Switchcraft RCA connectors

I wish to understand further regarding this famous Switchcraft RCA PLUG 3502A(Nickel Plated Copper Alloy) comparing to others Neutrik, Canare, Amphenol rca with/out Gold plating brass alloy out in the market. As I aware this nickel plating is only good for heavy duty usage like our ac plug.



Actually, what is copper alloy means in layman term?



And curious what type sound character Nickel plating on copper alloy will produce after DIY solder rca with our favourite interconnect cables.



Hope someone would be able to share or have use this Switchcraft rca product before.



Thank you so much.

Hello,

Let me try to share something here... neither I use any switchcraft before, anyway; this is industrial grade stuff; not audiophile~ Audiophile level means of over-obsession of sound concern that lead to overly high grade material.



Copper alloy may mean copper with combination of other metal.. most likely some zinc, tin, aluminium, nickel.

The switchcraft RCA that you talk about is rather ordinary stuff.. so it will certainly be adequate or good for normal connection.



Those that verge towards audiophile grade may have something like pure copper grade of a lot of 99.9999%, or silver, or been submerge into Nitrogen, or whatever it is that has minimum scientific proof on better, ohm, Impedance, capacitance readings.



If you wanna DIY, the switchcraft is the correct move. If you want good stuff, u need to buy reputable brand of in-house terminated complete product.. because there are still a lot of dark arts involve in the soldering, cramping, shielding that make a different to sound as well.

Get some Eichman (spell?) u can't go wrong

Eichmann, WBT, Switchcraft, Canare, Neutrik, Tributaries, Furutech, etc... are all good connectors.

Then the next step would be to get good reliable solder.
Some people swear that the lead(Pb) content is paramount for good sound but all new solder tend to be lead-free to be RoHS compliant. IMO, better to choose the more enviro path since all modern electronic gear also use lead-free solder anyways. Lead is a very toxic metal when ingested. The resident medical doctor here may elaborate further on this.

Then the next hurdle would be to invest in a good temp controlled soldering iron. Personally, Hakko is a good brand but there are others as well.

Lastly, experience counts for alot when doing reliable terminations without overcooking the cable or connectors.

If u tends plug and unplug the RCA cable very often then forget about Eichmann pullet plug. (it 1 point ground may give u problem such as contact problem, some it go inside when push too hard, or even break).

Reliablity can be a problem.