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Old 13th Sep 2020, 9:11 pm   #1
Lancs Lad
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Default DIN sockets and leads.

I'm thinking back about 40 years now. We had a Fidelity auto-change record player, with two separate stereo speakers.

Yes! I know now that it was absolutely awful audio equipment, bought on the never-never from my Mother's catalogue (Grattan, if anyone remembers!)

But at the time we all thought it was cutting edge and quite swish!

It had a 5 pin DIN socket on the rear panel, and I was fascinated because my little Sharp shoebox cassette recorder had a matching socket.

I became obsessed with wanting a lead that would plug into both these sockets, and I would magically be able to play my Abba tapes really loud and in stereo!

Sadly, when I eventually got a DIN lead, it didn't work.

So what were DIN connections supposed to do? I'm guessing phono connections have superceded DINs? Or am I wrong?

At least phono plugs and sockets do the job.
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Last edited by Lancs Lad; 13th Sep 2020 at 9:35 pm.
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Old 13th Sep 2020, 9:30 pm   #2
OscarFoxtrot
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Default Re: DIN sockets and leads.

Din connectors were supposed to do exactly that, but there were both straight-through and cross-over leads.
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Old 13th Sep 2020, 9:43 pm   #3
duncanlowe
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Default Re: DIN sockets and leads.

DIN (as in Deutsche Industrie Norm) was a standard for the connectors as opposed to the leads. There was a bit of standardisation regarding what pin did what, but not a true standard for leads.
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Old 13th Sep 2020, 10:04 pm   #4
1100 man
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Default Re: DIN sockets and leads.

Hi Peter,
DIN has always been a bit of a pain! There are lots of different plug & socket configurations for starters, but 5 pin 180 degree ended up as fairly standard.

Two of the pins are inputs (left & right channel or joined if mono) to a piece of equipment, the middle of the 5 pins is ground and the other two pins are outputs from a piece of equipment.

It depends on the equipment as to whether it's DIN socket is meant for input or output or both!

If the Fidelity was only a record player, it was probably an output to feed a signal to a tape recorder. If the Fidelity was a music centre with a tape recorder, it's DIN socket was probably for input and output.

Single phono sockets are so much simpler as you can easily work out which way the signal is going!

Hope that helps!
All the best
Nick
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Old 13th Sep 2020, 10:07 pm   #5
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: DIN sockets and leads.

Pity we didn't have the forum 40 years ago, we could have helped.

When I wanted to transcribe a reel to reel tape to my digital recorder

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I wasn't 100% sure of the pinout plus I couldn't find a DIN plug
My solution involved panel-pins that were a perfect fit, and allowed scope for experimentation.

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Old 13th Sep 2020, 10:27 pm   #6
dave walsh
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Default Re: DIN sockets and leads.

Yes I used panel pins as well Rambo on various bits of kit. It seemed obvious-much better than sticking a wire in at random and easier to manage as you say. Just find the output /input! It's not HT voltage after all. I never knew there was such a variety of 360 degree options and wasn't concerned about finding the "correct" plug [even if I'd known there was one] It took me years to discover that there were even different layouts in different machines. I don't think they did it on purpose of course. It probably seemed like a very good idea at the time.

Dave
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