RCA plugs / contacts

[Alex SE]

Have about 5 meters of a good cable and thinking to replace standard cables I'm using to hook up all equipment (CD, MD, deck and so on). What I need is RCA plugs and there ARE lot of them on market.
Wondering if there is really some difference between them. The one can get 20-pack from Amazon for less than 18€ (20$) or about 9 or less of "quality" plugs from well known sellers like thoman.de.
For somebody who have equipment for 100.000€ it maybe does matter, but is there a difference between all of those plugs for us with standard equipment. I think that a cables are important but plugs are more or less made of a same material.

 

[J!m]

I recently got Amphenol brand ones from Mouser and those a decent quality and inexpensive.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Many years ago I acquired some silver-plated copper coax. I decided to make interconnects, and used very ordinary Switchcraft RCA's. I even used ordinary solder. It worked fine, and I still have most of those cables today, though I mostly use component video cable for interconnects.

 

[Alex SE]

Thats exactly what I have seen, Amphenol for about 2$/piece while Chinese are about 1$. That means 20pcs for 20$ vs 40$. Is there a reason to go for more expensive? My opinion is that a cable is what matters, plug is just a plug.

 

[J!m]

Well, if a plug doesn’t make a good connection, the wire doesn’t matter much…

I can’t comment on the Chinese made ones- possibly they are quite fine. I have the Amphenol ones and I think they are good value.

 

[62vauxhall]

I made lots of patch cords once upon a time and could not justify anything but cheap RCA plugs because a plug is a plug. My only criterion became metal barrels instead of plastic.

But over time therefore repeated connects/disconnects, a number of them failed. Either they physically broke (fell apart) or connections let go. Even with a stress relief spring. Not enough “meat” wher the leads are soldered.

My go to plugs used to be the cheap Chinese ones a local shop sold for $2 per pair.

 

[J!m]

The Amphenol ones have a metal body and a plastic strain relief. Adding shrink tube can extend the support (especially the tubing with the adhesive inside) but then it is less flexible at the ends.

I have often wondered why we don’t move on from RCA connectors. They were coat driven and making them more exotic with collet clamping and other improvements makes me wonder why we don’t just go to something else.

At the electronics store near work they have networking stuff. Amongst this is some small coax cable with small threaded fittings (like CATV fittings but smaller, and gold plated).

These look great and are smaller than the RCA form. I just don’t know if they are a good choice technically. I e capacitance and frequency response to start. May not matter but I would want to make a clear performance improvement, and not just because I like it.

BNC connectors make sense too. Good enough for test gear; good enough for audio.

 

[George S.]

I recently bought 10 PCs of the cheapest RCA plugs on the Bay to make shorting plugs. The photo looked good, the received plugs are crude and cheaply made, but will work as shorting plugs.
I suggest going with Amphenol or Switchcraft.

 

[Gepetto]

I recently bought 10 PCs of the cheapest RCA plugs on the Bay to make shorting plugs. The photo looked good, the received plugs are crude and cheaply made, but will work as shorting plugs.
I suggest going with Amphenol or Switchcraft.

Switchcraft makes decent stuff, I use that brand frequently.

 

[Alex SE]

The Amphenol ones have a metal body and a plastic strain relief. Adding shrink tube can extend the support (especially the tubing with the adhesive inside) but then it is less flexible at the ends.

Cable I have is 6mm which seems perfect for Amphenol, so I'll go for it. 2€/pcs is anyway much cheaper than actual prices on eBay. Want to make cables only once. As 62vauxhall wrote, there can be a problem with Chinese plugs over the time, and as George S. wrote, with Chinese you can never know what you'll get.

BNC connectors make sense too. Good enough for test gear; good enough for audio.

I agree that BNC are cool and surely a good solution but we can't just remove RCA from all equipment and put there BNC. I mean, of course we could but it would be a hell of a job. Extreme mod I don't think it's worth of effort and besides, it would cost like a hell.

 

[Gepetto]

Cable I have is 6mm which seems perfect for Amphenol, so I'll go for it. 2€/pcs is anyway much cheaper than actual prices on eBay. Want to make cables only once. As 62vauxhall wrote, there can be a problem with Chinese plugs over the time, and as George S. wrote, with Chinese you can never know what you'll get.



I agree that BNC are cool and surely a good solution but we can't just remove RCA from all equipment and put there BNC. I mean, of course we could but it would be a hell of a job. Extreme mod I don't think it's worth of effort and besides, it would cost like a hell.

Avoid Chinese products if you can. In some cases you have no choice. If you are purchasing China made products, try to do so from well known brand names that happen to manufacture in China as they uphold their brand standards despite manufacturing in China.

In some cases it is unavoidable as there is no alternative made elsewhere

 

[WOPL Sniffer]

I use Cardas

 

[8991XJ]

I came across a couple (thought the snakes pile was numerous cables but no, just two) 100 ft or longer silver coated stuff:
Impact Acoustics--Sonic Wave Audio Interconnect Cable--Silver Plated Copper--Triple Shielded
It is 8mm in diameter and only came with 3 ends so my selection criteria was the ability to fit an 8mm wire. Found some, like em but don't know if they are any better other than looks than a good Switchcraft.

I spent a bit of time looking over the pictures as these were Chinese sourced and well their quality is variable. Want good tight fit of the ground and not the death grip that rips the ground cap off the RCA jack that Monster Cable supplied on their cables. I want to use the cables not install them and never change anything.

With my experience in the hobby, I think about a number of things looking over pictures. The ones I bought from the bay were Monster Cable named product but had straight cut lines in the ground connector and not the angled ones that imply the death grip. Cheap enough at a buck 40 each and I'll get a bunch of cables out of the wire.

The ones mention by Alex, I'm not a fan of a screw connection for the pin lead. But that would mean there is a big well for solder. Many just have a small cup which is plenty for the soldering of that lead which can be very small.

I guess you just need to itemize your specific requirements and dive in.

I would use the really expensive WBT or whatever if someone wants to pay for them.

 

[J!m]

That’s good stuff. (To Perry’s Cardas comment)

 

[Alex SE]

...but had straight cut lines in the ground connector and not the angled ones that imply the death grip...

And I was wondering why some plugs are straight while others are angled. Never came to my mind about death grip. Thanx for telling that.

 

[8991XJ]

That is my experience with a couple Monster brand plugs. The angle cut is in a pot metal piece and trying to open them will break a chunk between the two angled cuts. I don't need a really think metal there just a good quality metal that will hold its tension on the jack.

That’s good stuff. (To Perry’s Cardas comment)

hey what about the WBT I mentioned.

 

[J!m]

WBT use the collet clamp right?

Yes good; but to my mind a band-aid to fix a poor choice for connection.

Not that Camac was a better one; but at least back in the 70’s Mark recognized the RCA was not the best choice for single-ended connections. He clearly wanted to be unique because the BNC would have been a more widely accepted choose, which MAY have led to the standard changing… Thise Lemo Camac connectors are rare and expensive, but still readily available from Lemo. You can’t run to rat shack and get a set of Camac cables however.

 

[62vauxhall]

Regarding those "death grip" Monster Cables, I may have posted this story before.

I worked for a large audio chain and one of the locations I was at contained a top producing sales person for the company. Ironically he did not know that much about audio. He was fond of bragging to the rest of us about the gross profit in his deals and amount of his commissions. One such deal was to a young, affluent, recently arrived Asian couple with a high opinion of Bose.

That salesman sold them a Bose Lifestyle system for about $3500 and convinced them to buy several hundred dollars worth of the most expensive Monster Cable RCA cords for their TV, cable boxes, etc. Huge profit margin items meaning about 50% of the profit was his commission.

That sale took place in the evening. The following morning, the customers were back, Lifestyle system in tow. It's jackpack was torn out dangling by it's wires. Still plugged in were the Monster Cable cords. Unplugging them was more than the Bose could bear.

They did not want an exchange, just a refund. The salesman wasn't too happy to begin his day with a huge return and losing the big commission he told everyone about.

 

[laatsch55]

Switchcraft makes decent stuff, I use that brand frequently.

All my XLR is Switchcraft..,.

 

[laatsch55]

Thats exactly what I have seen, Amphenol for about 2$/piece while Chinese are about 1$. That means 20pcs for 20$ vs 40$. Is there a reason to go for more expensive? My opinion is that a cable is what matters, plug is just a plug.

You are close to Germany, check out WBT...