SAFER plugs for amplifiers should be widely available throughout Europe if a
plan by audio equipment companies works out. Rather than plodding through
official channels to create an international standard for a new audio connector,
Britain’s audio manufacturers have got together to make one that meets Europe’s
new electrical safety standards. They hope this will create a de facto
standard.
A recently amended European safety standard effectively bans the “banana
plug” that is used to connect loudspeaker leads to an amplifier. This plug,
which takes the form of a springy metal pin, is small enough to fit into the
5.5-millimetre openings of a European mains socket. Anyone who plugs speaker
leads into the mains could receive a lethal electric shock (Technology, 6
January 1996, p 20).
The British Federation of Audio, which represents all the major hi-fi
manufacturers, has been working with A&R Cambridge, maker of Arcam hi-fi
equipment, on a plug and socket that complies with North American safety
standards as well as the new European standards. The BFA connector is a
6-millimetre metal cylinder sleeved in insulating plastic and secured on the end
of a cable. Speakers and amplifiers are fitted with plastic cylinders that
shroud a central metal pin. There are no bare metal parts and the plug is too
big to be pushed into a mains socket.
An added advantage of the new connectors is that no one can touch the wires
carrying audio current from the amplifier. On high-power systems this can be
strong enough to give a shock. They also solve another problem. If the bare
metal pins of a banana plug touch, they can short out the amplifier and damage
it. The sheathing on BFA plugs will prevent this happening.
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The BFA will not charge for a licence to use the new design. Manufacturers
will just pay £100 for a set of plans.
