Good cheap high quality audio interconnects
- Thread starter Chaos
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Also, when I talk about spring, I mean the mechanical action of the contacts, not the spring on a bicycle or car or watch. Basically the RCA connector needs a good spring action on the barrel and the inner connector. The spring action is derived from machining the connector from a single block and then creating ferrules. when placed under stress, the part tries to return to its original shape, creating the spring action. The thicker the barrel material, the stiffer the spring. There is a physical limit on the thickness of the plug barrel.
Cheap ICs will often use stamped parts which lose the springiness very quickly, or even worse, barrels without ferrules. This 'ring type' connector quickly loses spring action, and becomes unusable.
As for copper, I doubt the MX type connectors are pure copper. It's usually an alloy. Even WBT Topline connectors use a 68% copper/brass alloy, and the ones I use are 65% (I had initially thought they were 80% copper stock). Not sure what percentage the MXs have, but I doubt it'd be more than 50%. The problem with a pure copper plug is that it would be really soft, and the only jack I've heard of with a very high copper content would be these ones: DH Labs Silversonic - Products - Ultimate RCA Connector
Sounds like marketing speak to me, and from the graphs it looks like they'll be really expensive - though they're half price of the WBT topline. Not willing to try at 800 bucks/jack. The lesson is, the composition of the alloy has to be questioned when talking about RCA connectors, you never know what the manufacturer has used. I could add 5% copper and call it a copper connector. The document also has some hints about the weakness of using RCA as a connector.
Cheap ICs will often use stamped parts which lose the springiness very quickly, or even worse, barrels without ferrules. This 'ring type' connector quickly loses spring action, and becomes unusable.
As for copper, I doubt the MX type connectors are pure copper. It's usually an alloy. Even WBT Topline connectors use a 68% copper/brass alloy, and the ones I use are 65% (I had initially thought they were 80% copper stock). Not sure what percentage the MXs have, but I doubt it'd be more than 50%. The problem with a pure copper plug is that it would be really soft, and the only jack I've heard of with a very high copper content would be these ones: DH Labs Silversonic - Products - Ultimate RCA Connector
Sounds like marketing speak to me, and from the graphs it looks like they'll be really expensive - though they're half price of the WBT topline. Not willing to try at 800 bucks/jack. The lesson is, the composition of the alloy has to be questioned when talking about RCA connectors, you never know what the manufacturer has used. I could add 5% copper and call it a copper connector. The document also has some hints about the weakness of using RCA as a connector.
.... hehe.....TE flame wars ftw!- Status