A socket assembly for connecting an array of bulbous terminals such as balls wherein the female element is a miniature tube that has resilient prongs that grip the corresponding terminals with varying force during insertion and deletion. The tube is of resilient conductive material that has been sliced or helically partitioned into opposing prongs forming slots of a width that increases with axial distance from the end of the tube so as to allow the prongs of the connector to grip around the ball-like bulbous terminal and mechanically retain the terminal within the connector. The tubular element of the connector may be made by forming prongs in one or both ends of a tube by cuts of a width that increases with distance from the end of the tube.