Dimensioned Drawings of Connectors

[willsw]

I enjoy thinking about different ways to accomplish the often-overlapping electromechanical goals of audio devices. Every few years I get to considering electrostatic headphone connectors, and every time I end up finding the same collection of vintage part numbers, shared experiences, and a few useful drawings that can be put together to probably lead to a functional socket or plug, if you want to make one yourself. I appreciate and have used that information, and now I'd like to consolidate it and create some actual specifications to help anyone trying to make a plug or socket. 

The most useful thing to start with would be plug specs. Pin diameter, length, pin circle diameter, and housing outer diameter, in case you want to make a recessed socket. Here's a drawing of a plug I got from Dan Clark (I can't guarantee that it's the same as his current production plugs) and a plug from the Hifiman Jade II. If it would be useful I could make a complete model of both plugs and share the STEP files. Next week I'll be able to add the dimensions for the Audeze CRBN2. Eventually I should be able to measure some Stax plugs.

Found partial catalogs for Cooper and Amphenol 78-S6S socket and 86-71-6S/91MPM-6S plugs, but neither specified pin diameter.

Standard pin diameter seems to be .093" or .094" (2.36-2.38mm), the same size as a 3-pin XLR contact or an octal tube socket pin, or a Size 12 circular connector contact. There is a standard housing layout for #12 contacts that matches the position of a 6-pin Stax plug, arrangement 16-6 or 17-6, but I haven't been able to find any documentation of the pin circle diameter. Neutrik also makes a crimp socket contact, HA-3FXX. 

The threaded socket most commonly used for electrostatic jacks and tube sockets (like this, or these) is good and conceptually simpler to design a housing for, but I would love to find a design guide or get some advice on the right way to make a hole for circular connector contacts or that Neutrik contact. They're probably not easy cavities to machine from a single piece of material, but 3D printing is useful, and I saw some mil-spec circular connectors that appeared to use stacked layers. 

Standard pin circle diameter is . . . something between the .406" (10.31mm) in the Cooper catalog and the .435" (11.05mm) of Kevin Gilmore's socket drawing. The Hifiman plug was closer to the Cooper at ~10.5mm. The Dan Clark plug seemed to match up perfectly with the KG drawing. My estimate of this Viborg socket from their drawing puts it closer to 11mm.

If anyone has any dimensions to share I'd be happy to add them to a single reference PDF. Any other useful application information about connectors would be good to include as well, if anyone has had experiences with pins being too long or too short, or pin-to-pin clearance standards, or other things. Cable-related information would also be valuable. 

 

EstatPlugDimensions.pdf

[simmconn]

I can contribute two data points. Out of the two X9000 era Stax plugs I measured, the pin diameter is within 2.36+/-0.004mm, and the pin circle diameter is about 10.95mm. The pins are not perfectly parallel to each other, and the pin circle diameter is slightly larger at the tips.

[kevin gilmore]

if you take one of the cooper male and stick it into a real stax manufactured socket, you will find the fit extremely tight and you cant stick the plug all the way in. eventually the stax socket cracks.

(queue steve)

my document was created with a real stax plug (actually a few of them) and a very high resolution optical comparator. but 11.05 seems an odd number.  Likely the original spec somewhere inside stax is 11.00 mm.  makes the most sense. the optical comparator read everything out as X and Y which is why the conversion that should be perfect (to at least 4 digits) maybe not so perfect.

 

Edited 11 hours ago by kevin gilmore

[spritzer]

The Hifiman plug has to be treated with the same number of fucks they usually give any of the products... fuck all.  They are still using that fucking spacer as the pins are too long even on the Shagri-la mini... it would probably completely bankrupt Hifiman if they had to pay for a single new mold and find some new pins...  

The real measurement might be on the original SR1, SR2 and SR3 plugs as I believe they are the originals off the shelf part from Sato Parts that Stax simply bought in.