About the quality of connectors in audio equipment

[ginetto61]

Hi, i have noticed that the tolerances in RCA connectors are quite large
I wonder if connections like BNC could be used also for analog purposes.
My understanding is that BNC is a superior connection by design
I have noticed also another thing
That question like this one create nervousism in the audiophile circles
Personally i do not see why it should not work
If it is fine for signal up to MHz ... o in general for scopes ...
And the very nice thing is that quality BNC connectors and cable are very very cheap
Why they are not mor used is a mystery to me
What do you think ?
Thanks a lot and kind regards, gino

 

[Mooly]

That won't simulate will it

BNC... Not as reliable as you might think. The centre contact is small and can be surprisingly "loose" on occasions. I've often had scope leads that needed a "wriggle" on the BNC plug to get the trace to display correctly (leads and hardware fine... its the connectors) and have the same problem on a function generator with BNC output. That to often needs a "waggle" of the plug to correct contact problems.

So my experience is that I would not use standard BNC for audio.

 

[DF96]

I think this question has been discussed before - probably more than once. Did you try a search?

Quality connectors of any type are not "very cheap". However, there is absolutely no need to pay lots of money for any connector either. All you need is decent quality: not Chinese junk, and not audiophile scams.

BNC and RCA were designed to do different jobs. They each do their different jobs reasonably well.

 

[wintermute]

I think the main reason that RCA's are so prominent is because that is what people are used to. They are ubiquitous in commercial (consumer) gear. If you are doing your own diy gear then there is no real reason you can't use whatever connectors you want to. You could for example decide to use XLR for everything, even if it was SE inputs. or for that matter, TRS jacks/plugs.

Whether you will get any advantage over good quality RCA's I don't know. The main thing is that the metal to metal contact is clean and tight.

Tony.

 

[KatieandDad]

I bought some V EXPENSIVE Chord Chorus Interconnects and the RCA connectors were such a poor fit with my Arcam gear that I ended up chucking them,

 

[Preamp]

LEMO make some really nice connectors .

What about F connectors? They fit perfectly, are cheap and there's lots of good quality (and well shielded) cable available. IIRC there are even F-to-RCA adaptors out there.

 

[DF96]

F connectors often use the coax inner as centre pin. Not a good idea, as it was not designed to form a low pressure mating surface.

RCA do the job for analogue audio, and are good enough for digital audio. Why change them? The main snag with RCA is that the inner makes contact before the outer so you can't do 'hot' plugging, but that is bad practice anyway.

 

[ginetto61]

That won't simulate will it

Hello ! i got distracted for a moment
You know what ... now that i have discovered that for my dream bjts there is no model around i am a little
And how can be that for the TOTL devices there is no model
Maybe i will discover that there are no models for the sublime 200W Sanken multi-emitters as well ??? Unbelievable ...
I still think that a spice model should be made available by the manufacturer together with the datasheet ... it is just a .txt file if i understand correctly

Speaking instead of connections ...

BNC... Not as reliable as you might think.
The centre contact is small and can be surprisingly "loose" on occasions.
I've often had scope leads that needed a "wriggle" on the BNC plug to get the trace to display correctly (leads and hardware fine... its the connectors) and have the same problem on a function generator with BNC output.
That to often needs a "waggle" of the plug to correct contact problems.
So my experience is that I would not use standard BNC for audio

Thanks a lot. Very helfpul. I did not know honestly.
I thought that they were extremely reliable because for pros in the labs.
Good RCAs do exist i reckon ... but are very expensive, like the one from WBT. And buying female and male from the same high quality brand is a guarantee of contact quality.
I have had many equipment with RCAs of very poor quality
And some cables did not fit well.
But i see, we have to live with this.
Thanks again. Regards, gino

 

[ginetto61]

I bought some V EXPENSIVE Chord Chorus Interconnects and the RCA connectors were such a poor fit with my Arcam gear that I ended up chucking them,

Hi and thanks and this is exactly what i meant
With no other connections i have had similar problems ... never.
Instead RCAs seem to come in any different dimension ... lenght and diameter
And some very poorly executed also
I understand why pro do not use them
In comparison XLRs are fantastic
Thanks and regards, gino

 

[DF96]

Somewhere in the world there is a factory producing poor quality XLR connectors.

BNC was not intended for pros in labs; just people who need a constant impedance connector up to a few GHz. Its design aims are irrelevant to audio. Pros in labs now generally use either SMA or N connectors.

 

[DavidL]

Stereo Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

 

[Charles Darwin]

Good RCAs do exist i reckon ... but are very expensive, like the one from WBT.

Why bother with WBT ones when you can get these for a lot less:
NF2C-B/2 - Neutrik

 

[ccoyle]

You can get a Switchcraft 3502A for under $2.00 U.S.

 

[ginetto61]

Somewhere in the world there is a factory producing poor quality XLR connectors.

Hi and of course ... not all XLR are made equal ...
But also Neutrik that are top notch are not that expensive
If i had a very good amp i would look seriously at the quality of connectors
The quality of panel RCAs is very important for me
I had one amp with so so RCAs ... i replaced them with better quality and i like the result a lot indeed. The cables fit much better.

BNC was not intended for pros in labs; just people who need a constant impedance connector up to a few GHz.
Its design aims are irrelevant to audio.
Pros in labs now generally use either SMA or N connectors

I agree that a connector should be designed with their function in mind
I am not saying that the best RCAs are ****, but they are as rare as expensive

By the way beautiful the SMAs ...

it looks serious indeed.
I wonder if it is also expensive.
Thanks and regards, gino

 

[ginetto61]

Stereo Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

Hi and thanks ! i know the brand ... very good and cheap
But what worries me is the quality of RCAs on the equipment
From very bad to so so in average
Very little attention is paid to these importan parts i think
I should replace at least the pair of the most important input
Thanks and regards, gino

 

[DF96]

SMA is tiny. No reason to fiddle with something so small for audio. For microwave it makes sense, as small size delivers something useful.

 

[ginetto61]

Why bother with WBT ones when you can get these for a lot less:
NF2C-B/2 - Neutrik

Hi and thanks but ... i remember that also these are not cheap
As i said i am mostly worried by the quality of the RCA inputs on equipment
Only the very expensive ones have decent RCAs
So my best solution could be to replace the panel RCAs with something decent and absolutely with teflon insulation
I melted down the last i tried .... i am very bad at soldering
I will look for them
Thanks a lot, gino

 

[ginetto61]

You can get a Switchcraft 3502A for under $2.00 U.S.

Hi and thank you very much indeed for the suggestion of this brand.
Now that i think a little more my main problem is with the RCAs on the equipment
I found something special ... this is just splendid ... it should stay on the front and not on the rear panel ... wonderful !!!!

so yes ... my problem are the RCAs on the equipment mostly.
Thanks again, gino

 

[freax]

Yes this thread was discussed before.

Here it is:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/anal...ople-using-bnc-out-there-rg6-quad-shield.html

It should be noted that I've given RCA connectors the toss and am only using BNC with RG6 quad for digital audio and RF stuff now. Also for singular runs from my DAC to my amp I am also using RG6 quad with BNC too.

You can even get high voltage BNC!!

There is really nothing wrong with RCA, its a time tested connector that was even used in WW2 so it does have cajones. It just looks ugly and properly not very well designed considering just how often it breaks or the center conductor which protrudes gets broken or just how easily the outer shield gets bent when its stepped on. Which then essentially leaves you with two useless (possibly very expensive) cables.

I got sick of not having enough shielding and being unable to listen to good quality music while working with radio gear. It would be silly to ignore the amount of RF that is flying through the air around me and allow it to be picked up and amplified by my expensive audio equipment. What if someone someday left their cellphone next to my amplifier and blew out the speakers...

Dit Dit Dit Dit Dit Dit Dit Dit *POP!*

Also they are really great for making a low resistance connector, I mean come on its copper wire wrapped with 4 shields, you cannot get better than that!

To give you an idea. both of my homemade cables using RG6 quad registered at the time of making them 000.3 ohms on my multimeter. That has to be only doing good things in the Audio Frequency range.

 

[DF96]

To give you an idea. both of my homemade cables using RG6 quad registered at the time of making them 000.3 ohms on my multimeter. That has to be only doing good things in the Audio Frequency range.

It sounds impressive until you do the numbers. Then you find that with, say, a 20k load you don't need anything like as low as that - provided the value is stable.