I have the board out of my NAD 502 for recapping and some other stuff. I never use the digital out plugs. I am wondering if there is any use or benefit to treat them in some way, the options being—

a) Leave them bloody well alone
b) Stick a resistor on the positive pin (say 1/4 watt/100 Ohms)
c) put a shorting plug on each RCA plug

I have thought of deleting the muting section as well, but I am afraid of screwing something up. I AM rolling op amps.

Option (c) may destroy the output stage.
Are you considering blowing your gear?

" I never use the digital out plugs."
How much of an improvement does this trick give you?

Do this to you unused digital out...

http://diyparadise.com/75ohmtweak.htm

cheers
paba

I just made one for my CD player.

willysan wrote:
Option (c) may destroy the output stage.
Well, it did not seem very smart to me either, but I thought that perhaps someone would explain just why.
Are you considering blowing your gear?
Well no, it was not included in my immediate plans.:pistols: Instead, in an effort to answer my own question I went here among other places:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/1571.htm
There is a comprehensive look at the question by Jon Risch in this and other similar discussions on AA. And there is lots of advice on what to terminate and what not to terminate, as well as how to terminate for specific ports in both digital and analog.

For digital-out of the species found in the RCA plug (among others) the recommended fix is exactly what papa and rulerboyz have referred to. You put 75 Ohm R between the signal (center) pin and the ground shield/jacket. Apparently YMMV because some circuits are more fortunately designed for the prevention of what is referred to as 'reflected signal'. Following the threads gets you to some off site resources that explain why these reflections can occur.

Some digital ports are terminated with 110 Ohms.

How did this simple tweak work for you rulerboyz?

I tested it on Singing Winds/Crying Beasts from Santana's Abraxas. I found that the guitar blended better into the other sounds with the tweak in place, and that the bongos seem to jump out more with the tweak.

Assuming its an RCA (coaxial) digital output, just put a 75-ohm resistor across it (solder one across the tabs of an RCA plug). I did that with my Marantz and can convince myself that it sounds a hair better :-)

instead of making one for cheap...you could go the lazy man's route and just buy some stuff...they sell f-type 75 ohm terminators for tv antenna applications[try radio shack]get one of those and an adapter from whatever your dig out connection is[rca/bnc/?] to an f-type cable connector and then just screw them together...tho it may cost a couple of dollars it's an instant terminator with the right impedance,no soldering and semi decent looks

*posted only for the sake of giving alternate ideas,especially for those unskilled with a soldering iron