audio jack dust covers
- Thread starter rbbert
- Start date
Can you say audio nervosa? If you have unused jacks on your preamp that are causing you to lose sleep because you think they are either leaking out some magic or they are letting in the audio gremlins, just use some RCA shorting plugs.
I'm not using any, but I've heard it said it makes difference. To what I don't and I'm not sure I could hear it anyway.
Which is why I was asking for anyone's experience. This has to be one of the least expensive tweaks out there, and so very cost-effective if there's any sonic benefit. Maybe it's too inexpensive to interest very many posters here
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Kinda sorta. He wants to know whether to use RCA jack condoms or shorting plugs or whether to use either of them. I would go for shorting plugs. I think Rat Shack used to sell them, but you can always buy some cheap RCA male connectors and solder a wire from the input to ground and plug them in. Of course someone would swear they could hear the difference between a $100 WBT RCA male vs. a $2.00 Switchcraft RCA male used as a shorting plug.
I've used shorting plugs such as you describe for 20 some years; I'm never sure they do much, if anything at all, but they're essentially free. So do they do more than non-shorting plugs, and/or do the slightly more expensive ones (which are still pretty cheap, anywhere from ~$2.50 to ~$8.50 apiece) do any better?
When you say your never sure if the shorting plugs "do much," I think you mean your not sure if you hear any difference. I can promise you that shorting plugs are doing much more than slip on covers could ever do. Shorting plugs are simply shorting the input (or output) of a respective jack to ground. That means no signal (or noise) will pass through the jack. Slip on jack covers can't do that and just act as some sort of external shield for EMI/RFI intrusion (you hope). Unless you live in a very active EMI/RFI environment, you may never hear any type of difference when you use shorting plugs or slip on covers. As far as more expensive shorting plugs doing a "better" job, I said that as a joke that some people will swear they can hear a difference between a $100 WBT and a $2.00 Switchcraft. Your either shorting to ground or you are not. The whole goal is to not have the jack in your signal path by virtue of shorting it out. Can you hear a difference for something that is effectively not there?
Mark, the slipon covers for inputs are shorting jacks, the ones for ouputs aren't. As far as whether materials, design, etc. make a difference, many people have used the same argument against audiophile power cords in particular, also interconnects, speaker wire, etc.
They are either a shorting plug or they are not. If you think the design, construction, cost, cryo treatment, etc. will make a shorting plug sound "better" than a simple cheap shorting plug, by all means go and buy some expensive RCA plugs and try it out. These will do nicely: http://www.partsconnexion.com/product9716.html
Make sure you buy some really expensive hook-up wire to make the connection with and only use the finest silver solder as that will all make a difference too. Here are some links for wire and solder:
http://www.partsconnexion.com/MUNDORF-72180.html
http://www.partsconnexion.com/solder_mundorf_supreme.html
I have used the non-shorting "caps" on the inputs and outputs on my preamp, amp, and CDP.
Clearly audible and highly recommended.
One of the cheapest, best tweaks I've ever done.
GG
Clearly audible and highly recommended.
One of the cheapest, best tweaks I've ever done.
GG
Thanks for the info. I think yours is the first constructive response in this thread.
A couple of comments.
1) Had a non audio type with me when we did the A-B test. I fully agree that this falls into the "voodoo" category. We both heard the difference (and it was not so subtle), that being a noticeable lowering of the noise floor along with the requisite benefits thereof. Yes, you can argue "expectation bias". If anyone chooses to do this, I will not engage. Another phenomena that we are all pretty familiar with, I trust. You don't know how much inherent background noise you have in your system (however small it may be) until you do something that lowers that level.
2) Can purchase these at Music Direct and Audio Advisors. Both offer a 30 day money back option. Try and if you don't think they make a difference, simply return. FYI, I bought the Cardas caps.
GG
1) Had a non audio type with me when we did the A-B test. I fully agree that this falls into the "voodoo" category. We both heard the difference (and it was not so subtle), that being a noticeable lowering of the noise floor along with the requisite benefits thereof. Yes, you can argue "expectation bias". If anyone chooses to do this, I will not engage. Another phenomena that we are all pretty familiar with, I trust. You don't know how much inherent background noise you have in your system (however small it may be) until you do something that lowers that level.
2) Can purchase these at Music Direct and Audio Advisors. Both offer a 30 day money back option. Try and if you don't think they make a difference, simply return. FYI, I bought the Cardas caps.
GG
Did you just find this?
Better make sure Mark P. sees it
Still doesn't really address shorting vs non-shorting on inputs, unfortunately...
Look, please experiment and report your findings. That article said you needed to mix and match because too many of one type dulled the sound and if you came up with a combo mix then everything was great. I was not impressed.
You read more into it than I did, I guess. It's like most reviews, just a starting point; they measured a difference and heard a difference, so some personal listening is next. Can't make decisions based on a single review by unknown reviewers. Unlike some investigations, though, this one is relatively cheap and convenient, even more so than cable comparisons.
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