willsw

I was talking about the PS2, though if you ask Cardas it's actually the GRFA PS A, the replacement for the discontinued PS2. They told me this last March, but the website still has the PS2, not the PS A. I did get a sample from Cardas and made a footprint for it, but it's untested. I see now that you were talking about the DBL PRT in an earlier post, which I'm very familiar with. Right-angle connectors are certainly much simpler if you're combining XLR and RCA, and I'd probably go with angled if you didn't have a compelling reason for the vertical mount. To achieve a double row using the right-angle version of the AEC/Vampire RCA you can alternate mounting them staggered on the top and bottom of the board, which would also reduce the potential width of your board, given the need for nut-tightening clearance. Not really an issue with a single pair, though. Because of this issue, many manufacturers just wire solder-cup XLRs to the RCA-holding PCB. Since you're trying to avoid the switch wiring and XLRs are very friendly to solder, this may be the easiest option, and the smaller boards are cheaper too. A note on the board you posted earlier - I'd recommend flipping the schematic symbol or rotating the switch so that all the traces are short and direct. You've got a lot of unnecessary length and an unneeded via. The datasheet for any switch should also tell you the height for spacing needs. If you do find a lower-profile switch that you love, really want vertical mount RCAs, but are willing to have XLRs off-board, there is also this style of RCA, which is probably the best suited for being either PCB-mounted or wired separately. If you look up pictures of Denafrips products, you can see them in action. They actually seem to have transitioned between a few standards of mounting them directly on the board and wiring them to the board.

I've always been confused by Vampire Wire and their lack of online presence. I remember a quaint website but it seems like the domain name no longer works. Since I've done a lot of work with this specific RCA, here's the info I have so far, for posterity and reference: They almost certainly had those RCAs made in Taiwan, either by AEC or First Tech, which have different addresses but could also be associated in some way, given that many of their offerings are identical. I've worked with AEC and have had good experiences with their products. I've attached the drawing for their version of this RCA. Center pin is center conductor, off-center pin is ground, the other pins are purely mechanical and not attached to the others. These connectors are usable on the same board as Neutrik vertical-mount XLRs, but you will need to prepare for certain adaptations. I've found a few examples of production components using this connector combination. Kinki Studio has been the most valuable for providing use examples, as they've implemented a few different strategies with both vertical and right-angle versions of these. The first approach is to mount the Neutrik XLR with wider slots in the PCB, so that you can slide the mounting pins through and solder the wider part, allowing a reduction in the height of the XLR. I've done this method and used slots that were 0.75mm x 3.4mm. These seem to work fine. You can cut off the original PCB pin from the XLR. Here's an example of this method. In the bottom right of this image, slightly out of focus, you can see the spacing you'll need for the RCAs. A 5mm spacer measured from the black housing seems to work, or a 7mm LED spacer that will slide over the signal pins, to accommodate the recess. The stability pin will just reach the board and can be soldered to provide a bit of support. I haven't tried the second approach, but if you're willing to give up the stability pins you may be able to use the XLR's normal pins. Here's an example from Kinki, and here's a shot kinda showing the increased spacing. I think I remember that the Cardas vertical RCAs were a better length for matching the XLRs, but price is a thing and you'll also need to measure it yourself before making any boards, as their online documentation is not guaranteed to be accurate. p_151229_05831 (5).pdf

Thanks for letting me know about those pins. I'll let you know what happens with the project.

That's useful, thank you. I have gone through a few threads found here and around about making the jack, but the part that will probably be most difficult and requiring measurement is machining the female pins. I suppose it could be cheaper to inversely determine things by using a plug as the model.

I'm considering getting some custom Stax-style jacks made and thinking that the most reliable way would be to get the measurements from an actual Stax jack. There are some cheap 5-pin electret amps out there that I wouldn't mind paying to possibly destroy, so I'm wondering: is that socket exactly the same as the Pro 5-pin?

For anyone in the DC area, after Axpona this weekend we'll have them indefinitely at LTA/Urban HiFi, and I'll bring them to any meets in the area. Post-Axpona update: Dan needed the set for shows and will replace it with an earlier revision that is still useful to us in development, but I'll need to check about whether they would be a reliable demo pair.