Congratulations to OS&M on its first anniversary!

First of all, I would like to extend my congratulations to OS&M for making it through their first birthday! Keeping any business alive is a minor miracle, and providing the constant attention necessary to keep a webzine fresh and engaging is especially challenging. So, a tip o’ the hat to all of the hardworking folks that have made OS&M a success! May you enjoy many more anniversaries together.
 

The new NextGen RCA jacks from WBT

Most of you know me best as an equipment designer, a profession I have been engaged in for many years. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve the performance of my designs, and I have spent countless hours evaluating the individual parts I use by actually listening to them. Most of the parts I “put under the microscope” are variations on a theme, so the trick is to choose from among a group of “good” parts those that will best fit my performance goals. It is rare that a new part comes along that clearly distinguishes itself as being better than the rest of the field and, in fact, shifts our paradigm by defining a whole new level of performance. Such is the case with the new “NextGen” line of RCA connectors from WBT.

The WBT NextGen RCA connectors have been engineered as a matching male / female set that exhibit a stable 75-Ohm characteristic impedance over a very broad frequency range: up to 1GHz is claimed, in fact. This has important implications in digital and video signal transmission, and these new connectors are certainly very effective in these applications. My primary interest, however, is in the sonic quality of the panel-mount female jack when used in the role of a typical analog connector.

The NextGen connectors are designed to mimic the style and overall appearance of WBT’s “standard” RCA jacks, but with a key difference - they employ the smallest amount of metal required to get the job done. In fact, most of the metal has been eliminated, leaving only a set of thin electrodes attached to a molded core. The concept is to reduce or eliminate eddy currents to the extent possible. (Simple explanation: eddy currents are small, localized current swirls induced in the conductive material by the alternating magnetic field of the AC signal passing through the conductor. Supposition: this is a bad thing and we would like to eliminate them.)

A brief digression: Credit must be given here to Keith Eichmann, inventor of the Eichmann “Bullet” cable-mount RCA connector (www.eichmanncables.com). The Eichmann Bullet was the first successful attempt that I know of to eliminate most of the metal from the RCA connector, and it is certainly possible that the engineers at WBT were influenced by its development.

the Eichmann Bullet plugs

The Eichmann Bullets have enjoyed substantial popularity among discerning audiophiles, but relatively few cables are delivered with the Bullets as standard connectors. This may have something to do with cost, or their reputation for being a little “fussy” mechanically—I am not sure. For the moment, they remain the performance standard by which other cable-mount connectors are judged. However, the WBT NextGen cable-mount connectors may be poised to challenge their supremacy.

Both types of NextGen connector are built around a rugged, molded core with a high heat tolerance. Mounting and soldering the panel-mount jacks is simple and straightforward, and the same appears to be true for the cable-mount parts. My thanks to WBT for having the good sense to make these new parts a physical match for their standard metal parts, thus greatly simplifying the task of installing them in existing gear. Time will tell how well they hold-up under prolonged use, but my sense is that they will prove to be durable over the long haul.

What little technical information I have tells me that the NextGen metal components are pure copper—not an alloy—for optimal signal transfer. The copper parts are directly plated with gold for improved surface conductivity and immunity from oxidation problems, and because it looks wicked cool. There are also pure silver versions of both jack types, with platinum overplating, for a slightly higher cost.

So, what does all this add up to? Superior performance, my friends—these jacks are absolutely wonderful! My experience so far is limited to the copper / gold version of the panel-mount female jack, so I have yet to try the (presumably) superior silver / platinum version. My opinion is that these new parts outperform every other jack I have auditioned, and by such a margin that they define a new level of expectation for this class of part. They sound utterly clean and transparent, and at the same time relaxed and liquid—completely free of any trace of hardness, grit, or glare. They get out of the way of the music more than any other jack I know of, and allow it to emerge naturally, with a kind of sweet grace. Ok, ok…not to get too carried away about it, but I really like these a lot, as you can see. If you listened to as many parts as I do, I think you would get excited, too. As I see it, these jacks represent a fundamental improvement in the delivery of music, so I think it’s something to shout about.

I am confident that we will see these jacks appearing in high-performance equipment designs in the near future, and I fully expect to see more “next-generation” parts with a similar design from other companies. If you are a DIY hobbyist, you may wish to experiment with them now. They should be available from retailers handling the WBT line, or you can contact WBT-USA (www.wbtusa.com) for more information. Please note that there is not much information about these jacks on the WBT-USA website as I write this, but I expect it will be posted shortly.

I do have a few very small caveats about the design of the panel-mount jacks. I mention these as feedback for WBT, mainly in the hope that they will refine the design in the fairly near future....

1) Each jack is color-coded with a set of colored plastic bushings and a small plastic insert in the front of the jack. The tiny colored inserts in the front have a tendency to fall out after a few cable changes—at least in the jacks I have tried so far. I hope that WBT will develop a more positive method of keeping them in place. Note that this has nothing to do with performance—it’s just an aesthetic issue.

2) The rear body of the jack is round, and I would like to suggest that having the sides flattened would allow the use of a tool to facilitate keeping the jack aligned during tightening. Of course the body of the jack is now plastic, while the outer nut (as of this writing) is still metal. This can be a dangerous combination for the overzealous nut-tighteners among you. Ease-up there, Bubba!

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