Have come across a couple of cases now where a cheap jack plug has become stuck in a Neutrik combi socket.
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It looks like the cheap jack plug tips are not quite as rounded as usual. This means that they get stuck fast in the Combi, though they work just fine in other jack sockets.
If you force them out, the tip of the jack will just not get past the connector, but instead will just take it with it and destroy it, or the jack tip becomes separated from it's body and is left embedded in the Combi.
Or is it like the more common problem of tips , 2.5/3.5mm jacks stuck in headphone sockets, due to lack of strong metal these days in the neck part, preceeding the tip, to resist normal contact forces?
Or is it like the more common problem of tips , 2.5/3.5mm jacks stuck in headphone sockets, due to lack of strong metal these days in the neck part, preceeding the tip, to resist normal contact forces?
No, I have first hand experience of putting more than one of these cheap jacks into more than one Neutrik Combi and them getting stuck, after removing 3 that had got stuck via a customer.
On another occasion a Focusrite pre-amp had a tip stuck in the socket. There is a small hole in the back of the Combi where you can insert a tool to push out the jack, but there was no way it was going to budge without damage.
This reminds me, last week , another example of wrecked phono sockets on a powered speaker. People buy nice gold coloured , gold plated , connectors on blingey leads and pay over the odds for them. But the phono jacks are crap, the ground connector is a solid ring, no axial cuts to them, so they jam or even friction weld to any socket attched to , at some point when temperature or something is just right
Is the tip connector,in the Neutrik, transverse to the axis of the jack or parallel to the jack axis?
I haven't studied the reasons why these get stuck, other than to observe the jacks that do seem to have a more triangular tip than usual. (i.e. sharper angles at the base)
I seem to remember reading somewhere that there actually isn't any sort of International "standard" for 1/4 inch jack plug design.
This is my point. Do-all devics are compromises and clearly this product sort of sucks, or hasn't been tested at all. Either way it still sucks, apparently.
I use some neutrik connectors and for single purpose use they're very well made so I'm a bit surprised by this problem.
This is my point. Do-all devics are compromises and clearly this product sort of sucks, or hasn't been tested at all. Either way it still sucks, apparently.
I use some neutrik connectors and for single purpose use they're very well made so I'm a bit surprised by this problem.
It is not at all clear whether the problem lies with the Neutrik Combi, or the possibly badly designed/made cheap jack plug.
Probably it is a combination of both, being, as I currently believe, there is no standard for jack plug/socket dimensions or tip profiles.
Maybe there is a type of jack that is marketed as less likely to pull out of sockets, when gyrating about on stage or something. I'd have thought the H&S argument was to have them less likely to pull over a speaker stack, but who knows.
Most likely due to poor quality control in plug mfr. 'Normally' you'd expect to see the broken tip connector still attached to the central conductor, which holds the whole shebang together with a single swage in the wire connection area. It's a single piece. You shouldn't be able to break this into two pieces with manual extraction forces. A 'grabby' socket terminal would distort and crumple first.
Equipment vendors will often add an advisory in their users manual to use only parts complying to the standards, or mention specific mfrs brand types. Sockets are not manufactured to deal with this type of failure.
This is a simple plug and socket.
European standard is IEC60603-11.
You might mention the brand name or source of the broken part, so that others can avoid it, rather than running down Neutrix. The latter are exhorbitantly priced, but they work.
Most likely due to poor quality control in plug mfr. 'Normally' you'd expect to see the broken tip connector still attached to the central conductor, which holds the whole shebang together with a single swage in the wire connection area. It's a single piece. You shouldn't be able to break this into two pieces with manual extraction forces. A 'grabby' socket terminal would distort and crumple first.
Equipment vendors will often add an advisory in their users manual to use only parts complying to the standards, or mention specific mfrs brand types. Sockets are not manufactured to deal with this type of failure.
This is a simple plug and socket.
European standard is IEC60603-11.
You might mention the brand name or source of the broken part, so that others can avoid it, rather than running down Neutrix. The latter are exhorbitantly priced, but they work.
RL
That's the problem though, these cheap jacks are unbranded s**te, poorly made. I am not trying to run down Neutrik, I know how good their products are, I personally don't use any other brand.
Problem also is, these cheap jacks make Neutrik look like the sole problem since they don't get stuck elsewhere.
High friction level + meaty connector body + fat "oxygen free" triple- plaited silver-loaded wire.
Great combination. Requires lots of insertion force AND provides lots of angular pull once in ... leading to the phono sockets breaking free of the PCB.
Money well spent.
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Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk
You should all be aware, by now, that these connectors are all made in China - that difference in price is solely a distribution and sales issue - that quality is either demonstrated or not by the product itself - associated by trade brand name.
Therefor; there's no point in complaining about the quality of a part without identifying its brand name or mfr. Without this info, the warning is meaningless, because price is no longer a valid identifier.
As an example, recent Neutrik connector types, not commonly stocked domestically, were ordered at >$25 a pop and delivered from Shuersi Inc in Nanjing. Not cheap, good quality, reputable brand name from China.
Expecting these things to be manufactured by gnomes in Luxembourg is pure fantasy.
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