BEWARE OF SUBSTANDARD CONNECTORS

If you are a Sound Engineer especially those who are working in the field of live sound reinforcement, it is a fact the connectors are an inevitable part of the show.

Today, in this blog post i am sharing my bitter experience while using some sub-standard connectors and hope this will be useful for people working in the field.

Recently me and my colleague made one XLR(M) – XLR (F) cable in between a busy live show.

I took 1 XLR male and 1 XLR female connector from the toolbox.  Unfortunately the female connector was a local made. Being in the backstage and with low visibility, it got unnoticed that it was a substandard product.
Normally for an error free soldering, we must refer the pin configuration through the wiring side of the connector, which should be like

Because of the hectic program schedule, we referred the connecting terminal through the outer side.

Finally the soldering was finished and I checked the continuity.

Pin 1 of XLR (F) and XLR (M) has no continuity. But the continuity is getting through.
Pin 1 of XLR (F) to pin 2 of XLR (M) and Vice versa.

I checked the outer view of another XLR Female and realized the fact, there was a manufacturing defect with the XLR (F) connector.
That is, through the outer side , the manufacturer printed the configuration like which is shown below,

But it should be like the one the picture provided below

Dear readers, I would recommend you to refer the pin number from the wiring side before the soldering.

For that you can use the applications like AV Tools, which I introduced in one of my previous article and do not purchase any Local Connector.

Beware of connector manufactured by the local manufacturers and use only connectors manufactured by trusted brands.

If you had any such type of experiences during the live show do share with us as a comment below. It will be helpful for those who are new in the field of Sound Engineering.