3 pin German audio Plug identification

[high_vacuum_house]

Good afternoon,
Does anyone recognise this 3 pin German audio plug which is used on Tefifon equipment remote controls and the high impedance audio input? A 4mm banana plug is shown as a size reference. It fits nicely into the 2 round inputs, but gets stuck when getting it out!!

The nice little tag states "Insert the plug into the connection sockets for the remote control"

The little label on the plug had "OBEN" (or top!) on one side otherwise the remote control works backwards if plugged in upside down!!

Many thanks,
Christopher Capener

[vidjoman]

Common on Philips tape recorders for inputs and outputs and other makes before the switch to DIN sockets.

[emeritus]

I don't know the name, but they were often found on Philips stuff in the 1950's and 60's, and plugs used to be readily available in the UK. Extract from the KJ Enterprises catalogue for 1969-70 attached.

[Reelman]

They haven't been used for years so are difficult to find. Don't know if they had a unique name but try a request in the wanted section.
Good luck!
Peter

[high_vacuum_house]

Good evening,
That one at "104" definetly looks correct. I have no idea what the "official" name would be for it!!

I was looking for one to make up an adaptor to connect a Tefifon player without an amplifier to another one which does have an amplifier and this plug would make doing this easy without resorting to modify the player with "modern" phono type sockets.

Christopher Capener

[paulsherwin]

You may find something on German eBay, though not knowing what it's actually called in Germany is obviously a problem.

[Buzby123]

Just an idea, a bit off-the-wall, but maybe worth a try ...

Take a photo of just the plug, then drop it into Google image search.

I've used this technique when trying to find the name of small metal woodwork fixings.

[emeritus]

I have a vague recollection of the pin spacing being the same as the continental 2 pin 6A mains plugs with 4mm pins that I encountered in France and Spain in the 1970's. The centre pin would have prevented insertion into a mains socket, as well as providing discrimination between flat and round centre pin sockets, with the potential to operate a switch. If so, a modern 2.5A europlug would fit, although would not operate any switch that might need to be operated by the centre pin.

[bluepilot]

Try searching for
TEFI KC 1 Kabelfernbedienung
on German Ebay. May be useful.
TEFI KC 1
on English Ebay seems to work as well.

[wd40addict]

Looks identical to the one fitted to my Philips leads, plug itself appears to be made by Hirshmann. They also make an appearance as the pickup input on my Blaupunkt Santos, where in a fit of even greater insanity it's a live chassis set with no isolation capacitors and relied on using a 2 core screened lead with the screen connected to the centre pin! A conventional single core coax wired only to the outer pins would be potentially lethal!

On Philips gear a 4mm Deltron plug fits with no problems.

[Richardgr]

There is one here ...
Tradera: Contacts for AG 9015 and more

£20 approx.

[Richard_FM]

Interestingly, this style of plug doesn't seem to be listed here: https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Overview.html

[DMcMahon]

Is that because the Museum is primarily showing mains voltage plugs and sockets, whereas the connector in question is primarily for signal (audio) voltages ?

David

[Richard_FM]

OK I see.

[roffe]

They were called "Tonabnehmerstecker".

[DMcMahon]

A little bit on the connector here in the German Wikipedia -

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b4516...dGVja2Vy&ntb=1

It initially describes them as 2 pin then goes on to say the third rectangular centre pin was added for stereo. It also refers to Lautsprecherstecker (speaker plug) which basically sounds the same.

Still somewhat surprised that there is not a more generic name for the connector type, like DIN, Phono, Cinch, RCA, XLR, TRS, Jack etc.

David

[Reelman]

I think that they had a short active life before European manufacturers went over to the DIN plugs and sockets that we have all come to love.
Some Philips machines that used them wired them in parallel with a DIN socket so that you could use either.

If I have a socket on a piece of kit then I have to have a matching plug…. Whether I will ever use it or not! Consequently I did manage to find one eventually on eBay but only because there was a bunch of miscellaneous cables with one on sold with a tape recorder I really wanted.

Peter

[emeritus]

Thanks for the German Wiki link. It does confirm my recollection that it has the same dimensions as the 2.5A Euro mains plug, namely 4mm diameter pins on 19mm pitch, and says that the centre pin could be removed on stuff where no connection was present at the centre pin position of the socket and the outer pins were used for mono.

Possibly the similar loudspeaker plug was the type 111 plug shown in the KJ catalogue extract (#3).

[DMcMahon]

The 111 plug is 3 round pins.

My interpretation (which may be slightly flawed) of the translated German text is that both the Tonabnehmerstecker (Pick up plug) and the Lautsprecherstecker (speaker plug) originally were 2 pins but later had the middle rectangular third pin added.

So if correct then both types would be the 104 type/style as stated in Post 5.

David

[DMcMahon]

Originally Posted by Reelman

If I have a socket on a piece of kit then I have to have a matching plug…. Whether I will ever use it or not!

Peter

Yes I am the same and I am still trying to find a 5 rectanglar pins inline plug for one of my Philips machines, # 112 from Post 3.

David