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What you should know about banana plugs:

Most banana plugs use the conductive element as the locking system. By doing so, conductive performance of the connector is often neglected in favour of the mechanical means of connection.

Consider the following banana plug designs:

• A split-pin design where the conductor pin is sliced into 2 or 4 elements thereby creating a frictional springing action to lock within the binding post.
• A barrel spring where separate leaf contact portions are arranged in a cylindrical fashion around the conductive pin, compressing on entry and frictionally holding the pin within the binding post.
• A single compression type spring (often a stainless steel wire) that forces a hollow pin against the inside of the binding post.
• A hollow thin-wall tube pin, split down one long side, that makes frictional contact via the inherent springing nature of the metal material used i.e. Beryllium Copper.

All the above designs provide a secure connection, but sound quality can be compromised in a number of key areas.

Most of the above banana plugs are made from gold plated Brass or Beryllium Copper with a conductivity rating of 28% IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard). As a comparison, the high purity copper used in most speaker cables has a conductivity rating of at least 100% IACS.

Because of this low conductivity, we believe standard banana plugs can compromise electron flow.

The large cross-section of many Brass banana plugs can also cause phase errors and smearing due to skin effect - where high frequency signals travelling on the surface of the conductor are conveyed faster than low frequency signals travelling at varying depths and speeds within the metal itself. The result is often a slow, bass heavy, smeared sound.

In contrast, the hollow thin-wall tube pin can be compromised through a lack of mass - where the wall thickness doesn't support the large current flow from amplifier to speaker. The result is often a lightweight, bright sound.

And finally, the split pin plug and the barrel spring plug can induce eddy current distortion where the signal is conveyed through multiple contact points.

The solution:

The new Bayonet Plug™ connector solves the problems of banana plugs and provides a faster, cleaner signal of high purity and detail.

To achieve this we use a conductive pin of ideal thickness and mass - with minimal skin effect problems, and whose locking means is via a non-conductive frictional pressure insert (patent pending) rather than via the conductive pin itself.