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Need help with cable termination!

Fellow Audigoners,

I need some tips on terminating my biwire Mogami 3104 speaker cables for banana plugs.

Mogami’s a four conductor cable, so at the amp end, we have to twist together the leads on two 12 awg wires to fit into each banana plug. It’s turning out to be a pretty challenging task, because there are few banana plugs with openings large enough to accommodate the stripped ends of the two conductors.

I initially used Vampire #SB compression screw plugs, since they do have a fairly sizable opening on the side, and after a bit of work, I was able to squeeze the wires into them. However, I decided to go with Furez TSTWP48XL,which is a crimp plug with back access. Since the Furez opening is a bit smaller than Vampire bananas, I’m having a devil of time trying to twist the two conductors to make them fit into the Furez plugs.

The Furez instruction sheet said to *not* twist the two conductors separately, but does anyone have any further suggestions to get the twisted ends as slender as possible? This is a kitchen-table project for me so I don’t have much in the way of a workshop, but is this something where I’m going to need to get a clamp vise and use pliers to twist?

Thanks for your help!
hegelsjh
lak's avatar
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lak
4,631 posts
 
Not an answer to your question yet however if the two wires fit into the Vampire Banans, why did you switch to the Furez?
As far as I know, if you can't fit the two 12 gauge wires into your Furez Bananas, you could pear back the number of stranded wire until they fit, perhaps not an ideal solution. Or purchase a different brand of bananas such as: https://www.vhaudio.com/connectors-speaker.html#banana there are similar ones on eBay from other countries that sell for a lot less, but sound and work very well. What I like about them is the opening for the wire is large, but best of all there is a screw cap that allows you to tighten the bananas once they are inserted into your amp for secure contact. If you wanted to you could always add a bit of high-quality WBT silver solder.
lak's avatar
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lak
4,631 posts
 
https://www.vhaudio.com/images/wbt-0610_ag.jpg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Eastone-Speaker-Lock-IN-Banana-Plug-Jack-Audio-Adapter-E0846-High-End-USA...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-HiFi-Copper-Gold-Plated-Speaker-Cable-Banana-Connector-Plug-AS-WBT-Desig...
hegelsjh OP
16 posts
 
Lak,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response!

To answer your question about the Vampire plugs, the fact that they are a side-entry design is causing some major cable management problems at the back of my amp.  I have a Unison Research Nuovo, which has a nice bi-wiring option by having 8 rather than 4 speaker wire terminals.  Also, I should note that the 8 runs of wire are being used in conjunction with  a roller-block style isolation system on the amp.  This means that the side-entry design of the Vampires adds a lot of pull and strain on the roller block setup by tugging on the amp.  For these reasons, I feel that the rear-ported design  of the Furez plugs offers a cleaner approach and allows me to better use my Furutech cable lifts to manage the speaker cables at the back of the amp.

The funny thing is, that I got one or two of the wires to fit the Furez plugs on the first couple tries, but for the life of me, I don't know what twisting technique brought about success.  Could have been that length of these particular stripped ends hit the sweet spot.

Interesting also that Take Five Audio in Canada offers terminated Mogami wire in a true bi-wire configuration into slender multi-contact bananas, so I imagine that they have a workaround for what appears to be double the size of my current problem!  

The final though is that the Furez are crimp-style and hence very pliable, so I could look into enlarging the hole before adding the wire and crimping.
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