Banana Plugs?

Are these also “Banana” plugs? Are these safe for a Naim amp’s speaker terminals?

Yes.

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Safe? Yes. Ideal? No. Ideally you would want to use the supplied Naim SA8 speaker connectors or just avoid anything gold plated as gp doesn’t seem to match well with the Naim sockets.

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Much better to use plugs like these. :+1:t2:

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I’m not a fan of those Z-plugs as they are made of quite hard metal and I’ve seen them snap off. Nickel plated plugs lije Naim’s will match the sockets better than gold plating. I would use proper soldered Naim plugs or Nickel plated Deltrons, although the supplied Z-plugs will get you up and running.

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I think the issue here from an owner perspective is that unless you buy speaker cables, almost certainly NAC A5, with the Naim SA8 connectors already fitted, you’re then faced with the need to either have them terminated with SA8’s or remove whatever plugs may already be present (like the perfectly acceptable ones in the photo above) and either do that yourself (requires reasonable skill level) or hope a local dealer is willing to do so.
I don’t think it’s a given that this process will be easy, certainly in my experience via a well regarded Naim dealer, I’ve never got them to offer or willingly accept to do the work to connect SA8’s. I imagine in some parts of the world that would be challenging as well.
I’m not saying I don’t agree it’s optimal but I’d be willing to bet that more owners use something other than the SA8’s in the box!

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Sadly it’s true that some dealers cannot solder properly. You would think this would be a requirement from Naim of their authorised dealers, but I’ve seen some dealer efforts at soldering that are so bad that Naim would be better off banning their dealers from soldering.

Well exactly, and to be honest, they aren’t making any more money from you as a customer by doing so rather than just putting some screw fit or crimped banana plugs on.
Even if they can solder reasonably well, they may just not be bothered to take the extra time to do the job.
I know whenever this topic comes up those that religiously swear by SA8’s pipe in telling everyone to use them but a lot of owners will simply not want to or have the skill to do it and struggle to find someone that will do it and for a fair price.
If it’s really that important, anyone buying a new amp should be offered it as part of the purchase price.

Isn’t crimping thought to be better than soldering? I have seen crimp banana plugs. Of course you would have to buy the correct tool

If the cable is what you are also asking about then they are one of the more popular cables with naim amps. Will work great and sound great :+1:

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Grahams HiFi always used to fit good quality, perfectly plain banana plugs on all the equipment that they sold. I still have them fitted to all the equipment that I bought from them over thirty years ago.

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That depends on who you ask. Naim have always strongly favoured soldered connections and it’s the only option they offer for their own plugs.
Some cable suppliers favour crimps, but I strongly suspect that this is because they can offer a solution to their dealers that gives consistent results and for which they can provide crimping equipment and staff training to their dealers. Chord and QED are examples. Of course they give it a fancy name, and provide ‘special’ equipment for the job, but at the end of the day it’s just a crimp. Still, better to have a properly done crimp than a botched solder.

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