The idea of connectors in general always makes me think that there has to be a better way to interface cables with their respective components. With the thousands of dollars some consumers are spending on IC's, speaker wires, etc... And the R&D cable manufacturers do with metallurgy, dialectrics, winding geometries and such, it surprises me that there hasn't been more innovation in the seemingly critical joining of wire and component.
You certainly don't see many people using two .5 m pairs of Valhalla joined in the middle with an adaptor to make up a 1 m length, but the RCA's, male and female, at the component ends don't seem to cause much concern.
That said, I am a big fan of the Eichmann Bullet Plugs and pray that they will make a female RCA that is just as innovative and minimalistic as the male. If they build it I will buy.
I have been toying with hardwiring my IC to my CD player just to see if it really does make any difference.