I just sent my pioneer deck in for repairs because the pico fuse blew. I've heard that hot swapping rca's is an easy way to do this. They say the fuse blows to protect the amp if you short the rca cable. My question is, if that is the case why do you use shorting plugs to test your system. You short the plug and stick it in your amp. Would that not be a bad idea?

 

No, with a cd player you are sending current down the line. With a shorting plug you are not sending anything at all.

 

So it would be more of a problem swapping the rca's at the amp not the deck. Thanks, makes sense.

 

Not exactly. It is fine to use a shorting plug on the input of an amplifier. It is not wise to do that to the output of a deck, or anything for that matter.

 

Further to that - if you were swapping or unplugging RCAs, it would be safer at the deck end since the enter conductor is exposed and subject to shorting if the amp end is pulled out.