un-screwing acoustic zen cables

Hello Nick,
The general rule of thumb is RIGHTY TIGHTY/LEFTY LOOSEY. Rotating CLOCKWISE will tighten, and rotating COUNTER CLOCKWISE will loosen. BUT WAIT!!! In this case you must go against normal convention. You must rotate the barrel of the IC CLOCKWISE TO LOOSEN (just the opposite of what you would expect to do), this will move the outer shell foward and off the tapered portion of the inner shell and should release the IC. I'm going to venture a guess that you have been rotating the barrel COUNTERCLOCK WISE in what would be normally be a loosening action. You were then TIGHTENING them. Hope that helps
Dave

P.S. If you ever tried to take the tires off the left side of a early 60's Dodge car, you probably broke a few studs before realizing that they were left hand threads. I never read the owners manual either.

Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.
When looking at the plug straight on, clockwise to tighten and counter clockwise to loosen.
Remember that if you are looking at the plug from the back of the unit, the opposite applies.
Sounds like you over tightened the locking connectors.
They need to be tightened to a snug fit only. When I tighten locking connectors, 2 fingers are all thats needed.
If they are stubborn to remove, I use one of those rubber grippy mat things used to open jars with.
NO pliers please! NEVER!
Hope this helps.

i've had similar, although less serious problems with the acoustics zen connectors. i've learned not to screw them on too tight. with the AZ WOW cables, to undo them, you need to turn the connectors anti-clockwise. i assume it's the same for the other models.

in my opinion, the lousy connectors are AZ 's main drawback.

good luck !

These description are way too complicated. Hold the cable like you'd hold a bottle of ketchup and unscrew the barrel like you'd unscrew the lid on the bottle.

BTW, these locking connectors sound best with the minimum of mechanical resistance felt during tightening with just the thumb and index finger. Tightening much further, like an additional quarter or half turn, degrades the sonics dramatically. You'll hear soundstage height and depth collapse when you overtighten.

My symphathies to you, Nickw. Harmonic Tech uses the same connectors as AZ and I agree they suck. I've taken to simply not tighening them at all to avoid this problem.