Banana Plugs - They are not all the Same 

The second screw (the one at the end) on those Nakamichi-plugs is NOT for screwing down on the Isolation! It's ALSO used to screw down the bare wires! The most important thing about bananas next to being just conveniant when switching speakers and amps is to have the most possible surface area on the conductive material! If you have two screws to screw down a copper wire, USE THEM FOR JUST THAT!

"Nag-a-mauchee"? Bahahahaha! Damn, man, it's Nakamichi...kind of a big name in audio.

Btw Nakamichi ( you pronounced it nagamachi) was one of the best if not the best cassette decks in the world, and they made other components for a while. It’s a shame they’re gone cuz they made some amazing equipment. I myself have a Nakamichi cassette deck from the early 90’s and it’s very high quality. Check out the Nakamichi Dragon if you want to see a crazy cassette deck. Love your content. Thanks.

I only use the Nakamichi plugs but I'm pretty sure both locking set screws are supposed to bite on to the wire and not the insulation. I also prefer to tin the wire and clean off flux residue with Isopropyl alcohol.

Thank you for posting this video! I have vintage speakers and I needed to know if there was anything I could use as a converter or adapter. So that I could fix my speaker wires. Whoo, there IS an answer! I am NO longer lost! THANK YOU!!!

Here’s how to say the brand name: Nah-kah-MEE’-chee. Thanks for the video! I have two set screw design plugs and am using both screws on the wires. I thought I could make it better by soldering the exposed bare wires - I don’t think this is a good idea because once soldered, they will not give. With bare wires, when the screws are tightened, the wires will smash in and give a nice tightening and will stay tight. I plan to cut off the soldered ends, restrip to fresh, bare wire, and reassemble.

Why even have the second monster banana plugs, at that point you might as well just use bare speaker wire

6:14 no that bottom one isn't for your wire cover it's also for your copper, it's for 2 points of contact on the wires.

thanks man i learned quite a lot about the different kinds of banana plugs i just got into the whole concept of it after purchasing a near 4000$ 5.1 system to go along with my other 4 systems on my pc outputting sound all at once

Spade lugs provide more contact, and you don't have to worry about the eventual compression of the banana plug. Banana plugs are incredibly convenient though. WBT and some others make bananas that flare with the turn of a pin in the back, ensuring mire long term contact.

Nah-kah-mee-chee.

These things, as mentioned in a couple other comments, have metal exteriors on the fat part of the units. They're not insulated to be separate from the terminals or wire, so they of course will short every time they bump something they shouldn't. This, if you're lucky will shut down the amp with the safety device such as circuit breaker or fuse, leaving you buzzkill dead air, or worse yet, barbecue your amp if they're no safety device. Some suggest putting rubber shrink wrap to mitigate this..., that stuff is so thin I wouldn't trust it under load; plus, why should I have to go through all that when it's easier to put the copper right into the terminal the old fashioned budget way, then cut back an inch when oxidation starts 20 years later? Do blind tests and stop the ego hype and you'll find that jamming decent gauge copper into the terminal is perfectly fine even to a well trained ear. OR, for heaven's sake just encourage the audio manufactures to follow the professionals' approach with basic plug-in quarter-inch plugs/jacks like they do in just about every concert, club, church, amphitheater, and DJ setting. You can plug in and out instantly, hundreds of times and it still has literal professional quality sound, since that's what the professionals use. Anything better is still limited to that bottleneck anyway, since that's what was used in the initial performance. Sheesh. Stop stroking egos with the gold and the audiophile brand names and take a realistic look at commercial grade common sense connections. They are FAR more durable, cost less, have better sound transmission than the human ear can detect, and make more sense in more additional ways than I could type here.

Very fantastic it teaches me a lot very important thank you and greetings and blessings from Bangladesh 😊🎉👋👍😊

The Nakamichi plugs have nothing to do with 'the' Nakamichi brand of cassette deck fame, I checked, however they are every bit as good as the reviewer states, I just fitted 48 of the little blighters and have the holes in my left hand to prove it. They will accept 4mm cable, just tighten the screws in gradual steps to allow the cables to relax, lightweight is good, binding posts are not all well made so the lighter the better. IMHO spending more would be an extravagance and a waste of money. Good review.

Thank you for your video, that´s what am I searching for...

Thank you for your video I have asked everyone how to convert speaker wires and No one would tell me anything. even music stores.

Surprising how many little things that you don't learn right away getting into audio as a hobby. I had no idea cable pants were a thing. I wonder what else I'm missing.

I have seen two distinctly different styles of those Nakamichi plugs, one type insulates the metal (aluminum) barrel or cable pants leg as you would say from the jack, but it's still metal and therefore conductive and could short against something and maybe blow an amplifier. I think there's another type where the metal pants leg is electrically at the same potential as the audio signal to the speaker, which is a definite bad idea . Either way I would suggest putting some heatshrink tubing or some type of rubber insulator over the Jacks.

At timing 2:17 you show the Monster QL GFP-H QuickLock Flex Pin Connector 2. Both you and I love them (for spring loaded speaker terminals). Too bad they are long discontinued and you can't find them anywhere anymore (new). There is another company that makes something similar, but with internal screws and much cheaper quality (sellers usually sell six pair at a time, totally unnecessary for most speaker owners). Time marches on.

Ha ha I just knew the Nakamichi corrections would be forthcoming.

the spring loaded clips in the cup are not my preference since the contact area is limited to a knife edge which defeats the purpose of using monster cable or other similar.

I’ve found that many banana plug connectors I’ve used and looked at are made with cheap or lower quality base metals/alloys, and ..extremely thin “gold” plating that actually tarnishes and oxidizes- which real or purer gold won’t do. Also, those with the longer “leaf spring” design, the connection is tightest for the first insertion only, they then significantly loosen (they compress and narrow) in subsequent insertion cycles so they need to be flared back out with a small screw driver or other tool. If you look more closely, less than half, sometimes even less than 1/3 of the inserted length of the plug, actually makes contact with the interior cylinder surface of the binding post. For these reasons, I recommend only.. BFA/Z banana plugs (or spade lugs). The BFA/Z banana plugs are more common in Europe, but are slowly catching on more here in the US. They offer a much larger contact surface, and much higher expansion pressure within the post. For any connector, personally I prefer solder (higher silver content) over a screw connection. A screw connection will so easily be made too loose, even slightly- thus reducing conductivity; or too tight, crushing individual wires, even breaking/ripping them. And also as you said, the connection will eventually oxidize, which increases resistance (sometimes dramatically). For higher conductivity - find connectors that use copper only as the base metal, then over this-real gold plating. Some may like silver plating. Also, (not your fault of course) spring connectors in audio equipment aren’t so good. Fortunately, it’s very easy, and very inexpensive to change them out to gold binding posts. Parts Express, Ebay, and others offer them. Thanks for sharing your video!

I bought 8 or 9 different brands from Amazon and electronic stores. That gives you a lot to compare. There is a difference in the insert tightness between them. So the plugs and jacks.... I need 15 amps at least, 20 or 30 even better.

Thank you thank you for this video. I was struggling with monster plugs - nothing I did made them work. I was scared I was going to have to pay someone 💰to come and install a simple 2 channel analog Onkyo. Found your video and ordered the Nakamichi banana plug 24 k gold plated off amazon and everything was up and running in no time. They are soo much easier to install than monster banana plugs - it’s almost fool proof. 😊 Thank you

So… I’ve just ordered lots of banana plugs… with the 2 screws to make a secure fitting for the speaker wires. But the difference being is…. I’m not actually using that thin stranded copper wire; that you have shown in your video clip; that you normally buy from Amazon. I’m using electrical solid copper wire… hopefully for extra sound quality, that it will give. And also… the whole point of using banana plugs… as opposed to just fitting bare copper wire into the amplifier’s terminals….is to make sure that the fitting is fully secure. Saturday 15th October 2022. U.K. Southampton

The nakamichi ones are nice. Thats what I use. I tried to get 8 gauge wire in some for my car sub for quick disconnect and good luck lol. It worked, but the aluminum sleeve wouldn't go around it. But they work great for home theatre!

I like terminals that are made for crimping. The wire end soaked in DeoxIT Gold or a similar solution could be crimped for very long lasting reliable connection. But any screw clamping of a multi-strand wire just can't be that reliable. Unless that multi-strand wire end is inserted into a good quality ferrule.

Can't wait to play my Nakamachi Dragon with my new banana plug speakers connection!

You'd be surprised how many people use these Nakamichi banana plugs these days, they are affordable but of high quality, and yes they come as 24 karat gold plated. Made in China these days not in Japan anymore, but that's irrelevant as they are made to a high standard and are fantastic.

Hey thanks for the mention! great video!

fyi if u dont use the last screw for the rubber and instead make the wire longer and solder it too you get more surface area that is connecting with the banana plug.

“Nah-ga-mah-chee”. Almost...

My issue is the that the plugs ends differ in different models. Some fit sluggishly , or hard to get the in and some in between. I have a Yamaha amp.

i didnt know these exist, i was looking for a strain called "banana jack" but now i know im not supposed to jam twisted wires in your units receiver. i think ill pick these up if i find them.

I had always used 16- 18 ga lamp or sheathed power cords as speaker wire after tinning the exposed conductor with solder .Never banana plugs before but now I may have to try them.

Iv'e got those Nakamichi all through my systems. Even on the Subwoofer in the car to make taking it out when needed. They are easy to buy & pretty cheap as well.. Thats a plus for me

Thanks for sharing. Great info.

agreed . I bought the WGGE which is the same as the last ones you demoed.

The Nakamichi plugs are fake btw. They’ve never been near the Nakamichi factory. For thin wires, they are ok but for 12awg, the grub screws don’t go all the way back in so the cover will no longer fit. I dumped them in the bin and bought Ugreen plugs which don’t have a cover that doesn’t fit.

The Nakamichi is my absolute favorite and durable.

Watched it through. I am looking now for the 2 minute version.

the deadbolt ones are my favourite because they're the easiest to fit

Banana plugs are best avoided if possible. Although they are convenient if you are often connecting and disconnecting speakers they have limited contact area in the socket and are often a loose fit. They also add another unnecessary contact surface. If your amplifier has binding posts with a hole in them for wires use them instead. Spray the bare ends of the wires with deoxit and tighten them down firmly. This makes a far superior connection to any banana plug as it forms the largest contact area possible with the wire strands and they also eliminates an extra contact surface.

the problem with the nakamichi is the metal is brass, not copper. the "gold" plating is thin and cant compensate for the poor conductivity of the metal. If you must use a connector over the wire, spades are better. If you must use banana, get pure copper, gold plated, and seal it with shrink wrap or silicone at wire connection points to keep out oxygen.

Nice vid! Could I suggest making a vid on how to properly measure baffle step and diffraction when designing a crossover (instead of just using the manufacturer's published response curve and guessing)? I can make a response look nearly dead flat on crossover sims and such using the manufacturer's published response curve, but I'm still working how to properly accommodate for the actual baffle step and (more importantly) diffraction when I actually stick the driver(s) in the box.

Normal banana plugs actually fit in the older speaker style terminals, how I know I tried it it fits but it might not stay put as well as the ones made for that terminal but why pay more for them?

I use a vintage Yamaha amp with my Advent Large Stack speakers I use these spades for the speakers UCEC Y Plug 45 Degree Spade Connector for speaker wire DIY 8 Pack (4 Black 4 Red) And these for the amp part Silverback Flex Pin Connectors, For Spring-Loaded Inputs, 6 Pairs Very good for your do it yourself plugs

I prefer dual banana plugs from Pomona or other sources. However most amp and speaker manufacturers do not honor the 3/4" spacing. I think it is because in most European countries these banana plugs will easily fit a 220 volt electrical outlet

I use the Sewells, they have the two screw system and they are very affordable.

Perfect, thx!

All those banana plugs stick out too much. So I stopped buying all of those in place of 4mm banana bullet connectors, I never have to worry about these sticking out past the terminals.

Novice question I have a Sony dn1080 and I bought fospower plugs but they are too fat to fit in the terminals. 1. Does banana clips have thinner ends? 2, the Sony has no black cap protectors but have a gold inner sleeve, do I need to take that out to fit the banana clip inside ? Sorry for the naive questions but I struggling to resolve this, thank you

thanks for the video

Are the aluminum sleeves on the Nakamichis conductive?

Check out the QED Screwlock banana plugs. Their system gives more contact area than all of the above.

Some of the comments below are a bit rude . Who cares how it's pronounced . As far as nakamichi being a great brand that's on them farming out high profit tweaks . It was a company that didn't change with the times . Building the best and most expensive Tape decks when CD's dominated the market . Maybe if the company was still relevant people would know how to pronounce it . Great video by the way

Useful, thanks.

ah although the Nakamichi are my current one's, I've see and always wondered about those flexible tips, for that same reason 2:41' awesome vid, thanks for sharing :)

You should make a vid for RCAs too. Cheap RCAs tend to have no hold strength and locking RCAs are superior.

From these "Nakamichi" plugs there are right-angle versions out there. I would like that, but now I wonder, whether the silver color cover is metal or plastic. As two right angle connector might touch each other when plugged in, and will cause short if the cover is also conductive. Can you please check the cover material?! Thanks!

Can i just solder the ends and seal the exposed wire with liquid electrical tape and avoid buying the plugs?

Are they Nakamichi or Nakamachi? Very difficult to lock a 12 gauge wire in there by the way. I had to flatten the bare wire tips with a pair of pliers to get at least one lock screw to lock, and kept the second ones in my drawer.😤

Hello. The plugs that you are showing at 3:00 are the type that I need but I can't find any. Could you tell me specifically what that particular type are called? Thanks

Right Angle 24k Gold Plated Banana Speaker Wire Cable Screw Plug Connectors

I have just paid for 10 Nakamachi plugs from ebay cheap as French fries and the quality is not quite the opposite very well made and is easy to install.

What's your opinion on the stinger banana plugs? I have two silver black/red pairs and a gold red/black pair. I intend to use them for my car stereo. Do banana plugs impede heavy booming bass or enhance it?

I still can't understand why they make the jackets out of conductive metal? Makes me paranoid about shorting out my amp. One set i covered them with clear heatsink.

Thanks for the video! Very informative. Any suggestion for a banana plug that would accommodate a 4 twist 16awg cable? Effectively the same size as 4AWG...

Your not being fond of the first Monster banana plugs seems illogical if you favor the second ones shown, the ones with the dangling wire protruding from the end. I say that because both plugs have the same basic connection point where the wire contacts the plug, where the wire should be spread (bent down and around, 360) uniformly around the base piece before screwing down the prong piece. I have the first kind that you reviewed (also spades, which have the same base piece) and, as best as I could, uniformly spread the wire around the entire outer surface of the base piece. I use Monster Original Speaker Cable, which is 12 gauge. The large gauge makes it easier to spread the wire. Once completely spread, it appears like a hollow mushroom, from a top down view. The last part of the process is tightening down the prong part over the spread wire of the base part, like fitting a custom made hat over a perfect bowl cut. I came here being curious to find out how an actual installation was done with this particular Monster banana plug. Personally, I don't like the idea of just bending over the unseparated wire then attaching the prong part. I feel that there is a much more quality connection by spreading as explained above than just bending it over a portion of the base piece.

There is some from monoprice that I use all the time

I have a set of Nakamichi banana plugs on some speaker cables and I really like them. And yes, they are VERY secure when connected to good terminals - bear hug tight!

I cost the wires with solder that makes I think a better connection. Maybe someone will disagree.

Unless you you have to switch out speakers and amps I wouldn't use Banana plugs at the very least at the speaker end . Speakers vibrate that's what they do . From least to worst they create static or the wires slip out and short . Read all the 1 star reviews on Amazon they usually have a common theme . Barrels rotate causing static, barrels brake causing replacement or repairs . locking plugs are better as far as static but the same with wires slipping out or set screws falling lout out or stripping . After seeing your video I agree the braided wicker seems to be the best of them . It does add a connection it will lesson performance by a fraction it might prevent slippage and shorting . I don't know if I would call that a banana plug ?? If I was going to recommend a banana plug it would be a parts express locking banana plugs . They are expensive . Second it would be a crimp on plug . I also recommend securing it to the speaker cabinet to prevent fatigue and breakage . The monster wicker is called a flex pin / tip not banana plug and it's the one I would strongly recommend overall but it's not a banana plug.

Fospower and monoprice affinity banana plugs are pretty damn good as well.

Informative video, never knew about the "floppy ended" style.. i might get a few of those. .... i appreciate how compact the Monster cable ones are..hmmm i wonder if a right angle banana plug exists.

Does the Nakamichi end turn? That is, the end that you plug in, does it spin. I require a good banana plug for DC power supply purposes, and with some of these plugs, the end spins freely?? I am thinking of purchasing the Nakamichi solder type.

The only banana I will use is from Deltron, Mouser part numbers 174-5791 and 174-5795. Solder only, and they never wear out.

Wonder why all the videos I searched for never showed me how to use this plug.

Nope. My favorite is the same as yours. My only complaint is occasionally losing the cap. It'll unscrew and wander off.

I dont understand the point of the deadbolt plugs with the flexible end. Just use the cable without the plug.

Are there any performance differences?

Not to be the banana plug police Nakamichi not negimaki

the nakamichi has an issue you cannot use with 10AWG

Do you think it is worth crimping a ferrule onto the end of the wire before terminating it into a banana plug?

I found some discrepancies in your evaluation process. You find some too long to be used for wall mounted speakers, and yet the ones you do prefer have that exact issue of being too long. So my take away from this video is that there really isn’t an ideal banana plug for all types of speakers and the various connections. Well none that have been constructed as of yet. I do like the first ones you listed, for their ease of use. However, I didn’t know about the oxidation issue that can develop over time within the speaker wire. Thanks for that info. I’m thinking about prefabricated braided speaker wire with connectors already attached as an option. My hesitation stems from their price point. Not cheap. Ugh!

Thank you for the instructions. On-Q makes the NAKAMICHI type also.

My favourites are shown at 03:38 and nakamachi with additional small copper tubing to keep copper fibre integrated. Cheers from Indonesia

Some good info, thank you… but your mispronunciation of NA KA MI CHU drove me crazy… They were a very famous Japanese audio company in the 70s and 80s especially for cassette decks…. but now mostly defunct (actually bought out by a Chinese company that seems to just license out the name sad to say)…

Where can i buy the banana plugs with 2 screws that you recommend? Please let us know. Thanks!

If I have a banana plug where the tip is attracted to a magnet, is that a problem?

They are made Naka Meechee not Narka Marchee.

What guage wire are you using with the Monster banana plug seen @ 0:45 ??

Boa noite ! Obrigado pela explicação. Você foi o único na internet que vi, que usou plug banana para Bornéu quadrado de caixa acústica. Voce recomenda esse último rígido para esse tipo de conexão borne quadrado ? Obrigado !

I use the Nakamichi ones,

N - A - K - A - M - I - C - H - I

Don't really need to put the aluminium sleeve on at all - provides min support to cable tho'.

why do u need connectors? why dont u just use the wire?

Oh I’m so glad you said they are the favourite 😬 took ages to find some I wanted as wanted the locking feature and these had 2 screws so yeah bought then strait away

very good observation about oxidize at 1.00 thank u i never thought of that but are u sure about it? thanks.

Do you know anyone who makes a solder-able banana plug?