Jeff, jeff, jeff - this is Feline1 you're flaming. *Feline1*! Off the Internets! rotfl Anyone who knows me will have been reading my restraint on this thread so far peeping out through the gaps in their fingers from behind the sofa, like watching a kitten playing with an OWL.
I wasn't starting this thread to make a "complaint", I was asking for information about whether the connector was "supposed to be like that".
I've never owned an RME product before, so I couldn't have drawn the connector's inadequacies to your 'several years' ago. Although I note that the minute I mentioned it, two other customers piped up with the exact same problem, which seems a remarkable coincidence if this is the only time the connector has *ever* failed.
RME seem to be responding with defensive stroppiness and insinuations that we all somehow wrecked our connectors ourselves through our own carelessness and negligence. I think you maybe need to calm down a bit. (You're supposed to be a 'moderator', not the person who winds others up!)
It may sound a rather ludicrous thing to boast about, but I've been plugging in all manner of connectors used in music technology and IT on probably a daily basis since the late 1980s. This is the first time I've ever found a connector whose pins are so fragile and need such careful alignment that they managed to banjax themselves the first time I tried to plug the thing in. The only other thing I can think of that is remotely comparable is trying to insert dual-inline pinned IC's into sockets on circuit boards: and they are only intended to be changed in calm workshop conditions on a bench.
I don't think I *did* break the connector myself through lack of care, I think it already had misaligned pins out of the factory - but even if I did, a plug on a piece of music gear should not require that much care to survive. This is a soundcard that is designed to be portable, class compliant, used in live situations - where it may be dark, people will be stressed, in a hurry. It ought to be robust and easy to fit without trouble.
Petulantly telling your customers that the design is fine and there's no problem is not a helpful attitude.