I am getting ready to install two ceiling speakers in my kitchen and connecting them to a Sonos amp in the living room. I’m wondering about wiring. The amp uses banana plugs but it looks like the speakers don’t. Will the holes in the ceiling speaker except banana plugs? can I tighten down or is it need to be unterminated cable that goes into to the ceiling speakers?
Answered
connecting two ceiling speakers to amp
Best answer by buzz
At one point in my career I worked in a standards lab and learned that every connection in a string impedes the flow of current and adds temperature related errors. Plus, the addition of multiple materials in the string adds more errors. In that lab I would not use banana plugs except for the crudest measurements that I needed to take.
That said, bananas are convenient if you need to break the system down often. In a pro sound environment bananas are great. The connections are quick and reliable.
If you are worried about a messy wire connection to a binding post, moving that mess to a banana plug does not accomplish much — and it adds some mess due to the addition of the banana plug and jack. I’ve seen many poorly designed banana plug and jack setups. Simple bare wire would have been a better idea.
Yes, gold plated connectors will be more reliable over the long term, but only if it’s gold connecting to gold. I would never mate gold connections with base metal connections in my standards lab.
Very reliable speaker wire connections can be had by crimping gold plated spade lugs onto the wire and inserting into gold plated binding posts. Don’t use a cheap crimper or lugs.
Another point about gold is that the coating is very thin. If you break down the connection too often the gold will be worn away, exposing very crude base metal.
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You haven’t told us what type of speakers the ceiling speakers are, but I’ve never seen a set of speakers (or the Sonos Amp) that can’t be used with either banana or straight wiring. You may want to check with the manufacturer of these speakers.
+17mglovin wrote:
I am getting ready to install two ceiling speakers in my kitchen and connecting them to a Sonos amp in the living room. I’m wondering about wiring. The amp uses banana plugs but it looks like the speakers don’t. Will the holes in the ceiling speaker except banana plugs? can I tighten down or is it need to be unterminated cable that goes into to the ceiling speakers?
Are they spring terminals for the ceiling speakers? If so, you just need bare wire on the speaker side to connect them to.
They are the spring terminals
i’m wondering if there is signal loss using the bare wire and if so if I can use either banana plugs or a pin terminal on the spring terminals or they are really meant for the bare wire
Maybe see video here for Sonance install/wiring connections…
And no, electricity passes the same way through banana connectors and bare wires.
At one point in my career I worked in a standards lab and learned that every connection in a string impedes the flow of current and adds temperature related errors. Plus, the addition of multiple materials in the string adds more errors. In that lab I would not use banana plugs except for the crudest measurements that I needed to take.
That said, bananas are convenient if you need to break the system down often. In a pro sound environment bananas are great. The connections are quick and reliable.
If you are worried about a messy wire connection to a binding post, moving that mess to a banana plug does not accomplish much — and it adds some mess due to the addition of the banana plug and jack. I’ve seen many poorly designed banana plug and jack setups. Simple bare wire would have been a better idea.
Yes, gold plated connectors will be more reliable over the long term, but only if it’s gold connecting to gold. I would never mate gold connections with base metal connections in my standards lab.
Very reliable speaker wire connections can be had by crimping gold plated spade lugs onto the wire and inserting into gold plated binding posts. Don’t use a cheap crimper or lugs.
Another point about gold is that the coating is very thin. If you break down the connection too often the gold will be worn away, exposing very crude base metal.
mglovin wrote:
I am getting ready to install two ceiling speakers in my kitchen and connecting them to a Sonos amp in the living room. I’m wondering about wiring. The amp uses banana plugs but it looks like the speakers don’t. Will the holes in the ceiling speaker except banana plugs? can I tighten down or is it need to be unterminated cable that goes into to the ceiling speakers?
You’ll need to use unterminated wire (bare wire) and connect it to the speaker terminals, usually by tightening screws or using push-fit connectors. Just make sure to strip the wire ends before connecting. If you prefer banana plugs
For me banana plugs are great for connecting things that have to be disconnected and reconnected, I use a lot of them for that, particularly on my amp to wall and wall to speaker connections.
For in the wall I want the most reliable connection possible. Crimped on high quality lugs are my first choice. Spring terminals would be acceptable but I'd add a strain relief, even just a loop of the wire and a zip-tie to prevent accidental pull-out.
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