Short Out Plugs

Right on Notdigital !!! I have used this "trick" many times and reccomend it quite frequently. Since the specific circuit is shorted or "shunted" to ground, you don't have to use "high quality" connectors. The cheapest ones will more than suffice. Sean
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I almost forgot. Some preamps are not "stable" designs and may react adversely to installing "shunts" or "shorting plugs". If this is the case, using something like Cardas caps or "shield plugs" would be the next best thing. Sean
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Wow, i didn't catch that part of "Notdigital's" post. Herman is correct. The acetic acid in MOST silicone is corrosive. If you were to seal the rear section of the shunts up, you might want to seek out some non acidic silicone or apply standard silicone and let it fully cure before installing them on the preamp. You can tell when it is fully cured because the smell is MUCH less pungent.

I really don't think that this step is necessary though, as the RCA's would normally be "open" and exposed to anything floating in the air as it is. Just putting the "shunts" on and covering the soldered area with the supplied caps should be more than enough. Since the shunts would basically seal the internals of the RCA plug, the only thing left to corrode or collect dust / dirt would be the "shorting strap" inside the shunt. At $3 for a package of 8, i think that we can afford to replace them once in a blue moon.

While i have never made "caps", i would assume that you could buy the same RCA's and simply ( and carefully ) pull the center pin out. Fold the ground lug over to the other side of RCA "ring" and solder away. While not nearly as glamorous or "high grade metal" as the Cardas pieces, it should be just as effective IF you fill in all of the rear gaps with solder. Hope this helps.... Sean
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You can only "shunt" inputs, NO outputs !!! As to shunting the inputs on an amp, that might be tricky. They might be wired in parallel. Shunting one set would in effect short the signal going into the other input to ground. This could either result in a loss of sound or "bad things" depending on how the individual components were built.

As a matter of safety, i would strictly shunt inputs on a preamp. Since each input on a preamp is selected individually and none of them would share common signal paths, that SHOULD be safe ( so long as it was not an under-designed piece of junk ). As to shunting ANYTHING else, i would first contact the manufacturer and find out if it was "safe" in their opinion. Better to be safe than sorry.

As to Sws2's questions, it should lower your noise floor and help the sound to come from a blacker background. You might also be able to reduce crosstalk between sources, but this would depend on the device being used. Sean
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