Banana plugs are connectors that are typically attached to the ends of speaker wire. They offer some benefits over bare wire when it comes to connecting the speaker wire to the inputs of your audio system. I’ll talk about these advantages and also discuss some of the common misconceptions about banana plugs within the following lines.
A huge benefit that banana plugs provide over ordinary bare speaker wire in the termination point is the extra convenience. Bare wire can be a headache because you need to make sure the wire strands are together because stray copper wire can potentially be a dilemma down the road such as shorting out the system. It develops into a hassle if you need to very carefully put in and connect the bare wire two times for each speaker. When you’ve got banana plugs installed on every wire, you simply plug in the line just like you would with say an HDMI cable. This can be achieved in just a couple of seconds.
As soon as bare wire has corroded you can notice the audio from the channel begin to crack or become spotty. Banana plugs eliminate this issue since they’re corrosion resistant. Just make sure the banana plugs are gold plated and you may have absolutely nothing to be concerned about.
Probably the most obvious benefit that banana plugs provide is that they provide you with a professional looking installation of to your audio system. In so many cases where only bare speaker wire is used, the end result is sloppy – particularly if they are used with banana wall plates. If you want to prevent this, banana plugs are the most beneficial option for you.
Banana plugs don’t improve the overall performance of the audio. Just like any copper, even a coat hanger can send out audio signal. Even so, without having banana plugs, you have the chance with the uncovered wire corroding and lowering the quality of sound. This may require you to trim the weakened ends of the speaker wire and start over in order to produce clear audio from your speakers.
The greatest issue with using bare wire as an alternative is the potential for stray wire cross terminating that may damage your whole system.
It is advisable to get screw type banana plugs because they are easy and simple to install. There is absolutely no soldering required with screw type plugs. All that you must do is insert the bare wire in the plug and screw the plug together clamping the bare wire internally.
Besides the fact that banana plugs will not improve sound quality, they do provide many great rewards which will make them worth getting. And since they are found for just a few dollars online, you would be missing out by excluding them in your installation.
You can get them at http://www.cabletrain.com/cables/speaker-wire/banana-plugs
