The great banana debate

[Dan Higdon]

From: 	Paul Schreiber[SMTP:paults at why.net]
> 1) Bananas are fine, but use them in PAIRs. The industry standard is to mount a ground jack 3/4" 
> away from the signal jack. You can make all of the grounds black, and still color code the signals. 
> For connecting, use ITT/Pomona shielded coax with molded banana plugs. Allied, Newark, and
> others carry the completed cables or just the molded plugs. Hunt up some RG-174 cable: it's
>  much smaller diameter (lighter and more flexible) and you can whip up cusom lengths.

Nah, just use them in "singles".  You really don't need the dual conductors, so long as all the
modules share a common power supply (or more precisely, a common ground connection).
You do naturally have to have some banana->1/4" panel space, but that's easy; connect the
banana to the tip, and GND to the sleeve.

> "Necks are for wires." - Bob Moog

Indeed!

> 2) The best choice is of course panel mounted BNC jacks, using made up ITT/Pomona BNC to
>  BNC cables. Expensive, but you can't beat rugged and reliable.

If that's what floats your boat.  Banana plugs are pretty reliable and cheap.

> 4) I have a problem using "single" bananas: where is the ground/shield? You certainly don't want
> to rely on the metal panels screwed to a grounded rail. For control voltages (Not for the VCO)
> this is probably OK. But I want my audio and VCO leads shielded.

That's why we use such HUGE signals for audio.  The noise is negligible compared to the
signal strength.  I look at it this way: if unshielded banana connections are good enough
for Serge/STS, they're probably good enough for the rest of us too. :-)

As for where the ground is?  Well, you generally return all of your modules' ground wires to
a common ground point, usually at the power supply. Nobody relies on front panels to carry
a ground signal!  At least I hope not.

hdan