un-screwing acoustic zen cables

Hello Nick,
The general rule of thumb is RIGHTY TIGHTY/LEFTY LOOSEY. Rotating CLOCKWISE will tighten, and rotating COUNTER CLOCKWISE will loosen. BUT WAIT!!! In this case you must go against normal convention. You must rotate the barrel of the IC CLOCKWISE TO LOOSEN (just the opposite of what you would expect to do), this will move the outer shell foward and off the tapered portion of the inner shell and should release the IC. I'm going to venture a guess that you have been rotating the barrel COUNTERCLOCK WISE in what would be normally be a loosening action. You were then TIGHTENING them. Hope that helps
Dave

P.S. If you ever tried to take the tires off the left side of a early 60's Dodge car, you probably broke a few studs before realizing that they were left hand threads. I never read the owners manual either.

Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.
When looking at the plug straight on, clockwise to tighten and counter clockwise to loosen.
Remember that if you are looking at the plug from the back of the unit, the opposite applies.
Sounds like you over tightened the locking connectors.
They need to be tightened to a snug fit only. When I tighten locking connectors, 2 fingers are all thats needed.
If they are stubborn to remove, I use one of those rubber grippy mat things used to open jars with.
NO pliers please! NEVER!
Hope this helps.

i've had similar, although less serious problems with the acoustics zen connectors. i've learned not to screw them on too tight. with the AZ WOW cables, to undo them, you need to turn the connectors anti-clockwise. i assume it's the same for the other models.

in my opinion, the lousy connectors are AZ 's main drawback.

good luck !

Locking RCA's are not all they are cracked-up to be.

These description are way too complicated. Hold the cable like you'd hold a bottle of ketchup and unscrew the barrel like you'd unscrew the lid on the bottle.

BTW, these locking connectors sound best with the minimum of mechanical resistance felt during tightening with just the thumb and index finger. Tightening much further, like an additional quarter or half turn, degrades the sonics dramatically. You'll hear soundstage height and depth collapse when you overtighten.

My symphathies to you, Nickw. Harmonic Tech uses the same connectors as AZ and I agree they suck. I've taken to simply not tighening them at all to avoid this problem.

The connectors work fine. You just have to be careful not to over tighten them. It is actually pretty easy to do. Try moving the cable a little when you try getting them off. It has to be exactly straight. If you've been turning them the wrong way and tightning them---well, good luck! I know these suckers can redefine locking if they get too tight.
I have done this a few times because the cable had the connector in a little bind. You couldn't tell how tight they were.

I've got the Silway MK2. While facing the front of the component, therefore, the cables' ends are facing me, i twist the barrel counterclockwise to loosen the connection.

Here is the Locking Rca instructions for Acoustic Zen cables, these instructions will ship with all interconnects in the near future.
I HOPE THIS IS OF HELP!

Locking RCA instructions.
Prior to installing your new Acoustic Zen
Interconnect, we recommend you to read
Our installation procedures.

1.Once cable is removed from packaging, Completely
loosen all four RCA barrels by unscrewing them in a
counter clockwise fashion.

2.Install interconnects, make sure to follow the directional flow of the Interconnect. The directional flow Is indicated on the heat shrink of the interconnect.

3.This is the last and most important step, tightening of the RCA barrels. Do not over tighten the RCA barrels!
Turn barrels slowly, clockwise until you feel a small
amount of resistance building (barrel becomes a bit more
difficult to turn).Once resistance is felt, Turn barrel an additional 1/4 turn. There is no need to tighten the barrels
anymore than this, doing so may result in damage to your equipment.

Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions. I managed to get the cables off at the pre-amp end, and the CDP is now free from the system. I will now take the player (with interconnects still attached) to the Musical Fidelity dealer for repair (and cable removal!).