Silver Banana Plugs

Carl, the "Z-plugs" that Nordost puts on their Solar Wind, Red DAwn, and SPM speaker cable (at least at my local dealer) is gold plated. Dekay- I use Audioquest SA-40 cable. I had been using a run of CV-4 on the bottom because I prefered it to the jumpers that B&W supplied with my N805s. For some reason, I never tried jumpers. So, today, I made up some CV-4 jumpers, to compare to the CV-4 on the low end. You know what? It seems that the differences are really, really small. And my jumpers aren't even broken in yet. So, instead of buying an additional 6 foot pair of SA-40, I'm just going to get 1 foot and make some jumpers out of that. However, the SA-40/CV-4 pairing is great. Same cable,(15 gauge, 4 conductor,)same design. THe SA-40 is FPS silver, the CV-4 is Perfect surface copper. The sound that I originally attributed going biwire was actually the sound of the B&W jumpers versus teh CV-4 jumpers I made today. You should check into making some good jumpers before slinging long green on an extra set of cables. Eldragon, Puubie is dead right. Silver oxide is a fantastic conductor, whereas copper oxide isn't. I think Cardas has silver plugs, but I didnt see them on the website, and I cant remember which site I saw them on. Audioquest makes some, but you have to use spades to bolt onto the Bananna plug adaptor.... not what I want. I'm shooting for an all silver system. I'm using Lapis3, and I have some Diamond3 on the way to try out. The sound is a tad laid back, but is really is detailed at the same time. It sounds very natural to me, not overly warm, not overly cool, Not too musical at the expense of detail, or too detailed at the expense of musicality-just happy. I'm getting there, too. SOMEBODY'S GOT MY SILVER PLUGS!!!!!!!!!!

For what its worth I have been doing some very careful listening tests biwired (v) single wire using silver jumpers purchased used from Silver Audio. With good jumpers its not worth my investment to purchase another complete run.

Ghirteen: I already purchased the second set of cables for the "failed" biamp, so I am stuck with an additional 38' of Kimber Kable. I was surprised that the jumpers that I made out of the Kimber actually sounded better than the shotgun biwire setup, but it may be due to the length of the runs, the amp or who knows. I am giving up on the bi-amp for now using Musical Fidelity equipment (long story) and will be picking up a pair of more efficient speakers Monday, either Coincident Triumphs or Reynaud Twins (they will be fine with my 50 watt MF amp in the living room). I will move my Castle speakers into the guest bedroom, that is 1/4 the size of the living room, and set them up nearfield at the computer. The Castles are rated at 87db efficiency but seem to require a great deal of power/drive (way more than the 75 watts that my MF puts out) or a small room to sound there best. So this brings me back to the DIY silver jumpers which may even sound better than the Kimber ones that I made up. Though I am not keen on connecters I did use solderless gold bananas for the bi-amp cable and have to admit that it was alot easier than stuffing two ten gage wires into an eight gage hole. Trelja mentioned an aviation quality wire crimper that looks like a good thing to own as well. I am going to be swamped for the next three days or so. You may want to email Homegrownaudio.com and see if they have a line on all silver bananas. I know that I have seen them listed with "some" cable in the past, though the "some" escapes me right now (I keep thinking MIT for some reason).

Gthirteen: I believe Stage III Concepts (212-627-5628) makes solid silver banana plugs. I have purchased cables from them and been happy with the service and return policy.

I put the CV-4 (half of biwire pair) back in(instead of using the jumpers) after about 18 hours straight on the jumpers, and I noticed BIG improvements in bass response. This could be due to the fast that my jumpers havent been "broken in" yet, but it could also be due to the fact that I'm using a relatively small gauge cable with an already bass-shy speaker. I NEED DRAGONS!!!!! I bet the jumpers come around some, but I remember from previous experiments that speaker gauge does have an effect on bass quantity and quality. Curiously, when I switched from Midnight3 to SA-40, My Hales R3 (at the time) enjoyed a less full, but more tuneful bass. THe bass on th eHales was probably their best point, and it was plenty there, so "losing" a smidgen when I went to the SA-40 was ok. The character of the bass became much more tonally accurate and less "speaker like". NOW, however, I might need a larger gauge cable to squeeze all the bass I can out of my Nautilus 805s, but my problem is, I love the silver sound. Poerhaps I'll borrow a pair of midnight from a buddy to sub in for the CV-4. IF the bass gets better, I guess maybe I need some Dragon or (egad) Sterling, whinch isnt ALL silver, but I guess I could make due.... Too bad PS Audio doesnt make a Lab cable in silver.