Ok, bought these silver plated copper body banana connectors from Furez based on williwonka's advice and scan of the market. They arrived in two days, great service from Douglas Connections! Installed them and have to say right out of the package they sounded at least as good as bare wire. Big improvement over gold plated brass banana connectors I was using that really sucked the life out of the music.
The Furez connectors were a very tight fit in the binding post due to size and spring system, perhaps that is part of the performance advantage, and as you noted the metal is soft so care is advised when handling.
Overall, two thumbs up for this product.
kn