This $10 home theater upgrade makes life so much easier

High-end home theaters are expensive to put together, but there are still some upgrades to make that don’t break the bank. Your speakers and receiver are the most expensive part of the setup, but once you buy those, the fun doesn’t stop. You still need to buy speaker wire, and if you want to live a hassle-free life, you should grab some banana plugs with the wire to plug into the back of your receiver — if you have one, of course.

For a long time, I didn’t see the need for banana plugs, and it wasn’t until I had to start rewiring my speakers because they came loose that I saw the light. I haven’t fully converted to banana plugs, but I have been replacing the wires that come loose with these plugs. They aren’t expensive at all, and they fit snugly into the back of your receiver without a struggle. In my experience, the wires I use banana plugs for are a lot more secure, and I haven’t had any trouble with them once I put them into the plug.

A set of plugs isn’t expensive

Don’t cheap out on protecting your receiver

There are all types of banana plugs to pick from, and I don’t think you have to be picky. A set of Amazon Basics-branded plugs will get the job done perfectly, and they cost just under $11 for a pack of six pairs.just under $11. With 12 plugs total, that gives you enough to fully wire a 5.1 surround sound system with some leftover plugs for other things. It’s hard to go wrong there, but if you don’t want to settle for Amazon Basics, you can spend a little extra and get a different brand.

I don’t see any reason you should hold off on buying a set for yourself if your wires keep coming loose. I don’t know about you, but my wires degrade over time, and I’ve had to replace a few of them over the years. Ever since getting the banana plugs, I haven’t had to do that. I don’t know if that’s just me being lucky, or if the banana plugs are making a real difference. For just $10, I’m just assuming it’s the banana plugs doing the work for me.

Plugs like this keep your wires out of harm’s way, and it’ll be harder to pull them out of the receiver if you have to move it for any reason. Of course, you’d want to leave your receiver as still as possible, but sometimes things move around when you are cleaning. Instead of worrying about wires coming loose, you can use a set of banana plugs and not worry about it at all. Even if one comes loose, it’s a lot easier to stick a plug back in than it is to get a wire put back in.

Make sure you protect vulnerable parts of your setup

There are cheap solutions available

Another good thing banana plugs do is stop short circuits from happening. That’s not saying it’s impossible for one, but if you’re somebody who leaves quite a bit of copper wire exposed when wiring a speaker, this will cut back on the risks from that. I’m guilty of leaving too much wire exposed, so this is a good way to avoid that. I can’t think of anything much worse than potentially shorting out my receiver and breaking it. Another way to protect your wiring is to use a ghost wire and run it underneath your rugs.

It’s an inexpensive solution to a potentially expensive problem, so it’s something I’d recommend buying with your wire. You’ll probably be fine as long as you’re careful with your initial wiring if you don’t want to use banana plugs. There are still quite a few speakers out there that don’t accept banana plugs, unfortunately, so you’re out of luck with that. You can still use them with your receiver, as it’s difficult to find one nowadays that doesn’t support banana plugs. There’s a large subset of speakers that support banana plugs, but I’ve noticed that a lot of budget-friendly options don’t. You can swap out the existing posts with ones that support banana plugs if you want, but that’s not worth the trouble for a lot of people.

I would definitely recommend checking beforehand if your speakers can support banana plugs. You can save a few dollars by buying less if that’s the case. At the very least, you can still use the plugs on your receiver. I’d argue it’s more important to use them with your receiver anyway, because that’s what I often find myself moving around more often than my speakers. My speakers have generally remained stationary once I set them up, and I don’t really bump into them as much as I do with my receiver.

These are one of the things I wish I knew existed before putting together my home theater, so I hope I’m able to help you out. Any time I hook up a new receiver or speakers now, I check to make sure I can do it with banana plugs.