Your jack probably wouldn't have failed if it were a Switchcraft... They make by far the best XLR connectors, IMHO.
Differs from my experience. I've found Neutrik to survive both the studio and the road better than Switchcraft by quite some distance. That includes mistreatment by roadies, rock musicians and students - but not classical musicians, they can break anything.
The two things that I found wanting about Switchcraft were cable entry (both strain relief and security of fixing) on cable mounted connectors and the 'push' release tabs on female chassis sockets. A telling thing is that at one point (don't know if you still can) you could buy packs of the release tabs as spares from Switchcraft which strongly suggests that I wasn't the only person to find this a regular point of failure.
Also, Switchcraft had too many fiddly little separate bits that needed several tools and a clear workbench to work on effectively. By contrast, Neutrik were mechanically simpler and better thought out (e.g. cable clamps that you could fit with no tools at all) and much easier to repair in the field. When you're behind a stack of gear trying to fix a lead in time for curtain up, you don't want to be hunting for the damn tiny grub screw that just fell on the floor.
One caution - perhaps Switchcraft have improved in recent years. I gave up using Switchcraft in the early '80s and stuck to Neutrik exclusively from that point onwards.
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