Quality RCA connections (1 Viewer)

[RichardMA]

Ever notice the quality of RCAs on the backs of
various receivers? Some of them suck because they are
thin metal shells over plastic which are attached
directly to a mother board with tiny soldered flanges.
Maybe there is a screw holding the plastic casing to
the back case of the unit. Then you can go to the opposite
extreme where you have high quality, heavy all metal units
with teflon internal insulation mounted bulk-head style
directly to the outer casing of the product.
In fact, even on expensive receivers you can end up with
poor quality ones. I've seen good cables (tight connections) tear the cheap shell-type connector's metal
parts right off the unit! This is one reason why I switched my RCA connectors on my cables to units with slightly less grip or two screw-tightening units. What I find interesting is that Denon will put out the 5308 which costs $3000+ and only use half decent heavier connectors in one position and the cheap ones elsewhere whereas H&K on their 8000 receiver use fairly decent ones for all RCA inputs/outputs.
Most power amps have decent ones, but not all. Virtually
all seperate prepros have better quality units than most
receivers. Would it really kill the receiver mfg. to spend the extra on decent ones? IMO, having the poor quality ones
is like having spring-clip speaker wire connectors.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

Alot of times, it's all about profit margins.

An example...

In 1989, Delta Airlines began serving all in flight salads with 2 olives instead of 3. The cut back one olive per salad. This saved Delta $1 million dollars a year.

A cutback that may seem to have an extremely low unit price impact can greatly change profit margins on the macro level.

I guess alot of times, economics screws the consumers in more ways than one.