Tweaks

I guess unless you try these things you really shouldn't comment on their effectiveness.

First, let me say that Ozzy has clearly assembled a system of exceptionally high calibre, and I have considerable respect for the great majority of his posts which I have seen here. And I am in general agreement with the quoted proposition.

But I would add that there is a finite limit to the circumstances to which the quoted statement is applicable. To roughly paraphrase a comment that was made some time ago in an unrelated thread by the estimable Tvad, you don't have to conduct a controlled clinical trial to determine that a witch-doctor cannot cure cancer by shaking a rattle and burning incense. Some things are self-evident.

Regards,
-- Al

Semi: What about XLR shorting plug? you solder both "+" and "-" to GND?

That's a good question, and I'm not sure whether it would be more optimal to just short pins 2 and 3 to each other, or to also short them to ground (pin 1). A theoretical argument could probably be conjured up to support either approach. In practice, my guess would be that generally there would not be a perceivable difference between the two alternatives.

Regards,
-- Al