Robot-Party! At the intersection of hacking, diy, and popular culture

Saturday, July 24, 2010

I usually like to put a little more time between posts, but this little victory deserves to be posted...

If there's one thing about technology that I really can't stand, it's proprietary connections... They're the worst, around! (in a Joe Esposito sort of way). I've encountered proprietary AC adapters for notebooks and LCD monitors, proprietary video plugs, proprietary audio cables, you name it! But recently, I had to deal with something that really takes the cake... Something so insidious, so evil...so... unnecessary! I discovered... a proprietary speaker wire.

Here's how it all went down...

I recently salvaged a Sony DAV-C450: it's an older 5.1 receiver... Anyhow, as I was hooking it up I found that one of the speaker wires seemed to be missing... No big deal (or, so I thought) until I took a glance at the back of the receiver and noticed this...

When you see it, you will... wait - how does that go again?

Ye gods... the horror of it all! A proprietary plug just for a standard set of speakers! Dammit Sony, how am I not surprised?! And of course, just to add insult to injury, on the speaker-end there's regular spring clips... /facepalm.

A few searches later, I had found others in a similar situation, but no solution...

I figured I'd check the Sony site to to see how much a replacement wire would cost... how bad could it be, right?

Well, this bad: $30 + tax and shipping! lol I was glad I hadn't taken that sip of coffee...

It became obvious that it was time to take a closer look at the plug itself...

Looks sorta familiar...

... and that's when it hit me. The spare quick connects remaining from the DIY Arcade stick!

A 22-18 AWG .110 insulated female solderless quick (dis)connect terminal. These guys are commonly available in bulk from electrical component and arcade parts suppliers.

Putting it all together

So, take...

A piece of extra speaker wire

and...

A bag of quick disconnect adapters.

+ Some splicing and crimping =

....Voila!

The quick connects fit around the outer sides of the pins quite perfectly, without any modification needed.

But does it work?

Yup!

This should probably work with (among others) the following systems as well as with the DAV-C450:

DAV-DX155

DAV-DX255

DAV-DX315

DAV-HDX589W

DAV-S400

HCD-DX375

HCD-HDX465
HDX267W

Enjoy!

photo credit: supremevictory.com

Labels: proprietary, sony

posted by Marcus at 9:24 PM

28 Comments:

<< back home

Post a Comment

At June 18, 2012 at 10:55 PM, llahman00 said........

I just moved into a house that has pre-wired 16 awg CM/CL2 wire for a home theater, but I have a Sony DAV-HDX267W, so I'm stuck with their stupid proprietary plugs. I should be able to connect the existing wiring on the speaker end easy enough, but I think I'll have to try your method for the connections to the back of the unit. I shouldn't run into any issues with copper vs. dissimilar metals with this connection method, right?

At June 19, 2012 at 8:13 PM, Marcus said........

Hey! Thanks for your question. From what I've gathered, you shouldn't have any issue with the differing metals - just make sure you observe your wire polarity (of course!) and you should be fine.

Let us know how it goes,

Good luck!
M.

At June 19, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Marcus said........

At June 23, 2012 at 7:18 PM, Anonymous said........

Holy hell! I've been looking for a solution to this for days, and I was trying to think of what I could use so I didn't have to drop $20 on ebay. Oh, and the people selling them on Ebay are away so you can't buy them anyway. Genius! Thanks for posting, really helped out!

At August 25, 2012 at 2:44 PM, Anonymous said........

Could you post a video?

At August 27, 2012 at 7:34 PM, Anonymous said........

This may be the best thing since sliced bread! I hope you are still using this site because I am with the last guy, I would like to see a video to see how that works/looks on the back of the system. Oh yeah, Sony quoted me $70 for the replacement! Sweet sassy malassy!

At August 27, 2012 at 7:42 PM, Marcus said........

Hey guys - Sorry to be so inactive with the site - I'll try to get something posted tonight - thanks so much for your questions - so glad to help!

M.

At December 12, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Anonymous said........

Works great. Bought the female connects at Radioshack for 2 dollars, and everything works great. Thanks for the info.

At December 15, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Tarek said........

awesome! = )

At January 20, 2013 at 6:35 AM, Anonymous said........

Great info bought a slightly used system at a Estate Sale, and one of the "clips" were missing off the Subwoofer. This solved my problem cheap & effortless thanks.

At January 23, 2013 at 11:14 PM, Anonymous said........

Ok any ideas for the DAV-HDX465?

At January 24, 2013 at 12:29 AM, Marcus said........

Hey! I'm pretty sure it's the same deal for the DAV-HDX465... Same connections on the back as far as I can tell... Hope this helps! Check out the follow-up post here for more details on the process... http://www.robot-party.com/2012/08/hey-been-while.html

At March 4, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Anonymous said........

I love this post! I hate the fact that Sony does this and I am in the same predicament. I am off to Radio Shack to give it a try. Thanks!

At June 6, 2013 at 8:41 AM, A.L. Smith said........

Awesome! I'v been searching for a method to upgrade the dental floss wore the original speakers come with. anyone know of 14/16 AWG female quick disconnects fit/ work?

At December 28, 2013 at 10:07 AM, Diane said........

Can these connections from theh Sony DAV C450 be afdapted for other tuners using thiese connections you showed?

At December 31, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Marcus said........

Hi Diane,

Probably not - though I'm not sure why you'd want them to - the whole issue is that the Sony receivers use a proprietary connector (which we're circumventing by using the quick connect tabs). Depending upon their age, most receivers would generally just accept speaker wire: either through a hole with a spring clip, or a threaded pole with a bolt, etc. As long as the wire makes contact you're good. What receiver are you dealing with? Hope this helps, and thanks for your question!
M.

At May 30, 2014 at 10:09 PM, Anonymous said........

Thanks for this tip. I am so sick of these f#$% mega companies nickel and diming us for everything. Off to radio shack I go.

At June 9, 2014 at 6:20 PM, Anonymous said........

Hi will this work for the Dav-dz830w? Thanks.

At January 7, 2015 at 3:32 PM, Anonymous said........

I can do better than that! A 12V female Molex connector that you can find for pennies in any PC shop has round sockets EXACTLY the right size to be a snug fit over the pins in the hi-fi. Break the plastic cover to get the connectors out, then just join the wire to your speaker cable.

At April 1, 2016 at 4:58 PM, Unknown said........

Thanks very much for your post

At April 12, 2016 at 7:31 PM, Sugar & Artie from az said........

We have been ripping our hair out with this problem. Bought wires online but wasn't the right set. Showed this to my husband duh he said . Something so simple. If this works we owe you drinks & a happy home. Thanks

At June 6, 2016 at 1:45 PM, Unknown said........

Hi I used female molex connectors just stuck some connector blocks on them

At August 28, 2016 at 8:55 AM, Anonymous said........

I have the Sony Compact AV system DAV-C900 (S-Master 5.1ch Full Digital Amplifier). I have had someone looking into obtaining speaker wires with the correct connectors for over a month. After looking at the picture of your speaker/amplifier I believe your method will work with my system. Has anyone tried it on the DAV C-900? I just moved into a house and don't want to buy a new system just yet.

At September 27, 2016 at 7:55 AM, Anonymous said........

Thanks, works great on a KS 360

At November 3, 2016 at 12:35 PM, Technically challenged said........

I have a Sony HCD-C700 that has the 5 cd/dvd player and had the speakers wired to the living room area about 10 years ago. With al the new technologyavailable, I no longer need the DVD player but want to keep the surround sound system. The new systems don't have the same hookup, most are hdmi or other , you have any suggestions on what component would be compatible?

At December 5, 2016 at 1:23 PM, Anonymous said........

I found that 2Way AMP Mate 'n Lock plug shells loaded with socket contacts work well in my DAV-S500 speaker connections. These cost pennies. You have to cut off the latches, easy with a sharp knife, then they are a perfect fit. Slight downside is they are not polarised, but one side of the crimp shrouds are flattened so easy to identify.

At January 11, 2018 at 2:29 PM, Unknown said........

Thank you so much for this hack. It works great on my Sony Dav-S500.

At February 12, 2019 at 3:27 PM, Anonymous said........

Thanks a lot! The molex approach works perfect on the Sony DAV-DZ500F I salvaged.

Twitter Updates