2. tech-talk
  3. 190517-149317

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
ibmjunkman's avatar
ibmjunkman
244 posts
 

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

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,891 posts
 

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

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,829 posts
 

 

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!

 

antigrunge2 OP
1,424 posts
 

As I am only shorting inputs the warning on shorting RCA outputs is certainly apposite, thanks to all

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,781 posts
 

@antigrunge2 and all

What do shorting plugs do and why should I try them?

Thanks

More to discover