Shorting plugs


I had my spare RCA sockets on the preamp shorted and thought that I didn’t need to worry about the XLR and AES/EBU connections.Wrong assumption! Shorting the latter resulted in a significant reduction of hash and increased clarity in the treble as well as more precise positioning in the sound stage. Everything matters and as tweaks go this one is value for money.

antigrunge2

Pray tell, where might one acquire these shorting plugs/caps? Not found at Music Direct.

You can get RCA shorting plugs here.
And you can get XLR shorting plugs here.

No need to pay sky high prices for Cardas or Telos.

Just remember to remove the center pin of the RCA shorting plug on any output (like Pre Amp out, Rec out, Tape out) as it can short out and damage your equipment. Make sure you get ones with removable center pins.

All the best,
Nonoise

Without a center pin how do the RCA plugs actually electrically short anything? That would just be a dust cap. 

Just for any "outs" as they warn of . The danger resides in the outer part of the shorting cap touching the metal chassis in any manner should an "out" send a signal. Who’d want that to happen?

All the best,
Nonoise

 

At one appearance Bill Johnson of ARC made in a dealer’s shop near me, he told the story of getting a call from Harry Pearson, who told Bill the new pre-amp he had received was defective. Bill asked Harry a few questions, and quickly learned the cause of the pre-amp malfunctioning: Harry had installed shorting plugs into the output jacks of the pre-amp. Duh!