Do "Cardas Caps" make a difference?


A new inexpensive, and quite compelling, tweek are the caps George Cardas makes to cover unused input and output jacks, therefore rejecting stray EMF. This is a logical tweek, and I trust George's integrity here, but my question is: How noticeable is the improvement? Can everyone who has tried them hear a difference?
fzxguy

Showing 2 responses by sean

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
You will gain more ( on most systems ) by using / building "shunts" than by using "shields". The parts can be procured from Rat Shack and will set you back WAY less than what a set of the aforementioned "caps" cost.

The difference between shunts and shields are that shunts can only be used on unuesed inputs whereas shields can be used on any unused rca jack. As such, you can shunt the unused inputs and shield the unused outputs for maximum effectiveness. Sean
>