[sdiy] Connector question, possibly OT

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Monday 04 October 2004 11:07 am, Nicolai Czempin wrote:
> I'm currently going through "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz/Hill
> (and thoroughly enjoying it!).
>
> They make a comment about connectors:
> "The so-called phono jack in audio equipment is a nice leson in bad
> design, because the inner conductor mates before the shield when you
> plug it in; furthermore, the design of the connector is such that both
> shield and center tend to make poor contact. You've undoubtedly *heard*
> the results! Not to be outdone, the television industry has responded
> with its own bad standard, the type F coax "connector", which uses the
> unsupported inner wire of the coax as the pin of the male plug, and a
> shoddy arrangement to mate the shield."
>
> What exactly are they referring to? I think for the TV connector I know
> what they mean, those standard antenna cables/connectors; I guess they
> are the same here in Europe.

I have no idea what they use in Europe for tv,  though perhaps it's pretty 
standard...

I have some "patch cords" that are manufactured connectors and that don't use 
the inner wire of the coax for this purpose.

> But for the audio part, I am aware of two kinds of connectors:
> a) What we in Germany call "cinch", which normally come in red and white
> for stereo connections, as well as a yellow one for RGB video.

Sounds like what I'd call "RCA" connectors,  also referred to as "phono" 
plugs.  They *are* a bad design,  because you're relying on the jack for the 
springiness for the inner connector,  and on the plug for the springiness of 
the outer connector.  All connectors seem to have this factor somewhere.  My 
old Simpson 260 VOM had "pin-type" plugs originally,  but the jacks got 
loose,  and I eventually replaced then with Banana jacks (which are solid, 
the springiness is in the plugs).  Seems like a better approach to me.  Power 
outlets here have the springy bits in the outlet,  and the plug is fairly 
solid,  it really should be the other way around.  I have *no* idea what 
they're like in other countries.

> b) "Klinkenstecker" which come in 6.35 mm "banana" variety as well as
> 3.5 and 2.5 mm versions, available both in mono and in stereo. From the
> Doepfer page on the MCV4 midi/cv interface at
> http://www.doepfer.de/mcv4.htm (the previous link in another message was
> wrong---framesets at work again :-(), which has text both in English and
> in German, I gather that the 6.35 mm is 1/4 inches.

It's a little hard for me to tell what I'm looking at in the picture there -- 
too dark.  But I'm guessing that those are using what I'd call "1/4 inch 
phone plugs" (not "phono" :-).  Those are also available in 1/8" size,  which 
would be what you'd find on the external connection points of a typical sound 
card,   and in a smaller size yet (5/32"?) that I have not seen in stereo.  
I'm not sure what the metric sizing on these would be.

> So, which of these two types are Horowitz/Hill talking about when
> discussing "phono jacks"?

Probably the first one.