RCA connectors--any compression types better than Canare's?

[MikeSp]

Canare crimp RCA's are legendary, but are any compression type RCA's as good such as those made by F-conn or Liberty or ...?...

Mike

[Anthony]

I have not used the Liberty crimp connections, but I can speak for the F-conn and Canare. The Canare are better connectors all around. The F-conn are simpler to install, but don't maintain the 75 Ohm impedance all the way to the tip, which was the primary design goal of the Canare connectors.

However, the F-conns are cheaper and you would be hard pressed to hear a difference in short runs. A drawback is that you can't use stranded center conductors with the F-conns (if memory serves). Which is a shame, since I love using the LV-77S for interconnects due to its great flexibility.

The Canare are a much beefier connector and it feels like it makes a better grip on the component when you hook it up.

don't get me wrong, the F-conns are good connectors -- fast to install, not too expensive, wide industry following (i.e. you can get them a lot of places unlike the Canare stuff).

Again, no experience with the Liberty connectors.

Hope this helps,
Anthony

[Anthony]

Oh, one other thing: the F-conns can be used in semi-weathered environments. I would not recommend direct water exposure, but they do seal around the cable when compressed so it "should" keep water out of connected equipment. The Canare don't even mention this, so I would assume dry applications only.

[MikeSp]

Anthony wrote:

I have not used the Liberty crimp connections, but I can speak for the F-conn and Canare. The Canare are better connectors all around. The F-conn are simpler to install, but don't maintain the 75 Ohm impedance all the way to the tip, which was the primary design goal of the Canare connectors.

However, the F-conns are cheaper and you would be hard pressed to hear a difference in short runs. A drawback is that you can't use stranded center conductors with the F-conns (if memory serves). Which is a shame, since I love using the LV-77S for interconnects due to its great flexibility.

The Canare are a much beefier connector and it feels like it makes a better grip on the component when you hook it up.

don't get me wrong, the F-conns are good connectors -- fast to install, not too expensive, wide industry following (i.e. you can get them a lot of places unlike the Canare stuff).

Again, no experience with the Liberty connectors.

Hope this helps,
Anthony

Many thanks, Anthony, for the information which I was seeking. I am actually looking to make three 25-30 ft. subwoofer cables and while the LV-77S is on my short list of cables, I have enough Belden 1694A left over from rewiring my antenna and cable system and it has a solid 18 gauge copper conductor. Thus, I could make my own cables using the F-Conn RCA's and it would take just a few minutes OR order premade cables terminated with Canare RCAs at reasonable prices from BlueJeans (with total price about the same or less than if I purchased the Canare wire PLUS the crimper PLUS the overly expensive Canare die). BUT, if I made my own, I would be concerned about the F-Conn RCAs not maintaining their impedance all the way to the tip as you pointed out.

On a separate note, I may give the F-Conn speaker wire compression connectors a try -- they look like they would provide an excellent 360 degree crimp and can use spades or bananas.

Mike

[Anthony]

Hey Mike, I just finished looking at the Liberty connectors. They seem on par with all of these. Good grip center connector, looks to be easy strip and crimp, and the connectors look beefy and well made.

The inspection window is a novel idea as well to see if the compression ring seated all the way. One thing I like about the Canare is that you can hear and feel a click when the center pin locks into the RCA connector.

I don't think you can go wrong with either. If you want to save yourself the tooling costs, BlueJeansCable is a great company to deal with. I personally have enjoyed making my own cables (for me and customers). It amazes people how great these relatively cheap cables can sound -- especially when they're coming off Audioquest, MIT, or Monster products at much higher prices.

Also, if you do decide to get the tools yourself, check out ebay and other places. I ocasionally see these crimpers used. I know Parts Express has a generic crimp tool that works well with most of the F-conn stuff and is only $30. As for the Canare, I ended up with the real deal and don't regret it. They're crimp, stripper, and dies are VERY well made. Good solid feel and easy to use (and more importantly, easy to tell when you are doing everything correctly).

Good luck!

[MikeSp]

Anthony wrote:

Hey Mike, I just finished looking at the Liberty connectors. They seem on par with all of these. Good grip center connector, looks to be easy strip and crimp, and the connectors look beefy and well made.

The inspection window is a novel idea as well to see if the compression ring seated all the way. One thing I like about the Canare is that you can hear and feel a click when the center pin locks into the RCA connector.

I don't think you can go wrong with either. If you want to save yourself the tooling costs, BlueJeansCable is a great company to deal with. I personally have enjoyed making my own cables (for me and customers). It amazes people how great these relatively cheap cables can sound -- especially when they're coming off Audioquest, MIT, or Monster products at much higher prices.

Also, if you do decide to get the tools yourself, check out ebay and other places. I ocasionally see these crimpers used. I know Parts Express has a generic crimp tool that works well with most of the F-conn stuff and is only $30. As for the Canare, I ended up with the real deal and don't regret it. They're crimp, stripper, and dies are VERY well made. Good solid feel and easy to use (and more importantly, easy to tell when you are doing everything correctly).

Good luck!

Anthony -- I also thought that the Liberty compression RCA connectors looked good and without any proof or anecdotal stories about them comparing them to the excellent Canare crimped RCAs, I am dubious. Since I do not have golden ears, I would not want to do a double blind experiment with a Canare terminated subwoofer cable vs. a Liberty or F-Conn compression terminated cable -- at my age, such experimenting has no appeal like it did a few decades ago

I do have a Paladin Universal crimp tool which will probably handle any compression fitting and sure worked great on the Snap-N-Seal F connectors -- I can see why people like making their own cables -- it takes a whopping two minutes to strip and crimp the compression F connector. I found when using the Snap-N-Seal F connectors that I was more confident of a correct fit if, after stripping and peeling back the braid (and on 1694A, it is 95% braid, so much thicker than the usual 60% on most coax) I would remove the plastic bottom part and push it down onto the cable which finished getting a great fit of the braid against the outer insulator and then watch while the dielectric with its foil shield is inserted into the connector body making sure it goes in easily so the foil is not pushed back and then push/twist on the body of the connector and THEN add the plastic compression piece and use the compression tool to insert it and its waterproof O-ring.

I will check E-Bay for Canare dies and Canare or generic crimpers -- and I just may purchase the generic crimpers from PartsExpress and the Canare die so I can make up cables whenever--there is something fun about making up cables.

Mike

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Mike,

No need to stress over the Canare. Subwoofer applications are about the least critical of any in a home theater; people use standard coax for them all the time. The impedance issue really only relates to video applications anyway. I expect that any RCA capable of being crimped directly to coaxial cable is going to be 75 ohm. It pretty much has to be.

Regards,
Wayne

[MikeSp]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

Mike,

No need to stress over the Canare. Subwoofer applications are about the least critical of any in a home theater; people use standard coax for them all the time. The impedance issue really only relates to video applications anyway. I expect that any RCA capable of being crimped directly to coaxial cable is going to be 75 ohm. It pretty much has to be.

Regards,
Wayne

Thanks for the input Wayne -- that is enough to get my curiosity up and take some spare 1694A coax, puchase a couple of Liberty and a couple of F-Conn RCA compression connectors (IF I can purchase that small quanity although the shipping would be a killer for 2 connectors) and give them a try running the coax across the floor to the subwoofers -- my dedicated HT is under construction and a couple of months away from completion, so plenty of time to test -- while I don't really like testing any more (age can do that), I still have plenty of curiosity OTOH.

Mike

[Anthony]

Oh, bad timing. I just put in a huge order at Parts Express yesterday (over $500 is free shipping) and I could have tacked on a few F-conn connectors for you and relayed shipped them to you priority mail. You are right, it's murder to make small orders from these places. $10 shipping on $10 worth of parts. DOH!!!

I guess that's why all my friends that are in to speaker building and electronics ask whenever I put an order in -- to save on shipping!

And I also agree that the double blind testing is too much now. I just want something that works, is a good value, and that I like. I spent more time in my early 20's trying to tweak my system than actually listening to it! Now I just want to enjoy it.

Good luck and let us know how the Liberty stuff measures up.

[MikeSp]

Anthony wrote:

And I also agree that the double blind testing is too much now. I just want something that works, is a good value, and that I like. I spent more time in my early 20's trying to tweak my system than actually listening to it! Now I just want to enjoy it.

Good luck and let us know how the Liberty stuff measures up.

A BIG AMEN to that testing/tweaking --same here, in my 20's I also spent more time tweaking than listening. Now I want to sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds.

I just ordered a few RCA compression connectors by Liberty, Holland and F-Conn as well as compression speaker wire spades by F-Conn and will see how well that they appear to work.

later,

Mike