So - they arrived this morning
Now, I'm not sure whether Furez are the anal ones or AV Outlet from where I ordered them are, but the package contained 4 pairs of individually packaged banana plugs and the little torx driver, with the requisite number of torx set screws as ordered. Also included were several latex gloves to prevent transfer of my own essential oils to the silver plated surface and a separate cleaning cloth for initial and subsequent cleaning.
The 4mm size were perfect for my 10 gauge cables and there was very little wiggle room. The bananas took about 3/4" of striped cable, which was more than any other plug I'd tried and the two torx set screws ensured the cable was gripped very firmly.
I installed some of my own heat-shrink tubing, but you can purchase pre-cut tube specifically for these connectors.
These bananas are the tightest fitting I have ever installed and getting them to the fully inserted location required a little effort and some caution, as the last thing I wanted was to snap off the pin. But that could just be my own paranoia.
So to cut to the chase - how did they sound? What improvements did I hear?
Initially, there was nothing startling about them, but I did detect a little more detail. So the quest began, which album would reveal the true nature of these bananas?
First stop was some test tracks that I am very familiar with. Most are from various jazz recordings and although there appeared to be a little improvement, still there were no revelations. So I switched to some orchestral tracks, which began to reveal more complete venue acoustics
With the old bananas, the reverberations of the venue seemed to stop at the speakers. There was always plenty of depth far beyond the front wall, but there was never any real projection of venue acoustics to envelope me in the performance, with the exception of a couple of very well engineered tracks I have.
But with the new bananas, I am right there in the performance and even multi tracked studio recordings have taken on a new live performance quality. And as I listen, I am clearly hearing details that previously were quite muted.
All-in-all a very worth while purchase, even before they are burned in.
I really think these guys at Furez know a thing or two about copper
SOTA? - it's just copper - but it's damned good copper with SOTA design!
I'm a convert - Try them.
