RCA shorting plugs worth it for PS Audio equipment?

[gazjam]

Have BHK Pre and DS Snr Dac.

Obviously the kit is designed well,
watched Pauls video at Should you cover your audio inputs? - YouTube
Seems maybe not?

Any real world experience out there with rca shorting caps with our PS Audio gear?

Thanks.

[Serhan]

Cardas or Audioquest RCA EMI/RF caps

I happen to use a combination of both, Cardas and AQ RCA caps. On my BHK pre, my Modwright phono pre and my Pass power amp. Both do the intended job equally well in my opinion. I do like the Nautilus logo on the Cardas caps, but I don’t even see those in use. Grab either based on the best price you can find. I should point out I’ve found the XLR caps to be … problematic. Both vendors insist on a ridge on the XLR cap that I’ve found to be too large and too thick to cleanly click into the socket …

I hope this helps!

[Elk]

This comes up a lot. Here is another thread:

Noise blocking caps

Powerfreq That’s an interesting response from Luxman especially given the challenge of getting the dealer who sold me my P-750u to provide me with the XLR and RCA caps. Like you, I thought that they kept out the dust and had no impact on the SQ. How are you finding your 750u? I found it to be a quantal improvement cubed on the built in headphone jack on the BHK PreAMP. Have you tried XLR balanced cables on your headphones with the 750? I have Sennheiser HD800s and the balanced cables vary bet…

[dchang05]

I had both XLR and RCA caps on for two years, and I removed them a few days ago and the SQ and soundstage was better without them.

But I have the outputs capped as well. According to Paul in the video one should not do that. So, I need to put them back in on the inputs only to see if there are any SQ changes.

[dchang05]

Okay, I again did not hear much difference when I put the caps back on at inputs only, and again my system sounded better after I removed them. My brain is playing tricks on me. How come I do not hear the difference when I put them on, but hear a better sound after they are gone? I am confused.

There is only one location where I thought the caps worked. I used XLR cables throughout. At the same inputs of the XLR (3 in my case), the RCA caps at 3 seemed to give me a better focus from DAC to Pre. But my brain was already confused and tricked so do not hold me to it.

{Edit: My daughter, my best critic when I am gone crazy on the audio stuff, told me there is no difference. She actually “guessed” SQ better without caps on there too).

[gazjam]

Thanks Everyone.

[Serhan]

It’s good to have a copilot

[gazjam]

We’re the caps you tried shorting caps,
Or just the “Dust cover” type?

Thanks.

[dchang05]

I have the EMI/RFI cover type without the inserts. If you investigate Cardis website, they recommend using their caps without the inserts as an EMI/RFI blocker and stated most preamps do not like the shorting inserts. My system has many good noise blocking tweaks already. So, they are less effective in my system, I think.

But I just ordered some cheap caps with inserts from eBay to try out. Have you tried any yourself? I was surprised they made my system sound worse.

[gazjam]

Ive ordered a bunch of the Oyaide MWA-RC ones,
inexpensive to try and have a layer of metallic material on the cap, so not just a plastic cap.

Sendust material,
remember that from on tape heads from back in the day.

Fitting to BHK Pre and DS Dac
Had Oyaide cables in the past, always struck me as sensible Japanese engineering.
See how it goes.

[dchang05]

Hopefully they provide more benefit than dust covers in your system than mine.