Banana Plugs Vs Spade

[School]

Any pros and cons to either connector?

 

[amey01]

Any pros and cons to either connector?

Spades are screwed down, bananas are a friction connection.

Spades if given the choice - but do you think you (or anyone) could tell the difference? Doubt it?

Bananas (on the other hand) are easier to connect and reconnect if you want to be able to mix things around.

 

[twich54]

agreed with Adam and if you're worried about 'frictional contact' there are locking bananas available.

 

[ttocs]

3 for 3 in agreement with above. In my estimation it comes down to convenience. My surround amp and speakers use bare wire, and my main amps use bananas because the posts are so close together, and main speakers don't have post holes so I use spades. The new ML binding posts do a great job of not loosening with spades.

FWIW I'm really not a fan of bananas but in the case of my main amps they are the safest to use under the circumstances. The speaker cable is heavy enough to provide enough gravitational pressure to keep them in place.

With and without connectors on the speaker cables showed almost immeasurable difference on any of my meters. I frankly don't remember what the measurements were because they were inconsequential.

 

[School]

Spades are screwed down, bananas are a friction connection.

Spades if given the choice - but do you think you (or anyone) could tell the difference? Doubt it?

Bananas (on the other hand) are easier to connect and reconnect if you want to be able to mix things around.

Sorry I should have clarified.. what’s better for sound quality if any?

 

[School]

Spades are screwed down, bananas are a friction connection.

Spades if given the choice - but do you think you (or anyone) could tell the difference? Doubt it?

Bananas (on the other hand) are easier to connect and reconnect if you want to be able to mix things around.

Sorry I should have clarified.. what’s better for sound quality if any?

 

[Brad225]

6 eggs or a 1/2 dozen eggs. Which do you think will make the recipe taste better.

It will probably not ever matter. I wouldn't worry whether your connections are RCA or XLR either.

Welcome to the group School. Be careful of some of the teachers here, they will have you spending all of your future milk money on audio equipment.

 

[amey01]

Sorry I should have clarified.. what’s better for sound quality if any?

That's what I was trying to answer. Spades (because they are screwed down) give a more solid connection.

But I went on to say - if anyone could tell the difference, I'd be surprised.

Professional equipment usually uses "speakon" connector which gives a better connection again - but it's not for sound quality; it's for reliability in what can be extremely demanding and harsh environments.

So - if you're getting new cables made up and are asked "spades or banana", I'd say "spades" for sure. But if you've got some banana terminated cable lying around, I wouldn't be at all concerned with using it.

 

[School]

That's what I was trying to answer. Spades (because they are screwed down) give a more solid connection.

But I went on to say - if anyone could tell the difference, I'd be surprised.

Professional equipment usually uses "speakon" connector which gives a better connection again - but it's not for sound quality; it's for reliability in what can be extremely demanding and harsh environments.

So - if you're getting new cables made up and are asked "spades or banana", I'd say "spades" for sure. But if you've got some banana terminated cable lying around, I wouldn't be at all concerned with using it.

Thank you my friend all this audio information is very confusing for me. Once I understand how one thing works I find there are other things I don’t under stand. I don’t know where to begin lol

 

[ttocs]

Thank you my friend all this audio information is very confusing for me. Once I understand how one thing works I find there are other things I don’t under stand. I don’t know where to begin lol

Yes, it can be confusing until you experiment for yourself. Start with the very basics so you have a starting point from which to compare.

I had the same setup for over 32 years before I got my first Martin Logan speakers. It consisted of a Sansui AU-717 integrated amp only setup for 8 Ohm speakers, JBL L110 speakers, Monster Cable 12 gauge speaker wire, a Philips turntable, and various recording devices along the way. The maintenance consisted of re-coning the woofers every ten years and replacing the speaker wire when it turned green. The Sansui amp didn't like electrostatic speaker at all! So I bought a used Carver TFM series amp for a couple hundred dollars, then some better speaker cables, couple years later a different amp, then took a month to try many different speaker cables to learn what "I" liked best, moved the speakers from there to here, toe them in more, maybe a little less, move them farther away from the wall, and so on.

With my current setup I'm so totally satisfied that I don't want to make any changes, absolute bliss. But, as a demonstration I could very easily make it sound like crap simply by moving the speakers and taking away the acoustical treatments. This is a blunt way of saying what others have pointed out - speaker placement is free and acoustic treatments can be very low cost and give you very dramatic improvements in the sound of your system which includes your room.

I've never witnessed any change in the sound when using or not using speaker wire connectors. Bare wire, banana, or spades. I use what is needed to get the job done. Speaker wires are tuning devices, they sound different - not better. It's like using different guitar strings to change the sound of a guitar, some sound full and some sound bright.

 

[roberto]

Hola School,

I use this type of banana with excellent results. What I do like is that there is a lot of contact with the female connector, and the strength of the connector is very good. It keeps being tight over the years. There is not doubt that having a screw tightening the connector is better secured. My point here, is that with this type of connector there is more metal contact. https://silversonic.com/products/connectors/z-plugs/

Happy listening!

 

[Bernard]

I use spades on the wires to the amp, and lockable bananas on the wires between the panel and the woofer.

 

[TomDac]

I like locking bananas just for ease of use, but i'm sure spade connection is better.. Whether you can hear any difference is doubtful.

 

[Hear Here]

That's what I was trying to answer. Spades (because they are screwed down) give a more solid connection.

Ah, but good bananas are much better than spades that have worked slightly loose. This is easily done if the cables are moved and the spades are pulled slightly sideways. I much prefer good bananas - those with a full-length spring-loaded stiff wire that ensures plenty of metal to metal contact, even if moved.

This type, used on Chord Cables is pretty good - https://www.chord.co.uk/product/speaker-cable-termination-kit-z-plugscrew-type/

 

[twich54]

Dennis, as you can see either choice will work just fine. As for sonic advantage of one over the other, there is none. A 'locking banana' is just as as good as a spade.

 

[pambs]

Resurrecting some old posts to see some traction on the forum

VDH has a good option where you can just screw in bananas or spades. So you can have both

https://www.vandenhul.com/product/diy-screw-on-speaker-connectors/