down hard on the prongs by both expanding the leaves and tightening the binding post nut onto the plug prongs. This process WILL damage the prongs of any locking banana plug by scraping, indenting, and/or bending them, but you will also get a very solid connection that way, more solid than possible through just locking the prong leaves to the inside of the binding post tunnel. I've done it both ways, the intended way and this damaging way. Take your pick.
You could also silly amounts of money on very high quality locking bananas from WBT or Cardas. Note, however, that some of those are meant for use in combination with speakers cables which are already terminated with spade lugs. If you want to use bare wire, make sure you buy the correct version. If you have cables already terminated with spade lugs, you usually will not need to use locking banana plugs.
In my experience crimp on low mass non locking bananas with Mad Scientist contanct enhancer are best. I have tried several locking types and always found that the additional mass put a veil on things
Why does the Furutech not fit? Can you give us more detail about the issue?
WBT uses a similar mechanism, but the expansion is in the middle of the plug, while the Furutech expands in the front mainly.
It'll be very hard to find a slimmer, locking banana plug. Do they have to be locking? Why is that?
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