Review: Valab BN-S1 silver plated BFA banana plugs

Budget Esoterica Review Magazine
August 2017 Issue

The question i pose to audiophiles today is whether or not speaker cable connectors can improve the sound of bare-wire speaker cable. I say, a resounding yes! For this experiment i purchased 2 sets of 4 of the excellent Valab BN-S1 silver plated BFA banana plugs. The connectors are available on Ebay for around $8 for a set of 4. The plugs use dual screw cable wire fixation and have thick silver plating for high conductivity. I attached my bulk gearit speaker cable to the plugs on both ends and listened to 2 cd selections and i was delighted with the results. If you are currently using bare wire connections with your amp and speakers you really need to try these Valab plugs!

So, i listened to the song titled "Kiss Me Right", from the Horace Silver cd, Doin' The Thing, and compared my results with and without the banana plugs. With the plugs installed i noticed the following positive results:

More tonal color
More liquidity
Cleaner and sharper sound
Smoother sound
Sound was less soggy
Better sense of sound stage stability
Quieter sound between notes

The next selection i tried was from an interesting band called Exotica-A-GoGo. This self titled cd is their second long playing album. I listened to the song "Moon Hawk", and i heard the following improvements with the Valab plugs installed:

Improved air and openness
Better separation 
Sound is less "dirty"
More stable sound
Less distortion in the highs and lows
Highs were more pristine and tube-like

The Valab BN-S1 silver plated banana plugs are excellent! The build quality is superior to likely priced plugs and the improvement in sound is definitely worth the low cost! I urge you to try this experiment in your system and see if you notice the same improvements i did. The better your stereo, the more improvements you should hear. Highly recommended.

Reference equipment

Magnum integrated amp
Audiomagic xstream power cord
Era Design sat 4 speakers
Apex AD-600a dvd player
Target FS-50 speaker stands
Virtue audio nirvana stereo interconnect
Gearit speaker cable