Hicon HI-J63MA05 Angled Jack

I've got 20 plugs for making pedalboard patch cables. Have used them in conjunction with a Sommer Tricone MkII cable - this pair fits together pretty well.

+++ Pros:
I'm not very good at soldering, but these plugs were the easiest to deal with in my experience. Both tip and sleeve have individual plates for soldering - they haven't required any additional cleaning, so tin was applied pretty easily.

These pancakes fully reveal their "compact" potential being used in a single row of tightly-spaced pedals with side-mounted inputs. But with pedals, that have a close-placed inputs-outputs, the width of pancake most likely will lead to a problems.

--- Cons:
The quality of the ring part makes me doubt in its sturdiness - seems like it made out of ceramic or epoxy resin material, that tends to crumble when exposed. It has tiny pores in it, that don't adds a confidence in a reliability of the whole plug. On the other hand, it could provide more heat-resistance, comparing with a regular plastic rings - but I've never faced such a problem.

Furthermore, the overall quality of the plugs differs from each other - it concerns the straight of the sleeve and tip, particularly. One of the plugs has so much scewed tip, that I just can't insert it in the pedal's socket, another one had so tight motion, that I was afraid of brokening of a pedal's jack input. So I had to refuse the idea of using both of them. The rest of these plugs have similar problem, but in a minor degree, so it doesn't prevent from using them.

=== Total
All in all, I would recommend these plugs only for using in a tight-spaced pedalboards. But if you have the opportunity - look at something more sturdy and consistent.

I bought these jacks for my cabinet-amp connection as well as making patch cables for my pedal board.
I am pleased with how flat they are! It is really saving space, and enable me to put my pedals closer to each other. Also, worked well behind the amp and the speaker cabin. So they do the job.

On the other hand, the part that clamps the cable was disappointing. Even though I picked my cables according to the given cable diameters, the speaker cable (cordial cls 225) didn't fit without skinning some of the plastic to make it thinner. Moreover, the instrument cables (planet waves) I bought fit too lose. So I ended up adding extra rubber that I cut from the cable for the solder tips. Maybe I picked the wrong cables though I checked the size in advance. I can't really blame the jack for this.

Besides above, I found the insulation material very sensitive to heat between the solder points. As an electrical engineer, I ended up using some of my thermal resistant insulation tape. You will also need to fix the jack with something while soldering since it is angled, but indeed that is obvious.

Sound quality-wise, they didn't cause any additional noise or anything and I can say there is a little less hissing noise on the speakers after changing the cable and the jack. Though, it is hard to say if it is the cable, the jack or both.

These jacks allow pedals with side-mounted sockets to be mounted as closely together as possible on a pedalboard. The few cm in space saved could be just enough to squeeze one extra pedal in there.

The only real weakness is the fixed strain relief. The specification says 4 - 6.4mm cable diameter, and indeed Sommer Spirit at 7mm was too tight. I used Sommer Tricone at 5.9 mm, with some added heatshrink for a snug fit. I wouldn't want to use this with cable below 5.5 mm without something around it to ensure it is gripped firmly by the jack.

They are very easy to solder, with decent sized tags for both the tip and the sleeve, each with a hole in them to secure the cable. You have to bend the plastic insulating flap out of the way and not be careless, or you risk touching it with the iron and melting it a bit. On a few of the jacks the tag for the tip was around at a different angle - this can be a slight pain if you've got all of your cable ends pre-trimmed to length.