Focus Mastering intermittent

Went up to Focus Mastering Saturday to stamp out an intermittent connection issue in the monitoring section. Doug has 3 sets of speakers to switch between, the massive and recently acquired Duntech Soverign, bookshelf Dynaudio BM5 MK1, and Avantone MixCubes. The speaker output section of his Crookwood Igloo router was no longer making a reliable connection with the DB25 connector.



This problem has happened before since I did the initial signal wiring plant install in 2007 and probably annoyed me more than Doug. Any wiring I do that doesn't last at least 10 years was improperly done initially IMO. It was time to slay the gremlin for good.

The crimps on the male cable end checked out as they had in the past. Reproducing an intermittent issue at will, or at least making it appear more frequently, is the key to tracking down the root cause. In this case, only moving the DB25 body in the Igloo jack would drop signal or cause a little hum-buzz indicating poor pin-socket contact. The socket side of the connector is the panel-mount jack on the Crookwood, whose replacement would have required more down time and a second trip. The solution then, given the extremely small movement required to make/break connection was a little treatment with Stabilant 22.

After treatment at no time did the connection break under movement or other mechanical stress. If it comes back, though, the Crookwood will be the target of my soldering iron.



Naturally after the work we had a listen to the new main speakers. There are no other spaces in the area I'm aware of that have the (low end) response to allow the Sovereigns to extend so low so smoothly. Putting a pair of speakers whose impulse response actually looks as such in lesser spaces would not do justice to their capability. Maybe I created the intermittent for an excuse to listen to them...