Can anyone tell me what these are called? They're a sort of slightly odd
distant cousin of the banana plug.

https://ibb.co/sbfLrHy

The red and black sleeves are soft plastic and pull off to reveal a hollow
tube with a single grub screw; the probe-like prongs are approximately 1 mm
in diameter and look as if they're designed to be cut to length if needed.

I have some loudspeakers with spring-catch connectors too small to admit the
speaker wire I'm using and these would serve well, but I need a few more. I
can't remember when, where (or why) I acquired these, and without a proper
name I've had no luck tracking down a source.

Many thanks.

Bert Coules wrote:
Can anyone tell me what these are called? They're a sort of slightly odd
distant cousin of the banana plug.

https://ibb.co/sbfLrHy

The red and black sleeves are soft plastic and pull off to reveal a hollow
tube with a single grub screw; the probe-like prongs are approximately 1 mm
in diameter and look as if they're designed to be cut to length if needed.

I have some loudspeakers with spring-catch connectors too small to admit the
speaker wire I'm using and these would serve well, but I need a few more. I
can't remember when, where (or why) I acquired these, and without a proper
name I've had no luck tracking down a source.

Many thanks.



I think these are them.
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-AH11R-Spe.../dp/B003GSLEJO

Unfortunately on the €œwrong€� Amazon. Havent managed to find them on a UK
site yet. Its possible theyre called something different on this side of
the pond...

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

Tim+ wrote:
I think these are them.
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-AH11R-Spe.../dp/B003GSLEJO

Unfortunately on the €œwrong€� Amazon. Havent managed to find them on a UK
site yet. Its possible theyre called something different on this side of
the pond...

I think 'speaker pins' is the magic word:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-Plated.../dp/B00J3V3HKW
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stinger-S...OS/19254088456

Theo

Tim,

Yes, that's definitely them; thanks so much for that. What search terms did
you use to track them down? Or were you already familiar with them? It's
interesting that the use I thought they could be put to seems actually to be
what they're designed to do.

As you've undoubtedly seen (and thanks for checking) Amazon UK lists them,
but as currently unavailable. And actually, when you follow the link,
Amazon US says exactly the same.

Theo wrote:
I think 'speaker pins' is the magic word:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-Plated.../dp/B00J3V3HKW
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stinger-S...OS/19254088456

Last one should be
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stinger-S...S/192540884567

Theo,

Thanks! "speaker pins" it is. And though your eBay link doesn't work for
me, the Amazon UK one does.

Thanks for the correction. Actually, searching eBay for "speaker pins"
threw up a variant with the pin part angled which might be even more useful:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264452460193

Bert Coules wrote:
Tim,

Yes, that's definitely them; thanks so much for that. What search terms did
you use to track them down? Or were you already familiar with them? It's
interesting that the use I thought they could be put to seems actually to be
what they're designed to do.


Im not familiar with them but I just tried a few terms in Google image
search which is a good way of quickly finding odd things.


As you've undoubtedly seen (and thanks for checking) Amazon UK lists them,
but as currently unavailable. And actually, when you follow the link,
Amazon US says exactly the same.



Try these.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m... 263080108261

--
Please don't feed the trolls

Time, thanks again. As you might now have seen, we overlapped: I found both
the originals and a small variant on eBay.

On 28/01/2020 17:11, Bert Coules wrote:
Can anyone tell me what these are called?Â* They're a sort of slightly
odd distant cousin of the banana plug.

https://ibb.co/sbfLrHy

The red and black sleeves are soft plastic and pull off to reveal a
hollow tube with a single grub screw; the probe-like prongs are
approximately 1 mm in diameter and look as if they're designed to be cut
to length if needed.

I have some loudspeakers with spring-catch connectors too small to admit
the speaker wire I'm using and these would serve well, but I need a few
more.Â* I can't remember when, where (or why) I acquired these, and
without a proper name I've had no luck tracking down a source.

Many thanks.

Presumably the sockets have one or more spring thingies to engage in the
grooves?

"newshound" wrote:

Presumably the sockets have one or more spring thingies to engage in the
grooves?

The design is such that it's impossible to see, but a twisted piece of
stranded wire inserted and removed doesn't show any markings or
indentations, so perhaps not. As I said in my first post, I wonder if the
shape of the prongs is
to facilitate cutting them shorter.

Bert Coules wrote:
"newshound" wrote:

Presumably the sockets have one or more spring thingies to engage in the
grooves?

The design is such that it's impossible to see, but a twisted piece of
stranded wire inserted and removed doesn't show any markings or
indentations, so perhaps not. As I said in my first post, I wonder if the
shape of the prongs is
to facilitate cutting them shorter.


Interesting idea. I always thought it was to aid gripping if you use them
on the speaker terminals which open when you press a button.

Not many people use them by the way. In fact, while Ive seen them for sale
etc, I dont recall ever seeing anyone use them.

Brian Reay wrote:

Interesting idea. I always thought it was to aid gripping if you use them
on the speaker terminals which open when you press a button.

That is the sort of terminals I have, yes, and the openings are far too
small to take the stranded cable I'm using. I've tried removing some of the
strands on the exposed ends but it's a messy approach, and using a short
jumper connection of thinner wire also seems unnecessarily complicated, so
these reducer plugs strike me as ideal. The prong part is far too long
though, hence my thought about shortening them. I wonder why the terminals
are made so small and incommodious?

Bert Coules wrote:
Brian Reay wrote:

Interesting idea. I always thought it was to aid gripping if you use them
on the speaker terminals which open when you press a button.

That is the sort of terminals I have, yes, and the openings are far too
small to take the stranded cable I'm using. I've tried removing some of the
strands on the exposed ends but it's a messy approach, and using a short
jumper connection of thinner wire also seems unnecessarily complicated, so
these reducer plugs strike me as ideal. The prong part is far too long
though, hence my thought about shortening them. I wonder why the terminals
are made so small and incommodious?


Perhaps the pertinent questions is €œwhy are you using such heavy gauge
speaker wire€�? ;-)

Until it became fashionable speaker wire always used to be skinny spaghetti
like stuff. Seemed to work okay.

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 29/01/2020 10:21, Tim+ wrote:
Bert Coules wrote:
Brian Reay wrote:

Interesting idea. I always thought it was to aid gripping if you use them
on the speaker terminals which open when you press a button.

That is the sort of terminals I have, yes, and the openings are far too
small to take the stranded cable I'm using. I've tried removing some of the
strands on the exposed ends but it's a messy approach, and using a short
jumper connection of thinner wire also seems unnecessarily complicated, so
these reducer plugs strike me as ideal. The prong part is far too long
though, hence my thought about shortening them. I wonder why the terminals
are made so small and incommodious?


Perhaps the pertinent questions is €œwhy are you using such heavy gauge
speaker wire€�? ;-)

Until it became fashionable speaker wire always used to be skinny spaghetti
like stuff. Seemed to work okay.

It does if you have a speaker with no response below 200Hz


Tim



--
To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.

In article
,
Tim+ wrote:
Until it became fashionable speaker wire always used to be skinny
spaghetti like stuff. Seemed to work okay.

And before speakers became fashionable, they were simple paper coned
things with a relatively high efficiency. At only some frequencies. ;-)

The gauge of cable needed is also dependant on the length. But more
importantly, the damping factor of the amp. No point in having a very low
impedance output if you're going to spoil it with cable resistance.

--
*A day without sunshine is like... night.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Bert Coules wrote:
Brian Reay wrote:

Interesting idea. I always thought it was to aid gripping if you use them
on the speaker terminals which open when you press a button.

That is the sort of terminals I have, yes, and the openings are far too
small to take the stranded cable I'm using. I've tried removing some of the
strands on the exposed ends but it's a messy approach, and using a short
jumper connection of thinner wire also seems unnecessarily complicated, so
these reducer plugs strike me as ideal. The prong part is far too long
though, hence my thought about shortening them. I wonder why the terminals
are made so small and incommodious?



I suspect they (the manufacturers) only allow for / expect people to use
fairly thin (7/0.2?) wire, and forget about those who prefer something a
bit more €˜generous. Over the years Ive seen quite reasonable quality
stereo systems supplied with speaker leads which really werent €˜man
enough.

As for the length of the beasts in question, I assume that is so they can
also be used to go through the cross holes on 4mm binding posts.

An alternative, which is probably easier to source, are crimp on ferrules-
sometimes called bootlace ferrules. You need a crimp tool to fit them
properly but a reasonable one, good enough for DIY use (ie it will give
good results and have a reasonable life) isnt that expensive. You can
get ferrules which require the same crimp tool as spades, butts, etc and
others which use a special tool.

Brian Reay wrote:

An alternative, which is probably easier to source, are crimp on ferrules-
sometimes called bootlace ferrules.

I wondered about those but wasn't sure of the correct name. I've ordered
the screw-on speaker pins now, but just in case anyone else is after the
same thing:

https://www.toolstation.com/bullet-c...or-male/p75450

Thanks.

Or rather...

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp...rules/0458689/

Bert Coules wrote:
Or rather...

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp...rules/0458689/



Those are the ones which required the dedicated crimp tool.

There are others which use the same tool as spade, bullet,:

https://www.hilltop-products.co.uk/p...BoClPkQAvD_BwE

The first ones have a difficult shape, if crimped with the correct tool.

On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 13:28:58 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
Tim+ wrote:

Until it became fashionable speaker wire always used to be skinny
spaghetti like stuff. Seemed to work okay.

And before speakers became fashionable, they were simple paper coned
things with a relatively high efficiency. At only some frequencies. ;-)

The gauge of cable needed is also dependant on the length. But more
importantly, the damping factor of the amp.

not really

No point in having a very low
impedance output if you're going to spoil it with cable resistance.

it's already 'spoiled' by the speaker's copper resistance.


NT

Thanks, Brian. Quite apart from these particular pins, that looks like a
useful site.

In article ,
wrote:
The gauge of cable needed is also dependant on the length. But more
importantly, the damping factor of the amp.

not really

No point in having a very low
impedance output if you're going to spoil it with cable resistance.

it's already 'spoiled' by the speaker's copper resistance.

You don't understand how a motor reacts to a power supply, then?

--
*Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.