I've got a couple of Mark Levinson power amps. They're old, but don't hold that against them - they're very
very good bits of kit.
They use these funny connectors called Camacs, made by Fischer, on the inputs.
Camac stands for: Computer Automated Measurement And Control. It's an IEEE-standard (583), modular, high-performance, real-time data acquisition and control system concept. Born in 1969, CAMAC now appears in many thousands of scientific, industrial, aerospace, and defense test systems in more than 40 countries. (ref:
http://www.kscorp.com/Products/camac...tors/index.htm)
In audio at least, Camacs have a reputation for being awkward. I suspect this is as a result of dealers and reviewers not living in the real world - they have to switch components a lot, unlike us civilians - the people who the kit was made for.
Camacs are pretty expensive & many people use Camac:RCA adaptors, which kind of short circuits the reasons that they were specified in the first place - they are incredibly reliable, they're a uniquely sensible solution to an engineering problem and they sound better.
They allow the cable to rotate through 360 degrees in relation to the plug body.
Contact areas are heavily gold plated.
They allow for earth connection to be made before live connection.
They have a self-locking mechanism.
The strain relief system doesn't pinch or distort the signal conductor/s.
The sockets are flush mounted
As long as you can use a soldering iron you can make up cables with Camacs.
Do some of these things sound familiar? - Don't forget, I just said the standard was defined in
1969
To my ears, they're streets ahead of any RCA connector or any other for that matter - and, yes, I have done meaningful comparisons. Does anyone else have any experience of these and why are they not used by anyone else in audio?