A loose 'Earth'...
Where does the interconnect's ground cable links to ??? or is it a "floating ground"? My guess is to the black wire, which also grounds the shielding 'can', but I may be wrong...
Braiding the IC
I realized that the ground cable is too short to reach the solder point of the black wire... so I ended up separating the L, R & Earth cables of the IC, and braided them as shown on the 3009. It allowed me to shift the Earth cable up for soldering and the braiding also offered increased flexibility and less stress on the soldered points. Cable-ties were used at the ends to prevent the braid from 'unwinding'.
You are Terminated!
As a result of the earlier stress from a rigid IC, the core connection within one of the RCAs of the 3012 was lost. I wanted to play with my new toy and re-terminated it with Neutrik ProFi RCAs (as recommended by the shop since I couldn't decide from a large selection!).
