olieb
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As somebody already recommended. Stäubli, certified for 32A.
These are with screws, I would prefer to solder the wires though.
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Reliable Copper Banana Plugs in Europe?
- Thread starter CauliflowerEars
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These are with screws, I would prefer to solder the wires though.
On the other hand - here is a test of binding posts going from no binding posts (just a straight wire)
Down to - literal - nails.
No audible impacts measured. Even the distortion comparision between copper wire (no posts) and steel nails showed negligable difference, and certainly nothing audible.
Different Binding Posts - is it audible?
The influence of BP on the sound of loudspeakers has often been controversially discussed. It even goes so far that individual voices describe the influence of binding posts as immense and recommend only very high-quality BPs - That made me curious. The full mini series: Capacitor...
www.audiosciencereview.com
olieb
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Maybe it's me, but I did not find mentioning of actual distortion in the linked post. There the question was, whether there is ferromagnetic material in the input section of a power amp. Answer of manufacturer: yes there is, we changed that and found no difference in distortion. But I did not read through the whole thread.
Killingbeans
Major Contributor
Think of it as quantity instead of percentage.
If you put a single grain of salt in a bottle of pure fresh water, and you put a "whopping" 19% bigger grain of salt in another identical bottle, it won't matter squat for the taste.
And we aren't even talking about taste here. It's just a miniscule amount of extra resistive load.
Open up a bunch of amplifiers and look at the internal wiring going to the speaker terminals (if not PCB mounted). It will often be "appallingly" thin stuff, and it gets even "worse" when you start calculating the cross section of PCB traces. Even the really wide ones. But it doesn't matter, because the lengths are so short.
If you really want to worry about something, worry about inductance. Although, that's not actually worth the bother either.
I believe the find @MaxwellsEq wanted to point to is in the post linked below. Indeed a steel part in the binding post was causing distortion in a high performance amp.
Post in thread 'Buckeye 3 Channel Purifi Amp Review' https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-channel-purifi-amp-review.40293/post-1478290
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Roland68
Major Contributor
Before anyone replies to this post, I ask that you read and consider the last section.
In order to decide what you can or want to buy, you first have to understand what the problems are.
Basically, assume that almost all plugs you get from the usual sources have the problems listed below.
In my experience, this is especially true for plugs under €/$10 each.
The exception is often hollow bananas (but unfortunately not all) which are made of pure copper, are uncoated or ONLY silver-plated (without nickel plating underneath) and can only be soldered, not screwed.
But be careful, a few months ago I had cheap copper-colored hollow bananas in my hand that were magnetic and had a nickel layer under the copper plating.
1. Fundamental problems
- Nickel is always magnetic and has a higher magnetic influence in alloys than iron.
- Pure copper oxidizes very quickly without a protective layer.
- Silver tarnishes over time and forms a patina on the surface.
- Oxidation and patina create a contact resistance that ranges from several 100 ohms to the megaohm range, or even completely isolated.
2. Gold plating or rhodium plating
- Almost every manufacturer has a nickel layer under gold plating or rhodium plating.
- This coating is necessary as a barrier layer because copper and coatings diffuse into each other.
- Nickel is always magnetic.
- There are methods to minimize or eliminate the nickel layer, but these methods are so expensive and time-consuming that the coating per plug is more expensive than the complete plug from other companies.
3. Materials of connectors
- Pure copper is the best material for audio connectors.
- Pure copper is difficult to work with because it is very soft. Especially with such small and thin-walled components.
- This is why phosphorus copper or other copper alloys are often used, often with nickel (see point 1).
4. Everything said above also applies to ferrules for stranded wire and speaker terminals
I couldn't detect any magnetic properties with the high-quality plugs from Inakustik, but all plugs are in the 2-digit price range per piece.
Hollow bananas made of pure copper, uncoated or silver-plated, are inexpensive and good, but they have to be soldered.
To do this, it has to be polished every 6 - 12 months, silver only with appropriate care products.
You can coat uncoated copper plugs with a thin layer of real copper paste (please only use high-quality branded products). This protects against oxidation and even slightly improves the transition resistance.
It doesn't get any better even with the most expensive plugs.
However, it must also be said very clearly that well over 90% of the plugs used have these problems/characteristics.
Does it have audible effects?
Everyone can and should form their own opinion on this.
OP
CauliflowerEars
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Ah, thank you. That's a very good point.
Is there a good way an amateur can check/make sure a plug doesn't have ferromagnetic materials?
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You need an incredibly complicated and expensive piece of test gear...
... a magnet
Now you've looped back to the OP's original concern. Finding non-magnetic connectors without having to buy them first to test with a magnet.You need an incredibly complicated and expensive piece of test gear...
... a magnet
In the same 2 page thread, a post has been referenced that says a chunk of steel as a connector doesn't make a difference and another post showing that chunk of steel as a connector does make a difference.
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Roland68
Major Contributor
What do you want to check with a multimeter?
Roland68
Major Contributor
Get a so-called pot magnet made of strong neodymium material with a diameter of approx. 20mm. The magnet can be larger, but not much smaller.
This allows you to detect even small amounts of nickel or alloy components.
With small amounts of nickel, you only notice a slight attraction, but if you can pick up a plug with it....
hey guys, today i received a bunch of these nakamichi banana plugs that are all over the place in aliexpress and reminded this thread.
Took a strong neodymium magnet and yes, can confirm they are very very slightly attracted, but the force is really weak.
Tested then some inakustik i have in use with my speakers and these are not ferromagnetic at all, not a little bit
www.in-akustik.de
And as i was at it, tested the binding post of my speakers (KEF LS50 Meta), and i tell you something, the metallic inner part of the part pictured below is at least as much attracted to the magnet as the cheapo bananas, if not more. No need to say that i will sleep tight tonight and continue enjoying my Kefs, but just wanted to bring a reference point to the discussion.
Took a strong neodymium magnet and yes, can confirm they are very very slightly attracted, but the force is really weak.
Tested then some inakustik i have in use with my speakers and these are not ferromagnetic at all, not a little bit
Excellence BFA Banana - Accessories :: in-akustik
And as i was at it, tested the binding post of my speakers (KEF LS50 Meta), and i tell you something, the metallic inner part of the part pictured below is at least as much attracted to the magnet as the cheapo bananas, if not more. No need to say that i will sleep tight tonight and continue enjoying my Kefs, but just wanted to bring a reference point to the discussion.
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With copper plugs, the owner has to spend time buffing the oxidation off them on a regular basis...too much work for too little benefit.First, forget about the 100 % cooper stuff. Contacts are gold plated for a reason.
Iron (or maybe some steel alloys) add distortion, anywhere from 0-3 dB or more. Look up the issue Buckeye Amps had with steel(-tab?) binding posts. It wasn't too fun for him, I think. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...502mp-8-channel-amp-review.43584/post-1546050
EDIT: I see this was already mentioned. Well, anyway, BFA plugs from Parts Express work fine for me, I think you should be able to get known-quality ones from there or elsewhere.
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Roland68
Major Contributor
Unfortunately, at this price you have to assume that these plugs also have a magnetic nickel layer under the gold plating.
Quite possibly. I would love to see comparative measurements (xHD vs frequency vs power, 19+20 IMD, N) of similar gold-plated connectors having and not having a nickel under-plate. I have a gut feeling that the distortion effects from nickel (at least for just a thin layer) don't show up until higher frequencies, maybe even above the audio band entirely, but that could just be wishful thinking.
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Nearly all gold played and silver plated parts have nickel underneath, its prevents the plating from diffusing into the copper and exposing it to air, humidity and prevents corrosion.
Worrying about plug conductivity is a waste of time. Think of all the solder in a circuit, it's conductivity rating is about 15% that of copper. A few fractions of a miliohm is a none issue.
Worrying about plug conductivity is a waste of time. Think of all the solder in a circuit, it's conductivity rating is about 15% that of copper. A few fractions of a miliohm is a none issue.
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