Re: [LAU] Jacks and sockets - Was: Berlin Linux Audio meeting @ c-base 2018-10-09

On 10/06/2018 03:51 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Greetings. New topic OK with me if it's OK with readers, I'll reply here in case the info is useful :-) As a repair tech, we get get to see the ugly side of design, things that seemed like a good idea but fail in practice. (If I had a dollar for every high-end design I've seen with problems...) Most folks become aware that even the best quality single-conductor (with shield ground) 1/4" guitar cables eventually break. It happens to all of them. Usually at the entry point to the plug, or in the plug itself. Less often in the middle of the cable. It's the nature of the beast when the cable is constantly being flexed. Much less so if the cable is fixed and never moved, of course. Now take that hard-learned experience with a single-conductor cable and apply it to *thirteen* conductors. Guess what happens... (Jacks for these DIN type plugs are usually never a problem if secured and soldered properly. Usually far less trouble than other types of jacks.) Often, the cause of the cable's break is the plug's strain relief being too tight - ironically the very thing that is supposed to help prevent breakage in the first place. I can't be too harsh on this product for the price/weight range. But yeah, buy TWO of them to be safe. Some cables are built like tanks and never seem to break. Like the old IBM printer or RS-232 or military cables. But that adds weight. [Story:] In the days of Citizen's Band radio, there used to be a popular model called the 'One-Hander' where instead of all the knobs and buttons and channel readout being in the base unit, all of it was in the microphone. Unfortunately that required a multi-conductor cable from the mic to the base unit. Guess what happened to those cables after a few years of flexing and talking on the mic... Multiple /broken/ conductors in the cable /and/ the plug. They were DIN cables and plugs and jacks BTW, looking almost exactly like this product. Except they were /coiled/ cables which sometimes makes things worse. HTH. I could talk all day about plugs, cables, or bad design. Cheers. Tim.