Shorting plugs

Wait — I thought shorts in electrical or audio cables or equipment is bad?!  But they were the solution?   

I bought some gold ones.  Being uneducated(no instructions), I plugged everything.  Sat down.  One channel and not full sound.  Cold sweat.  It did not hurt anything.  Lucky.  Glad this thread came up.

I recently saw another thread on here discussing the same thing. Picked up a cheap pack of them off Amazon thinking "Well it was only $12. What could it hurt?" Yeah, after plugging them in and sitting down, I was in for a shock and awe experience. So much more clarity, less grain, less fuzz, more enjoyment. I'm sure some of this is gear dependent, but in my setup, that was absofreakinlutely money well spent.

nonoise - Thanks

@bob540

Wait — I thought shorts in electrical or audio cables or equipment is bad?!  But they were the solution? 

 

You don't want to short out a low impedance voltage or power source (an output) because it will draw high current. That's why people are saying to remove the center pin on shorting plugs for output jacks, as that turns the plug into a non-shorting cover that can't draw current.

But inputs are high impedance, and shorting them is safe and prevents stray noise from entering the system.