Monoprice Speaker Banana Plug - 2 Pair, 24k Gold Plated, Black/Red - Affinity Series

Been setting up speakers for a long time but this was my first time delving into banana plugs. These plugs look great, are very well constructed, sound great, and fit perfectly into my speakers and AV system. I had a couple of issues but I'm listing them more to help others who buy this than as a critique of the plugs themselves. The issues listed here don't detract from my five-star rating; these are great plugs.That said, here are my notes:The system they use to secure your wire into the clip involves using two very tiny screws. Once they're in. they're very tight and secure but the downside is that they were a little hard to work with. You have to use a very small screwdriver (I used a flay head eyeglass screwdriver) and the screws themselves are extremely tiny. If you have large fingers (like me) you'll end up dropping the screws a LOT. Work over something that can catch the screws like a box, plate, or tray. You do not want to try to find these if they roll under your entertainment center or drop into a high pile rug ( I speak from experience).I used 12 gauge speaker wire, which is very thick. It fits well into these plugs but screwing the screws back in was tricky and if you don't get them screwed all the way in, then the plug's casing won't fit back on. I spent a lot of time fighting to get the screws tightened in and stabbed myself many times in the finger with my tiny screwdriver since I had to use so much force. With a smaller gauge wire, you shouldn't have this issue.Lastly, Monoprice has added a tiny little fabric cover that you can slide over your speaker wire to help hide the transition going from the plug to the speaker wire. They placed this cover inside of the tube where you insert the speaker wire. I had no idea it existed and had a hell of a time getting my speaker wire jammed inside and the screws tightened at first because the cover was still in there. I can verify that leaving the cover inside does not improve the sound of your speakers. I realized my mistake eventually but not until after I had done six of the ten plugs and I had to go back, disassemble all of them and redo them. I didn't even end up using the covers and just thossed them all out. Monoproce, if you're reading this, please include a picture of these covers and how they're used so other people don't make the same dumb mistake that I did.My process for installing these clips was:1) Twist open and remove the plug casing2) Remove the fabric wire cover from the inner wire housing (needed tweezers to remove some of them) and throw away3) Unscrew both tiny screws and set aside4) Insert speaker wire into wire housing5) Screw-in both screws very tightly. Screws should feel close to flush or the casing will not fit back on properly. Optional: stab yourself repeatedly with a tiny screwdriver6) Twist casing back on7) Repeat nine more times

Knowing nothing about wiring speakers or banana plugs, I just bought these based on reviews. I've seen others say how beautiful these look on their speakers and I can't see how these make much of a difference as all I see is a piece of red or black plastic handing out the back. These do look solid and they are weighty. Just taking them out of the baggies they felt high quality.These plugs have two little flat head screws that you have to loosen, then you feed the wire into the plug, and tighten down the screws. There's a little piece of insulation inside, don't know if you are supposed to just throw that away, but that's what I did. The 14 gauge wire fit perfect and show no signs of slipping out. The screws seem like they would make most sizes fit just fine.The reason I do like these is because I don't have to fan out any wires, just twist it and stick it in. You will need a tiny flat-head screwdriver like what you use on glasses. Out of the 20 plugs, two of them did have issues. One had no screws, so I just borrowed one from another plug. Another had the top screw jammed in to the point where I couldn't get it out, so I just had to push the wire to the top screw and tighten the bottom screw down.Speakers do sound great, but I have no other plugs to compare them to, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

In the past I bought the mono price style that screwed apart and you had to flair the wire over the opening and almost force it back together. Decided to purchase these this time and these are 100x better. Much easier to use and sound quality is just the same. Instead of cramming the connector back together, just screw 2 set screws. That’s it. Wish I would have bought these for my other surrounds, double I’ll have a need to buy more but if I do I will buy these again.