Wiring Banana Plugs
Category: Tech...
Posted Friday, November 30, 2007 at 06:24 PM [GMT-6]

I found myself in an interesting predicament. I had a zip-lock bag (snack sized) full of compression-style banana plugs, all of which begged to be attached to speaker wires even as they defied my attempts to understand just exactly how such attachment was to occur.

These plugs are comprised of three parts: the plug itself, permanently attached to a body which is a hollow threaded shaft; a short cylindrical "slug" of solid metal that fits loosely into the shaft of the body; and a threaded insert, also hollow, that screws into the base of the body, shoving the slug against the plug (providing, I suppose, the compression that describes the type of connector). The non-intuitive part is how the speaker wire was to be routed in order to make optimal contact with the plug.

I saw one obvious way to do it, but it was crude, circumventing the elegant design of the plug. But the alternative wasn't obvious.

Until, that is, I found this excellent set of instructions, in PDF format. (Courtesy of Blue Jeans Cable)

I am, perhaps, the only semi-sentient biped in the galaxy who doesn't know how to work a banana plug, but judging by the number of visits I get from people googling "garbage disposer clogged by potato peels," I suspect there are a few others who might be challenged by the lack of instructions that come with these connectors. This post is for you, dear friends.