4mm or 3.5mm Jack

[Zodiak]

I have started rebuilding my old kit onto euro-rack panels staying with my beloved 4mm bananas, however everybody else in euro-rack land is using 3.5mm, does anybody have an specific experiences that might help me decide if I want to change over please?

[Dave Kendall]

Some thoughts. .

The major advantages of 3.5mm jacks are probably normalisation, and compatibility with standard eurorack modules. Normalisation can cut down the number of front panel components per module, and in a DIY or heavily customised system can provide a large amount of module integration, where a favourite set of routings is made with no jacks patched, but this can be overridden with patch cords.
They are usually much smaller than bananas, and many designs use them mounted directly on PCBs.

The downside is that 3.5mm is slightly less reliable than banana. Bananas are self cleaning, and they have no switching connection to potentially fail. I'm sure you've used patchbays with crackly connections before - same problem.

You can also stack nanas, which saves on multiples, and wiring them is simpler and faster. As long as you provide a dedicated signal Ground connection or two per rack, there should be no issues connecting with other racks, be they nana or 3.5mm.

I've seen a few pics of "EuNana" systems, and if you're customising anyway, it should be no problem to stick with nanas if you like them. Conversion cables are easy enough to make if you need to interface with 3.5mm.

cheers,
Dave

[Zodiak]

Thanks Dave, that's pretty much what I was thinking, apart from the last bit and you are right, it really helped having somebody else give an opinion

I really do prefer Bananas and I think that I will probably stick with them.

Other points not covered are
(1) Nanas come in different colours which makes it easier to get the right one in a hurry or dim light
(2) The panel I have just built is 3mm (+laminate) thick. Nanas eat that thickness up, 3.5mm jacks are struggling
(3) When was the last time somebody connected two 3.5 mms jack with a paper clip? With nans you can.
(4) If I forget my leads to a gig, then I can always use lengths of stripped down mains cable and just stuff them in

I giuess I have really

[mosc]

I like bananas too.