2. analog
  3. 1242943783

DIN to RCA adapter

I want to burn-in a phono cable by using it as a SE IC between my CDp and preamp.

The phono cable I want to burn-in terminates with a 5 pin female DIN at one end and a pair of male RCAs at the other.  I have been told that I can build a home grown cheapo adapter using zip cord and a Radio Shack DIN.

So, I would need an inexpensive cable that terminates at one end in a pair of male RCAs.  I can cut-off the other end (whatever it is) and solder on a male 5 pin DIN.  
 
Does it matter which of the 5 pins on the DIN are soldered to which wire coming from the RCAs?  Most "zip cord" has just two wires, so I would be soldering at two of the five pins.

Any help (or suggestions) would be appreciated.

Brent
flyfish2002
flyfish2002's avatar
flyfish2002 OP
94 posts
 
Thanks for all the very helpful advice. Since I don't have the connectors Thom used, two additional questions re: the alligator clips:

1. My home grown IC will have two alligator clips at one end and two male RCAs at the other. Do I combine the two right leads (red and green), clipping them together using the right alligator clip and then do the same for the two left leads (blue and white)?

2. When I connect the alligator clips, I don't want to crush the tone arm wire terminations - any thoughts here?

Thanks.

Brent
rauliruegas
13,129 posts
 
Dear Brent: I don't know which tonearm cable you own and what cartridge. Trying several and differents tonearm cables ones of them were RCA to RCA where is very easy to make what you want and I did with out almost no advantage against a non-burn cable after 40-50 hours of use maybe a little more.

If I was you I will run that tonearm cable in normal use and don't take all those effort that you need to burm-in to obtain almost nothing because the cable after those normal play hours will be on target.

Anyway your call.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
flyfish2002's avatar
flyfish2002 OP
94 posts
 
Raul,

Thanks for the post. The tone arm is a Graham 1.5TC, the cartridge is a Clearaudio Stradivari and the phono cable is Silver Audio's Silver Breeze DIN to RCA.

Brent
dgarretson
2,623 posts
 
Brent, These pins will mate directly to the cartridge clips. In DIY I use high-quality gold-over-copper male/female Bulgin pins in various sizes for intrachassis connections.

http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?SKU=565-0058&MPN=SA3350/1
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Brent,

Two connections for alligator or Dgarretson's pins is not correct.

When you cut one RCA off of the cheap pair the cable will likely be a coax design. The center conductor is positive the shield is negative. Solder to all four and you have plus and minus left channel and plus and minus right channel.

If you use my alligator clip idea, connect to the four headshell lead following colors red, green, white and blue (as outlined by Thom @ Galibier).

Same thing with Dgarretson's idea, but you use the tidy pins he linked to so you don't have alligators. Either way the signal passes through all wire at once and as Thom says, even the wire in the tonearm benefits from run in.
More to discover