Shorted RCA Plugs                 

No, I'm not going to tell you how to fix shorted plugs. I'm going to tell you how to make them and put them to good use. This is one of the simplest tweaks you can do. Head down to your local electronic parts store and get a handful of blank male RCA plugs. They can be the cheapest ones they sell. Now follow along with me 'cause this is gonna sound silly. Open up the plugs and solder the center pin to the ground. You may need a short piece of hook-up wire or sometimes you can just bend the ground over to the center pin. Assemble the plugs.

Now plug the finished RCA plugs into every unused input on your preamp. DO NOT USE THEM IN A OUTPUT! If your unit has a phono input that's not being used, be sure to insert plugs there. That's it! Now all the noise that was sneaking into your system through these unused inputs, isn't! You should notice a lower noise floor. Another place to try one is in the coax digital output of your CD player, - of course if it's not being used. Now I know I told you not to use one in an output, but it's OK here.