Do "Cardas Caps" make a difference?

I own a systemful of Cardas cables, and think they are a good product and a good value. I have no experience with Cardas Caps, and don't intend on getting any. What I think these are is an absolutely genius idea from a marketing and profitability standpoint. They are the perfect answer to a question that nobody has ever needed to ask, and play brilliantly upon the famous neuroses of audiophiles. Here we have a product that - at least theoretically - makes logical sense, passes the "Couldn't Hurt" test, and looks and feels swell (and apparently can engender a little of the same feeling in their owners). They seem inexpensive when considered on a per-item basis, but I am sure that folks such as Leo above will testify that like playing a slot machine, this is one "cheap thrill" that can quickly get out of hand. My hat is off to George Cardas (or whoever's working for him) for coming up such an obvious-seeming idea - one which I'm sure has tweak-merchants everywhere smacking their foreheads and exclaiming, "Why didn't I think of that myself?!"

I had a slight buzz in my system. The Cardas caps helped lower the buzz volume by around 40%, so they did help. I resolved the buzz problem, but am happy to know the Cardas Caps do help in some circumstances. It's nice to know my expensive gear wont be gathering any dusty gook around the rca inputs anyway.

the cardas caps are well-made, cool looking and certainly do make a difference to george cardas' bottom line. BTW, an xlr/balanced version is now available to keep dust balls and other nasties from enterin' those three little holes. -cfb

Zaikesman, I agree totally with your comments. That having been said, I own a set of them and when I reach behing my amp to change cables, my fingers love their cool reassuring metallic feel. My other favorite thing about them is that they came in a cute lil' plastic bag with a classy looking Cardas shell sticker on it :)

Shunts don't necessarily have to be direct shorts. You can solder a resistor across a low grade RCA and achieve a "resistive shunt". This effectively "closes" that input without any adverse affects since it is not loading down the preamp circuitry. One would want to use the lowest resistance possible, but going as high as one or two hundred ohms should be fine for most any preamp / switchbox. After all, some sources have very low output impedances and hooking them up to the inputs typically does nothing "negative" to the system in itself.

For the record, shunts should lower your noise floor and could reduce / get rid of crosstalk between various inputs and sources. Try checking out these two threads that had similar subjects and info. Sean
>

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&995748373&read&keyw&zzshunt

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1002915440&openfrom&4&4#4