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Comment by daurnimator | Hacker News Reader

Isn't DB25 the old standard printer port? Its quite common.

And has been used as a connector for multichannel audio by several manufacturers (mostly in recording gear), but with several different pin out arrangements.

Yeah, definitely remember wiring up DB-25 breakout cables a few years ago when I was helping a fledging recording studio wire up their new console into their Pro Tools system.

Yep - it's pretty common in the pro audio industry to use DB-25 cables for 8 channels of balanced audio (+, -, gnd per channel). They'll break out to 8x XLR or 8x TRS (1/4" headphone plug) connectors. It's used way more in the studio world than the live production world, since DB-25 is far from rugged enough to go on the road.

I recall that my challenge at the time was getting one with the correct configuration. The first one I got in 2007 was a dud for my setup; it was an 8 channel RCA one which was the only I could find at that time, adapters were involved (sound card at that time had minijacks) and I hoped I'd just be able to leave the other two channels unused. That turned out to not be the case.

I tried again in 2008 and scored with a (hopefully) proper 6 channel one from TheCableCo. It cost me a staggering US$168 shipped to Australia, so my joy was near endless when it just plugged straight in and worked. After that I upgraded to the Xonar sound card which took straight RCA inputs.

Yeah, true! I had forgotten those. Helps explain their choice.

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