[headphickle]

I was curious what connectors people are using for power umbilicals between PSU and amps. I wanted to try the Neutrik Speakon like Katsaounis at Rockhopper but was unsure which specific one to pick. The four pole is right, correct? How would it be wired? Would I ever need to consider any electrical issues in using a very short regular AC power cable? Thanks for your help on this.

 

[rickcr42]

The Nuetriks are high current connectors and way overkill for the low voltage/low current power of an opamp based headphone amp.

Way cheaper and to be honest way better performing at this level is a sinple 5-Pin DIN jack/plug using 24 AWG as the intervening wire.Top level no holds barred for low current DC would be a LEMO jack/plug assembly,even the all plastic pin-carrier shell models.do a "google" to bring up the specs and sources

the Nuetrik is "all show and no go" in this type of application



*opions vary obviously but what "looks" good is not always a good choice and in fact can even be a very expensive piss poor choice when the use of actually limits performance

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

I always use screw in microphone type connectors. They are about the best commonly available connector for this purpose. Available in at least 2,4, or 5 pins. I use a two pin for a STEPS/PPA and four pin for +/-/gnd, and one can also use the many pinned variants so that you can set your system up so that it is impossible to connect something to the wrong power supply. I cannot stand the tacky DC plugs commonly used, and a DIN plug is very little better.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...=&SUBCATID=325

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...=&SUBCATID=325

 

[creyc]

Nice suggestion francis. In that line of thinking, how about the more common XLR type jacks found on your typical mixing board/microphone/DMX light controller/professionally used interconnects/I'll stop now.

Like these. But one side a socket, obviously.

 

[amb]

One thing of consideration is to avoid using a connector type that could be confused for its function. Obviously, this means not using AC wall power receptacles or the common XLR connectors (someone, someday, might just plug a balanced interconnect cable in there and risk damage).

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

Absolutely. Never for a moment think of passing power in a 3 pin XLR, 3.5mm phono, 6mm phono, RCA, etc. I figure the microphone connectors are reasonably safe as their real use (microphones for tranceivers) is likey to be quite distinct from audio use.

An evil trick you can pull is to use a connector with more pins than you need, cut one (or two) off, and then block the corresponding hole(s) up. Allows for a very large number of incompatible plug/socket pairings that are also incompatible with any other device.

 

[MASantos]

I used microphone connectors for mine, the 4 pole ones since those are the only localy available. I used starquad as the cable using 2 conductors for + and theother 2 for ground. I removed two of the female thingies from the connector and will remove the two pins in the male jack. Coverred the connector with heatshrink and made a nice looking DC power cable.

 

[Garbz]

Francis if the microphone ones you're talking about are the ones i'm thinking of then there's many variants manufactured by Amphenol including environmentally safe connectors. These may seem like overkill but at the factory where I work we've recently replaced all of the standard screw in mic type connectors with environmental ones and they are very high quality indeed. The old ones didn't withstand the abuse they were given. The last thing you also want is a single pole to dislodge and have opamps dump the resulting rail imbalance as DC on their output.

The criteria should be polarised, not easily mistakeable for the wrong plug, and indestructable.

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

Well if you really do demand simply the best - yup, go browse the Amphenol or AMP catalogues.

They will have exactly what you need. But getting one easily might be a bit harder. I just drove down to Jaycar and bought what I needed. If I were assembling an order to Digikey I might look to a more perfect for purpose (as opposed to simply fit for purpose) connector.

I assume you meant something like these:
http://www.amphenol.co.uk/pdf/amphenol%20608.pdf

 

[rickcr42]

I like the Amphenols for HV connections but prefer to go with the Lemos/redels for low voltage.That they are specced for military duty (as are the Amphenols) would be a plus alone but hospital duty goes to serious contact integrity and low failure rates.Screw up in the mediacl industry and folks die and why so many things we take for granted in audio have really come over from this industry.

Metal : http://www.lemousa.com/browse.do?pag...CollectionID=M

Plastic (just as good for LV) : http://www.lemousa.com/browse.do?pag...CollectionID=P

 

[rickcr42]

BTW-Check this out.Get ready to be impressed

javascript

penWindow('url:/products/connector/animation.jsp','name

ush_pull_animation','width:7 00', 'height:500', 'res');

 

[rickcr42]

Shoot ! Java script

Try this then click the "push-pull latching" link

http://www.lemousa.com/products/connector/index.jsp

 

[guzzler]

I use these

http://www.rapidelectronics.co.uk/rk...1994&XPAGENO=5

 

[luvdunhill]

ah old thread, but a suitable place for my question:

I am in the need of an umbilical for a project and would like to use the Neutrik SpeakOn connectors. My needs are of the dual-mono variety... positive, negative, and ground times two. I am passing unregulated DC at the tune of +-30V between two chassis. I'm trying to decide whether or not to use a 8-pole for everything SpeakOn, or two 4-pole and separate out the channels. I was thinking Cardas Crosslink for the cable, which has a 4 or 8 conductor version, but a bit tricky to source, other than THLAudio... I'm open to other ideas! What would you do? I suppose the two connectors looks cooler to some...

Similarly, I don't see any reason to have two power inlets, other than it looks kinda neat... I have two toroids and was just planning on hooking them up to the same IEC inlet, unless there's a good reason not to... again, what would you do?

Thanks!

 

[luvdunhill]

^^ bump ^^

I'm now considering using two runs of Cardas Crosslink 1s and two 4-pole SpeakOn connectors between the two chassis. I'd have +30,-30,GND,chassis on each of the wires.

I'm still on the fence with the two power inlets, as I'm not sure if it's safe or dangerous, etc. or whether or not it even makes sense...

Thanks!