[brent_strong]

Hey, I'll be recabling my Beyer DT770 (80ohm) soon, and since I was given some canare star quad cable, I figure I'll spend the bulk of the original budget on a very nice connector. I've done a bit of looking and found this:

http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=308

to look pretty nice, but I'm wondering if there aren't some nicer ones out there. Strain relief is quite important, since I will be bringing them around to work and back frequently. Other than that, obviously I want a really high quality connector audio-wise, but would like something that looks good as well.

I know that I'm more or less asking for it all in one package - good strain relief, good quality for audio and good looks, but I'm willing to spend a decent amount to get it.

I'd rather not spend more than $20 on one, but if there's something cool enough, it will be easy to talk me into it!

 

[NeilR]

I used the Canare F-12 for a mini-RCA. Nice plug. The shell is the same size as the 1/4" and RCA plugs. That's good because once it's plugged in it doesn't look like a wimpy little miniplug.

Try some adhesive lined heat shrink for extra strain relief. With that, plus the spring, it is very sturdy.

Some of the neutrik plugs have nice plastic chuck strain relief devices. They hold the cable in death a grip. They are probably the best going for strain relief. I have a couple of the straight plugs and they do NOT have the strain relief chucks. The shells are probably too small. OTOH, I just bought some right angle plugs and they DO have the chuck. I haven't had a chance to test drive them yet. THe part# is NTP3RC and NTP3RC-B (black).

 

[sejarzo]

First one is that it's nice "non-wimpy body" is actually, in some cases, a little bit too "fat" rather than "tough"!

I made up a few interconnects to use with a variety of sources and amps, but found that there's not much clearance between the volume knob and the body/shell or whatever you want to call it with a Canare F-12 plugged into a GoVibe v4's input jack. One can still adjust the volume, but it requires more fiddling that with a smaller mini plug in the input jack. I don't know what the clearances are on other small portable amps, but tje diameter of the Canare body could be an issue.

The other problem that I had is that I'm not yet terribly skilled in soldering small interconnects (not to mention bad eyes that make things even worse). The way the Canare is constructed made things even tougher:

1. The tabs for the tip and ring on the Canare are on the smallish side (compared to the cheaper Neutrik straight mini plug, anyway);

2. What tabs are there have no holes to secure the wires before soldering;

3. The tabs are rather thick compared to others--meaning, they take longer to heat up to get the solder to flow, and I dang near melted the insulator between tip and ring on one before I got the tip conductor soldered correctly.

On the bright side, they are constructed quite well, and the spring strain relief is a nice addition on top of a well-designed clamp on the end of the inside assembly.

I used one to make a nice mini-to-1/4" TRS adapter, using the locking Neutrik cable-end jack (NJ3FC6) and a short length of Mogami 2534 starquad. Using starquad with the smaller Neutrik mini plugs requires a reaming bit to enlarge the cable opening plus some polishing with the Dremel to remove the burrs....but the Canare inner clamp/cable opening/spring strain relief are perfectly matched for a 6 mm cable.

 

[jbloudg20]

I sure wish Cardas or Vampire would make a nice 1/8" connector.