Audio contacts

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

In my computer setup, I send the audio output to an amplifier, which
then drives two Bose speakers. I love the sound.

BUT the plug that plugs into the computer output is continuously
getting bad contacts. Right now I am getting the right channel only.
If I remove it and jiggle it, I can improve the situation for a while.

How can I improve the situation permanently? Is gold contacts the
ONLY way to go?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 08:48:37 GMT, Gary <gary_w1@hotmail.com> wrote:

>In my computer setup, I send the audio output to an amplifier, which
>then drives two Bose speakers. I love the sound.
>
>BUT the plug that plugs into the computer output is continuously
>getting bad contacts. Right now I am getting the right channel only.
>If I remove it and jiggle it, I can improve the situation for a while.
>
>How can I improve the situation permanently? Is gold contacts the
>ONLY way to go?

Gold contacts on the plug won't make a jot of difference. Any more
than they will anywhere else, as long as you're prepared to clean plug
and socket occasionally.

Try a squirt of contact cleaner into the socket. If this doesn't
work, and the lead is good, probably the socket on your soundcard is
falling to pieces. What card is it? The cheapest option may be to
replace it.

If you're really into sound quality, avoid SoundBlaster/Audigy cards
which have a nasty trick of resampling everything to 48KHz internally.
As your source is likely to be CD at 44.1KHz, this isn't a Good Idea
:-)

But if you're happy with SB quality, a SB Live card can be picked up
quite cheaply. It's Line Out is perfectly respectable quality.

Incidentally, don't overstress a soundcard mini-jack socket with a
heavy "Audiophile" plug. The socket will disintegrate all the
quicker.