Help identifying Digital output that may or may not be proprietary, pic included.

[ErinH]

Okay, so background info. Alpine electronics has just released a new multimedia headunit called the iva-w505. Alot of you who are into car electronics probably know that Alpine has always had optical toslink out on their h/u's. Well, this year they've changed it. Right now no one knows for sure or not if this new connection is proprietary (meaning that I'd need a special cable/converter box made by Alpine) or if there's a cable out that has this connector on one end, and toslink on the other.

Picture is below. The digital jack is the copper one with 4 pins, in the lower RH side w/ the two white plugs adjacent.
http://hometown.aol.com/AudioZach/DSCN1904.JPG


Anyone have any ideas what this could be? As I said, this is new, and this could be proprietary. Just thought I'd ask here to see if anyone may know of a cable like this.

 

[TLS Guy]

Okay, so background info. Alpine electronics has just released a new multimedia headunit called the iva-w505. Alot of you who are into car electronics probably know that Alpine has always had optical toslink out on their h/u's. Well, this year they've changed it. Right now no one knows for sure or not if this new connection is proprietary (meaning that I'd need a special cable/converter box made by Alpine) or if there's a cable out that has this connector on one end, and toslink on the other.

Picture is below. The digital jack is the copper one with 4 pins, in the lower RH side w/ the two white plugs adjacent.
http://hometown.aol.com/AudioZach/DSCN1904.JPG




Anyone have any ideas what this could be? As I said, this is new, and this could be proprietary. Just thought I'd ask here to see if anyone may know of a cable like this.

It looks like an old Heater/HT plug off a vintage amp, but I bet it's not. It is not optical and has four pins, so I doubt you could use just a cable with different ends. Do you know to what standard that signal is? AEU SPDIF is only three pins. I bet that is something they cooked up. If it is that is a good reason not to use their products.

 

[MDS]

It looks similar to a DIN jack - like the ones you find on the subwoofer of a computer speaker system.

 

[ErinH]

It looks like an old Heater/HT plug off a vintage amp, but I bet it's not. It is not optical and has four pins, so I doubt you could use just a cable with different ends. Do you know to what standard that signal is? AEU SPDIF is only three pins. I bet that is something they cooked up. If it is that is a good reason not to use their products.

yea, a few of us on diyma (diy mobile audio) are speculating that. My unit will arrive tomorrow and I'll be able to look at the manual, but currently no one has any idea since this unit was just released Friday and I'll be the first on that forum to get it.

It does piss me off royally that they've (apparently) moved to a proprietary connection. ESPECIALLY considering how the processor that is made to go with all their 'top of the line' units has an optical toslink connection. now they go and change the standard on this unit and it seems as though we will be made to buy a new adapter. BS!

It looks similar to a DIN jack - like the ones you find on the subwoofer of a computer speaker system.

hhmmm. Do you have a link? Would this be digital?



I probably wouldn't have even asked about this, but I figured if anyone knew it would be the guys here.

 

[MDS]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_connector

 

[Seth=L]

The plug pictured has for pin holes in a square, I have never seen a DIN like that.

Erin, have you contacted Alpine? Alpine does several "proprietary" connectors unfortunately. Yettitheman, another member here at AH, has an Alpine CD deck in his car and it requires some specific adapter for something he was needing that was only available through Alpine.

 

[ErinH]

The plug pictured has for pin holes in a square, I have never seen a DIN like that.

Erin, have you contacted Alpine? Alpine does several "proprietary" connectors unfortunately. Yettitheman, another member here at AH, has an Alpine CD deck in his car and it requires some specific adapter for something he was needing that was only available through Alpine.

I'll call them up sometime tomorrow and find out.

Thanks for the effort, guys.

 

[MDS]

The plug pictured has for pin holes in a square, I have never seen a DIN like that.

Me either but the Wikipedia page shows a lot of different variations with differing number of pins. The only thing that looks different is the location of the slot for the key on the connector. The alpine deck appears to have 4 such slots but since the jack is round that won't matter as you can rotate the connector so that the key fits into any one of those slots.

 

[ErinH]

Got a hold of the manual. It's a proprietary cable, sure enough.

HOWEVER, a guy on the forum recalled a particular cable Panasonic made a while back and supplied us with a part #.

I did some searching around and found this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-JQRsZRKgfZ3/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=133CALRD60


I found it in a forum where they were discussing using Pioneer's P9 combo with alpine's h701 processor- basically the same situation I'm in. 4-pin on the P9 and toslink on the h701.

I found the cable on e-bay for $99. I offered him $45+shipping. Lowball, I know. I'm going to wait for a reply from the e-bay seller and if they offer a good price I'll be the guinea pig.

 

[kicknsupra]

The plug pictured has for pin holes in a square, I have never seen a DIN like that.

Erin, have you contacted Alpine? Alpine does several "proprietary" connectors unfortunately. Yettitheman, another member here at AH, has an Alpine CD deck in his car and it requires some specific adapter for something he was needing that was only available through Alpine.

yeah me to i just got a older high end alpine deck and i have to get a adapter so i can run a i pod

 

[ErinH]

yeah me to i just got a older high end alpine deck and i have to get a adapter so i can run a i pod

Hope its not the kca-420i adapter... that thing is a PITA!