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Pin Connectors on Speaker Cable
Notes, details and warnings regarding our "pin" connectors
Bananas and spades don't fit into certain types of amp and speaker terminals, the most common of these being "clip" type terminals found on many amps and a few speakers. One can use bare wire into such terminals very effectively, and that's what we generally recommend, but some people prefer to use a pin-type connector to go into these terminals. We have pin connectors for sale but we have found that people sometimes do not anticipate the problems they might have with them. In the interest of making sure that you do know what you're getting into, we ask that you have a look at this page before you order.
The Trouble With Pins:
Our pin connectors have backshell bodies that look similar to the backshells of our locking bananas, but instead of a banana or spade lug at the end there is a brass pin with a series of ridges in it. The ridges have two functions. First, since the pin is too long to insert into some terminals, the ridges allow the pin to be broken, by the user, to shorten the length to the length needed. Second, the ridges provide grip points for a clip terminal to prevent the pin from easily slipping out.
That's great, except for a couple of things, which you should know if you're thinking about ordering speaker cables with pin terminals:
(1) Fragility: Because the pin is thin and is made to be breakable, it's not hard to break it by mistake. Too much stress on the connection, especially with relatively heavy speaker wire, will do it. It is very important to make sure that the connector is not placed under stress.
(2) Mobility: Because the pin is round, it can turn in the terminal. This means that the whole pin assembly, including the backshell, has some ability to wind up in a position that you don't wish it to be in, and that can include contact with other pins. If you can't prevent the pin terminals from touching one another, there is a risk of a short which may blow out the final of your amp.
As long as you are able to keep stress off of the pin terminals, and have an installation sufficiently stable to prevent shorting of the terminals from being an issue, there's no problem in using pins. But if those considerations are likely to be an issue for you, it's probably better to order cables which are unterminated at one end, so that you can do bare wire terminations into your clip terminals.
That said, here are our terminated speaker cables, with pins offered at either or both ends:
Terminated Speaker Cables:
Note: Bananas, spades and pin terminals on our terminated speaker cables are Ultrasonically-Welded;
Click here to read more on this process, available exclusively from BJC.
