Wait a Minute Do those Cardas Caps Work

If all you want to do is keep dust out, why not simply plug it with something (like a small piece of blu-tak over the end)?

They look cool on my toy soldiers heads. Like an army of Woody Allens from Sleeper. But I don't notice any difference in the sound of my system.

Are we talking about shorting plugs, or just plain dust caps. Shorting plugs are a good idea, not so much when the input is unused as when you sequence through that input with your selector switch, and may hear bad noises from the open circuit.

LOL @ army of Woody Allens! Now you've completely ruined it for me Rosstaman. :•)

How about combining Elizabeth's idea with that of Dave's or Hepl's ? Put a tiny square of aluminum foil up against the backside of the female RCA and slowly push the plastic cap over the jack. This will "form-fit" the foil and no need for tape. Much easier to work with at minimal expense. Thanks !!!

El: I've recommended using shunts on unused inputs for a LONG time. While direct shorts are normally good, many components that lack the proper isolation between inputs respond poorly to this trick. In such a situation, one should solder a low value resistor ( 50 - 500 ohms ) across a cheap RCA plug and use it. This simulates the typical load that most inputs would normally have on them and keeps the jacks from getting pitted at the same time. Phono inputs should use a very high value resistor i.e. many, many Kohms. Sean
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