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Death Grip Audio Cables

Fred Longworth

Fred Longworth

audio fanatic
I own a repair shop, so I see the casualties.

Though premium speaker wiring and interconnect cables DO sound better, there are some serious hazards. One I encounter almost daily is DEATH GRIP AUDIO CABLES, hereafter known as DGAC.

A DGAC has a plug that grips the RCA jack so tight that sometimes when the cable is pulled out the jack comes with it, and all that's left is a plastic stub. If the ground portion of the jack survives, the point on the circuit board inside the set where the jack solders is likely to tear loose.

A DGAC has an enormously long barrel on the plug, which provides an extended lever arm. This also tends to tear the backside of the jack loose from the pc board.

A DGAC has super-stiff shieded cabling. Think of rebar.

A DGAC is often very short, and so never can take the safest route from point A to point B. No, everything must be under tension. Think: turnbuckles or clotheslines.

A DGAC has a wide, fat plug, so that if the jacks are closer together than normal the plugs will bump into each other, forcing the plugs to go in at an oblique angle.

A DGAC is plated with Krytonite so that even Superman himself won't be able to pull them loose.

If I try to share ANY of the above points with a typical DGAC owner, s/he will often put hands to ears. Think: hear no evil.

Fred Longworth
StereoTech Classic Audio Repair
http://www.repairaudio.com
 
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Is there any type of lubricant you can put on the RCA jack to prevent death grip?
 
I have noticed that some of the Radio Shack cables with the gold ends were death grip cables. All of my cables now are Audioquest and Tara Labs which seem to do well. I have a B&K preamp out of commission right now because of death grip cables.
 
actually using some car audio interconnects from my dvd player to my fosgate processor that do this..hate em hate em hate em but they do sound better than the radio shack gold stuff i had before.
 
Learned my lesson the hard way on this. I once owned an Acurus Act 3 that was the center of my HT system. I bought these cables that were made in Australia (can't remember the name of them now) that had great reviews, but were stiff as boards and had the locking RCA's. I went to move the Acurus to another spot in the cabinet, and even when trying to be careful, broke the ground on one of the output RCA's. $100 repair bill from Acurus, and I sold those damn interconnects the next week on A'gon!
 
Just this past weekend I found some IC's from AR that I like a lot. And they have a great feature....Screw down collars that make connecting a breeze. Back them off to plug in and then screw down to tighten. Love 'em! I've also found that a little DeOxit ProGold applied before connecting seems to help the DGAC syndrome.............R1
 
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Part of the problem is that the outer diameter of the RCAs on the equipment varies so the same interconnect can be loose on one piece of equipment and have a death grip on another.

That was a problem with the original NAD 3020 which has oversized RCAs with directly soldered to the circuit board. They fixed the RCA diameter in the 3020B.

Ideally the interconnects will be adaptable enough to accomodate a range of diameters but from what I've seen, most are not.

David
 
AAAAAHHHHH! HAHAHA!

I have Radio Shack Gold component cables plugged into the back of my receiver...death grip for sure! Gonna replace them soon...Glad it's not just my imagination :nono:
 
I bought cables from KnuKonceptz.com and what a mistake that was! The outer connections on the male RCA connectors have no flex whatsoever. On some RCA jacks the shields make zero contact! On others the won't go on no matter what. I've taken to crushing and uncrushing (with a C-clip pliers) the ends to size them when I have to relocate them. Getting them off is sometimes a scary proposition as they often get stuck, though I've yet to explode a jack. I'm utterly disgusted my their poor design.

I'll be making my own cables next, using *properly engineered* Switchcraft 3502 RCA plugs and milspec RG316 silver coax.
 
I had some blue jacketed AR DGAC's. Looks like they fixed 'em.
Tighter isn't ALWAYS better.
OK-time for a joke reply................
 
I propose a Hall of Shame listing here on AK for known Death Grip Audio Cables to serve as warning to unsuspecting shoppers and to preserve our vintage (and otherwise) gear.
 
Any Monster Cable product with the Turbine RCA connectors is a definite candidate for the DGAC Hall of Shame. I have a bunch of Interlink cables fitted with these dreadful fittings; hard to plug in, and even harder to remove. I'm surprised I haven't damaged anything over the years.

I recently replaced some of these old wires with some AQ Diamondbacks....WOW what a difference. Smooth on and off, yet still feels like a secure connection.
 
I had some Monster interconnects do this to my cheapo DVD burner. I was able to put it all back together, but it sure sucked!

Ed
 
I've got a set of Monster component video cables that do the same thing. Just about get a hernia every time I pull or plug in any of the 3 connectors! I damaged one of them plugging it in once. Now I tend to lose color until I bend it just right. (Yeah, quality stuff, that Monster!)
 
the dielectric grease mentioned earlier is NOT A GOOD IDEA.. what you want is a contact enhancer, which are not so realdily available, but can be found on the net..usually in the form of conductive silver grease. It enhances the electrical connection and makes it easier to pull the connectors off.
 
I've found that treating the cables and plugs on the componet with progold seems to lube it up a bit. Caig also makes a product called caiglube for this purpose i believe.
 
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