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Don't try this at home hElP

One of my finer Idiotic moments of audio. I just received from another member a pair of long Straight Wire Maestro RCA cables. When I plugged them into the input of my pre, I realized they not very snug. I pulled out the plyers and a tshirt and tried to bend them inward. Nothing, then I got rid of the tshirt and plyered them direct and 2 of the outer gold sleave things broke off. The cables still sound fine, can anyone tell me how a signal is passed thru a RCA cable? Is it just through the male pin? What does the outer portion of the RCA do?

thanks and please learn by my mistakes
128x128justlisten
sean
6,231 posts
 
The center pin is typically referred to as the "hot" side of the circuit while the outer "ring" or "clamp" section is "ground". As such, the signal passes through both parts of the connector. While the cables might not look like new anymore, i sincerely doubt that the performance has been altered one iota so long as they make a solid connection to the components' RCA jacks. Relax and enjoy. Next time, DON'T eat your Wheaties before trying to "crimp" or "tighten" : ) Sean
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jaykapur
70 posts
 
I think your next cables will have locking connectors like the WBT RCA's!
justlisten's avatar
justlisten OP
489 posts
 
Jay, that is funny! Thanks Sean for the piece of mind.

Derrick
lornecherry
135 posts
 
.... so that's what they mean by "breaking in" your cables. I'm runnning down to the basement right now to get my plyers and some shirts, and I promise to report back how the new cables sound.

.... I'm back ....just tried this with my Nordost Valhalas and it works great when I use a genuine Fruit of the Loom 100% cotton T shirt. Sound is smooth, laid back and comfortable. Tried a 50-50 polyester/cotton mix from and the sound was harsh and grainy but at least the soundstage was smooth with no wrinkles. :)
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