Harman Kardon Citation 17 Pre-Amp Speaker Plug

A little Googling shows that some people thought it was a 5-pin tube base, but that didn't work:

One guy used a six-pin connector on the preamp end, for a Citation 11.

He gave this part number, but it appears to be a 6-pin plug, and Allied doesn't actually sell it:

Newark doesn't show any stock, but says they will have some in a few months:

Cooper's old catalog, with these connectors, is here - see PDF page

31:

Apparently Cooper is now a tentacle of Eaton. You might try asking Eaton if they still make them and where to get them in small quantities. I get the impression, though, that Eaton is really geared to selling thousands or millions at a time to other companies; they may not understand how to sell you just one.

Up through the mid-1980s, Radio Shack branded car stereos had a 5-pin plug that seems to be similar to the one above. I don't *know* if it's the same as what you have, though. It wasn't a DIN plug and I don't think it was a 5-pin tube plug. The 2001 Radio Shack catalog gave part numbers of RSU 11968575 for the plug with wire, and RSU 12025425. (RSU was their mail-order operation.) The 1990 catalog

gives a 5-pin plug with wire part number of 270-041. Radio Shack doesn't sell these anymore, though.

Somebody on Ebay is selling a harness with this 5-pin connector:

If you find an old enough car stereo shop, or get very, very lucky in a junkyard, you might also find one.

Matt Roberds

Matt:

Many thanks for this. I may make a clay model or some such - which would then allow me to cast a plug myself if hard against it.

I was hoping for a definitive answer (silly me for something from 1976 or so). But you have given me an excellent start.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

I have heard of (but not personally done) something like this, for one of those circular multi-pin connectors that a lot of US military gear has. Those connectors only have three or four different pin sizes, but approximately one billion different pin arrangements, shell sizes, keying notches, etc. Somebody needed to connect some equipment *now*, so they bought the individual pins put wires on them, plugged the pins into the female connector one by one, and verified that they had what they wanted. Then they put tape (IIRC) around the threads on the female connector to make a "dam" around the wires+pins, and dumped silicone or some other material in to mold a plug body. The result was a plug that was at least good enough to do testing with, while waiting for Amphenol or whoever to mill them an official plug out of solid unobtainium.

You might use different gauges of solid wire, gently, in the individual pin holes, until you find something that fits well. Or, you might also be able to use the blunt end of various sizes of drill bits to get a good fit; if you have a set that goes by 1/64ths, you have approximately

0.016 inch steps. Once you find a size you like, browse around Digi-Key or Mouser for connector pins of about that size, and try it out.

Matt Roberds

I obtained at our local radio swap (Kutztown, PA) a large coffee can of hobby-brass ends, cuts and culls. I have round, flat and square shapes from a less than 1mm up to about 4mm. I will start there.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Followup:

I was going through some of my old junk valuable antiques and I found a couple of the Realistic/Archer/Radio Shack car stereo plugs. They have five pins, and a keying notch on the outside of the plastic body. If you hold the keying notch at 12 o'clock, the five pins are arranged like this (use a fixed-width font):

• • *

• *

Some measurements I made:

Diameter of plastic body of plug 0.614" 15.6 mm Diameter of each individual pin 0.093" 2.4 mm Length of each individual pin 0.375" 9.5 mm Distance from edge of plastic body to first row 0.213" 5.4 mm Center-to-center spacing of pins on first row 0.295" 7.5 mm Distance from edge of plastic body to third row 0.413" 10.5 mm Center-to-center spacing of pins on third row 0.327" 8.3 mm Second row (one pin) appears to be in the center of the plug

There is no locking mechanism; it just depends on the fit of the pins.

Matt Roberds