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- Toshiba’s incredibly poor choice of connectors fell apart instantly!
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- Monster’s RCA Plugs live up to their name by destroying your A/V equipment!
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- My own Twist-n-Lock LIF RCA Plug design is available for licensing!
TOSHIBA Model 36AF53 TV and Monster A/V Cables
I purchased a $1,000 Toshiba TV set in 2003. That was back when large flat-screens were still prohibitively expensive, and HD was still in its infancy, so I made my final investment in large, flat, heavy, glass picture tube technology. Excitedly, I unpacked it and placed it in its proud new home, front and center in my theater-like living room. I made all the necessary connections to my A/V system and began enjoying my then-huge 36″ screen. Within the week, I decided I needed a new A/V Receiver. That was when the trouble began. As I began swapping and rearranging the various connections on the back of the Toshiba TV, I was dismayed to learn that the Monster RCA cables had, in each case, torn the outer shell of the RCA connectors from the back of my brand new television! Upon examination, I saw that the connector’s outer shells were press-fit into the plastic connector body with some really cheesy barbed tabs. No amount of careful twisting or gentle pulling would allow them to unplug without taking the outer ground shell of the connectors with them! And this was not just a fluke, mind you, this had happened to every one of them!
Granted, I know that Monster cables have an extraordinarily high insertion/removal force. Frankly, they deserve a “Poor Design” posting all to themselves. But I had to place the blame on Toshiba for their selection of these obviously inferior, incredibly cheap, poor quality RCA connectors. Unbelievable! Here again, much like the Black and Decker WorkMate, a company had taken the most critical aspect of their product (in this case, the A/V Inputs and Outputs) and skimped on quality! I mean, you can have the finest tuner, clearest picture and highest contrast, but what good is all of that if you skimp on the actual interface connections??? And what does this cheap connector say about the signal integrity? Why bother using expensive cables with gold-plated plugs, just to connect to a crummy connector? This is like designing the best Indy car ever made, and then equipping it with stone tires like Fred Flinstone’s car. Or like a mountain climber using the strongest, most expensive rope available, but then attaching himself to it using a piece of kite string. This is where the rubber meets the road! This is the “weakest link” syndrome.
Here we have a $1,000 television set rendered completely useless because its designers chose a 19-cent el-cheapo-tronics RCA connector instead of a $1 high-quality one. Bad dog, Toshiba! Very bad dog!
Lessons Learned/Solution:
Don’t cheap out on critical components! Especially where the cost is so negligible. There is really no excuse for Toshiba’s choice of incredibly cheap connectors. As I said, Monster is also partly to blame, but that doesn’t let Toshiba off the hook. I have used those high-force Monster cables on all sorts of equipment, and still that Toshiba TV is the only time they have ever actually destroyed an RCA connector. The solution was for me to (1) have the store deliver, at their expense, a new TV, citing the first one as “defective,” and (2) DO NOT use Monster cables to connect the new one. This experience left me with a very poor impression of two companies of whom I had previously held high opinions.
But there is another lesson learned here for Monster. Seems so obvious, do I really have to spell it out? Do not design a product that destroys the very things it is meant to work with. Their plug design is like using a flame-thrower to light a candle. They possess an insertion/removal force that is completely out of whack with their intended application. They do, however, certainly live up to their name, if you think of a monster as something that callously destroys all it comes into contact with.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides this definition of “monster:”
1. “An animal or plant of abnormal form or structure; One who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character”
2: “A threatening force”
Recent research has revealed that Monster now has a new design for its plugs. Rather than the old axially-split barrel, they have adopted a helically-split barrel design called “QuickLock” or “Turbine.” Theoretically, a twisting action should reduce the amount of force required to plug and unplug the new connector. It signals that Monster was at least aware of the threat posed by their old design. But with such a sour taste still in my mouth, I don’t think I’ll be trying this new design any time soon. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
Post Script:
This experience inspired me to design my own LIF (Low Insertion Force) RCA plug. I performed a patent search and found several people had already addressed the problem, but my design is sufficiently novel that it does not infringe. Besides, mine is a superior design anyway. And don’t even think about stealing my design. Can you say “prior art?” The third image above is a rendering of my twist-n-lock LIF-RCA plug design, which is available for licensing – contact me and take over the RCA-Plug market with this giant-killer!
