1/4" headphone jack

[62vauxhall]

I posted in a different thread about getting an Apt Holman pre amp with a busted headphone jack. I have a junker tape deck with such a jack and thought about doing a transplant. Both have 3 wires connected to them but would the jack from the tape deck mute the preamp's output when a plug is inserted?

 

[Lazarus Short]

​It should work if the other jack fits mechanically. The wires should naturally solder to the same place, and that should work fine.

 

[62vauxhall]

I just used jumpers to connect the jack from the tape deck to the headphone jack wires of the pre and it's a no go. When a headphone plug is inserted, signal to the preamp's main outputs should be interrupted but that did not happen.

Although I suspected as much, I just read that some 1/4" jacks have that "switch feature" and some do not. What puzzles me though is that there are 3 wires in the preamp that go the headphone jack and there a 3 on the jack I tried to use but pictures of switched jacks I've now seen have 4 terminals.

Will be visiting the local parts stores. They have those switched jacks so I'll see what they have to say.

 

[Lazarus Short]

You should be able to find something to work. Now I wish I'd saved headphone jacks form dead gear. I'd have a good handful if I had.

 

[62vauxhall]

It seems my concern is unfounded. I just finished reading a Stereo Review test report on this thing and it describes a Mute button which does not affect the headphone amplifier. So that means I can use the jack I removed from the tape deck. That's a good thing since it will fit and is of better quality than those I've seen pictures of.

In my haste to get the front panel off, I did not pay close enough attention to what the switches did. I was wondering how, with a 3 wire connection and a dedicated headphone amplifier, the original headphone jack could possibly kill the preamp's main output. Good to learn that it doesn't and there's no magic involved.