Banana Plugs

[DVDWotcha]

OK, so I'll soon be getting an AV receiver and a whole load more speaker cables to connect up to it. I figure fitting Banana plugs to my cables would make the whole thing less painless, but I'm not sure if it's sensible from a "hi-fi" perspective.

Is the general consensus that bare wire gives a better electrical connection than banana plugs ? After looking at a few I'm a bit dubious about banana plug design and the quality of the metal contacts.

Or is there really no difference ?

[MikeK]

Originally posted by DVDWotcha
OK, so I'll soon be getting an AV receiver and a whole load more speaker cables to connect up to it. I figure fitting Banana plugs to my cables would make the whole thing less painless, but I'm not sure if it's sensible from a "hi-fi" perspective.

Is the general consensus that bare wire gives a better electrical connection than banana plugs ? After looking at a few I'm a bit dubious about banana plug design and the quality of the metal contacts.

Or is there really no difference ?


Opinions vary on this - personally I can't detect any difference in sound whatsoever between bare wire and banana plugs, but some people say they can (but then again, some people can also tell the difference between one optical cable and another, and can tell if a hifi stand is made from wood or metal by the sound produced by the system which is placed on it :) ).

Draw your own conclusions - I use banana plugs for no other reason than they make things neater and make moving equipment (but you only need to do this now and again) easier. Not sure I'd pay a lot of money for them though - someone posted recently that they were considering some at 5 quid a pair - that's 50 quid to do 5 speakers. I'd rather spend that on DVDs to be honest. I bought some GP heavy duty ones for about 15 quid for 20 plugs.