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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: what about the RCA jacks? posted by Mart on January 27, 2000 at 19:09:55:
yes, I'll describe it take what you can from it. I was so happy with WBT's performance when I replaced the male connectors on my MIT 330 IC's (WBT allows one to use a screw to make the connection in place of / in addition to (your choice) solder(sidebar: MIT has sloppy solder only connections with cheapo connectors this is a huge improvment). Everyone knows that a proper connection is best acheived by a tight conductor to conductor connection without any solder bridging the gap.)That I decided to purchase WBT's RCA jacks too. they are very expensive. I desoldered the old rca's, filed the new RCA connection points down to copper, insered the new RCA's, stripped the wire and used the screw to make the connection. Now, I must note that there is a design flaw in WBT RCA female connector technolgy, this is not true for thier male rca's. there is a hole directly below the screw. the hole's id is the same as the screw's od. If you screw down too tight the pressure of the screw will shear off your wire. They propose that one crimp on a WBT sleeve before inserting the wire. Two problems with that: 1) it requires a special crimp tool only sold by WBT for hundreds of dollars. 2) Hello - I'm supposted to believe that putting another connection between the wire and the RCA will improve things? one can't polish the inside of the sleeve either, doesn't make sense to me. I prefer the simplest path copper to copper.OK so now I had the connections made and tightened as much as possible (No, I didn't mash any molecules but it was pretty tight). Put on a reference album: Earl Klugh MoFi Late Night Guitar. Wow the acoustic guitar never sounded so real. Super sharp image, very focused. very nice warmth (that woodsy sound wooden instruments should have). But, something was wrong. You know how on the opening to Jamaca Farewell there is a sense of bloom, the triangles shimmer? the highs were attenuated reducing the bloom. I didn't like that at all, if there is shimmer or high freq harmonics in a recording , I want to hear them. After a day I discussed this with someone on this bord who is also familar with WBT - on thier suggestion: "some things are just begging to be soldered." I pulled out the iron and soldered the connection too.
That sense of shimmer was back imediately. Sometimes I wish I had left well enough alone. Would it have changed with burn in? I don't know. Was it a more realistic sound - I hope not, but I'll admit that high frequency inaccuracies tend to get defined as "air." Would I do it again? Well yes and no: Yes to recreate that unbelievable improvement I heard without soldering and to re-evaluate whether it is better or not now that I know more. No, not to recreate what I have now with a screwed/soldered connection (costs too much money, I honestly don't know if it is an improvment over the original or not).
if you do buy the WBT's - take a flat metal file- unscrew the screw and file the bottom down to copper. Take a round file and file the connection point below the screw. These little things make a difference.
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Follow Ups
- BTDT2 - jk 10:43:16 01/28/00 (1)
- Re: BTDT2 - Mart 18:32:17 01/28/00 (0)
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