Shorting plugs

nonoise

You can get RCA shorting plugs here.
And you can get XLR shorting plugs here.

No need to pay sky high prices for Cardas

Actually the Cardas plugs are non-shorting:

" ... Unlike traditional shorting plugs, these caps do not short the inputs. Another difference: They completely cover the RCA input with a solid shield comprised of nickel and brass ..."

The same seems to be true of the AQ plugs:

"... The AQ Noise-Stopper caps are grounding plugs (not shorting plugs) that help you block out this unwanted noise ..."

I've never tried any of these.

I made shorting plugs for the unused inputs of 2 battery powered stereo phono preamps (used as mono's) and the improvement in SQ  was easy to judge/hear.

The parts cost from RadioShack was well less than $1 per unit and the assembly time was approx. 30 seconds per unit after the soldering iron came to temp.

DeKay

Wait — I thought shorts in electrical or audio cables or equipment is bad?!  But they were the solution?   

I bought some gold ones.  Being uneducated(no instructions), I plugged everything.  Sat down.  One channel and not full sound.  Cold sweat.  It did not hurt anything.  Lucky.  Glad this thread came up.

I recently saw another thread on here discussing the same thing. Picked up a cheap pack of them off Amazon thinking "Well it was only $12. What could it hurt?" Yeah, after plugging them in and sitting down, I was in for a shock and awe experience. So much more clarity, less grain, less fuzz, more enjoyment. I'm sure some of this is gear dependent, but in my setup, that was absofreakinlutely money well spent.