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Cheesey (cheap) headphone and mic jacks?

L

lndwarrior

Well Known Member
I bought a Softcom intercom that comes complete with all wiring and jacks. I know squat about radios but the jacks look cheaply made to me when compared to the ones A.S. or Steinair sells.

I've attached photos of the jacks and the ones from A.S.. I am considering junking the ones that came with the intercom and buying the ones from either of the above companies.

What do you think? Worth the effort -or just install the ones from Softcom? I would really like to minimize future communications issues.

TIA
Gary

The Softcom jack
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[URL=http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/lndwarrior/media/9517d414-c2f4-474b-9419-85a5114b47c4.jpg.html]
[IMG]http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af349/lndwarrior/9517d414-c2f4-474b-9419-85a5114b47c4.jpg[/URL][/IMG]
The A.S. ones:

 
Last edited:
The scifi/computer tech writer Jerry Pournelle is fond of saying 'better is the enemy of good enough.'

Is there a brand name on the jacks? They might be junk, but Switchcraft (a most excellent brand, back when electronics tech bought my groceries) makes jacks that look like that.
http://www.switchcraft.com/Category.aspx?Parent=953

Nothing wrong with them, and there's even a version with a nylon outer threaded section so you don't need the insulating shoulder washers.
http://www.switchcraft.com/Drawings/n110x-mn110x_series_cd.pdf
Another advantage, in my opinion, is that the nylon body jacks don't grab the plugs as tightly as the all-metal version, meaning that there's less chance you'll damage the headset cord if they are jerked away from the panel instead of unplugged.

A variation on the 'better is enemy of good enough' theme: I used to make guitar cords for professional musicians, using brass mil-spec plugs, like some high end headsets used to use. The things would corrode so badly and so quickly, they'd have to buff the corrosion off almost every time they used them. The 'standard' chrome plated plugs never had that issue; they 'just worked'.

Charlie
 
rv7charlie said:
The scifi/computer tech writer Jerry Pournelle is fond of saying 'better is the enemy of good enough.'

Is there a brand name on the jacks? They might be junk, but Switchcraft (a most excellent brand, back when electronics tech bought my groceries) makes jacks that look like that.
http://www.switchcraft.com/Category.aspx?Parent=953

Nothing wrong with them, and there's even a version with a nylon outer threaded section so you don't need the insulating shoulder washers.
http://www.switchcraft.com/Drawings/n110x-mn110x_series_cd.pdf
Another advantage, in my opinion, is that the nylon body jacks don't grab the plugs as tightly as the all-metal version, meaning that there's less chance you'll damage the headset cord if they are jerked away from the panel instead of unplugged.

A variation on the 'better is enemy of good enough' theme: I used to make guitar cords for professional musicians, using brass mil-spec plugs, like some high end headsets used to use. The things would corrode so badly and so quickly, they'd have to buff the corrosion off almost every time they used them. The 'standard' chrome plated plugs never had that issue; they 'just worked'.

Charlie
Click to expand...

Charlie:
My switches are identical to the Switchcraft ones.

Also, I spent an entire lifetime reading everything and anything but never heard the quote - 'better is the enemy of good enough.' That's a good one.

As a design engineer I'm frequently teaching younger staff that it's "got to make a difference to make a difference" but your quote is much more elegant!

I think I'll go ahead and use the ones I have, and save myself $40.

Thanks for taking the time to educate me in both areas!
Gary
 
I hope they work for you; I'm pretty sure that one or two have been flying in my -4 for about a decade without any problems.

Please don't credit that quote to me; as I said, Jerry Pournelle was the 1st person I saw use it. I'm pretty sure that his version is a derivative of an older phrasing. Pournelle used to write for Byte Magazine, back when (and before) the IBM PC came on the market. I was reading his science fiction long before Byte Magazine existed. I think he might still be writing.

Charlie
 
Quote

The way I heard it in the Navy was 'Perfect is the enemy of good.' Sort of ties into the idea of diminishing returns.
 
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