RCA jack Standards

[hermitcrab]

I have noticed on any Fisher equipment from the 60's that the RCA jacks installed are not the same as today's RCA jacks.. they are closer together and the center pin is about a MM thicker than today's plugs which makes it difficult to make a good connection ...it is almost impossible to plug them inside by side... the outside jackets will not fit side by side unless you physically shave down the outer jacket... and to get a good center connection I stuff a small piece of aluminum foil into the center hole otherwise the connection is hit or miss ... has anyone else noticed this?... I thought a RCA jack was a RCA jack ... until I started working on these fishers ...

[Ken Doyle]

One thing that I've noticed is that very old RCA plugs have a longer center pin that can sometimes short or damage newer equipment.

[TC Chris]

As to the fit, the standard early RCA plug was bare metal, soldered onto a metal braid shield. None of this fancy plastic-covered gimmickry that we are so used to. One of my older units had the stereo jacks so close together that I had to shave the plastic on the plugs with a knife so they would fit in together.

And as to center-pin length, in some cases on early hi-fi devices the length of the pin selected for the amount of gain--line-level or mic, for example.

Chris Campbell

[Ken Doyle]

in some cases on early hi-fi devices the length of the pin selected for the amount of gain--line-level or mic, for example.

I've seen that with 1/4" phone plugs, for example the Revere T-1100 tape recorder, but I've never seen it with RCA phono plugs.