Blog 27 | All about DB25 pinouts



January 8, 2024 - Posted by Mash Maximus

This week we will talk about DB25 pinouts. This will be a short but hopefully invaluable to anyone looking for DB25 cables.

We posted another blog a few weeks ago that contained a section on DB25 cables, their history, uses, differences etc. This week, we are going to look at DB25 pinouts. This can be a pain point for many users of DB25 equipped devices as there are still many devices out there that utilize different pinouts for different applications. The good news is that many manufacturers are ditching bespoke or unique pinouts and sticking with one protocol. This article is meant to help those who have slightly older devices or devices that still use multiple pinouts.

To refresh our memories, DB25s are a trapezoidal connectors used for multi-channel applications, whether it be analog or digital audio. These types of connectors are often found on the back of interfaces, multi-channel mic preamps, summing mixers, consoles, patchbays, multi-channel converters and even some 500-series chassis. If you have a multi-channel system of any kind you have interacted with a DB25 connection.

Some analog DB25 applications are:
Almost all analog DB25 applications use the Tascam or AES59 protocol. This is what the pinout looks like:



You will notice that Pin13 is n/c or “not connected”. If you purchase any Analog DB25 cables from Pro Audio LA, you will find pin 13 missing. This is intentional. We hand crimp our Gold plated pins and therefore choose to leave out the unused pin. Its also a quick way for us to identify a DB25 pinout!
Now, there are some surround and immersive audio applications that utilize a Tascam pinout with Ch 1-8 corresponding to Left, Centre, Right, Rear Right, Rear Centre, Rear Left, Subwoofer etc. That said, most surround pinouts follow different protocols, like Datasat, which looks very similar to a Tascam DB25 pinout but is not the same.



If you are trying to connect the DB25 connection on your surround processor, please contact the manufacturer of the processor or reference the user manual for pinout verification. If you do not have access to either, please talk to our cable ninjas so we can help guide you to the right place.
AES/EBU and digital pinouts:

This is the tricky one. Currently, there are still 2 basic pinouts used for AES/EBU applications.

Tascam AES59 (just like the analog pinout) and Yamaha.

The main difference between the analog and digital versions of the Tascam pinout is how the channels are divided. In the analog application, a Tascam pinout cable transmits or receives analog audio sequentially through Channels 1-8. In its digital variant, the 8 physical channels on the DB25 are split into 4 differential inputs and 4 differential outputs. This usually means that physical channels 1-4 are the inputs while physical channels 5-8 are the outputs. When connecting 2 AES/EBU devices to each other, a Tascam crossover cable must be used where the outputs from one side have been “crossed over” to the inputs on the other side. The Tascam AES59 pinout is commonly used by brands like Avid, Universal Audio, RME, Dangerous, Focusrite, Burl, Merging Technologies and many others for their AES/EBU connections.

A Yamaha pinout, as you can see is a completely different pinout and signal transmission protocol. This pinout was and is still heavily utilized in Yamaha products (for obvious reasons) as well as Apogee, Lynx, SSL, Sony and Mackie for their AES connections. Find Yamaha pinout cables HERE.


If you have multiple devices from different manufacturers and want to connect one which utilizes a Tascam pinout for AES to another device that uses the Yamaha pinout for its AES connections, we have got you covered! Find Tascam to Yamaha crossover cables HERE.

Pro Audio LA's team of cable ninjas pray to the cable gods for a day when all manufacturers will switch to one protocol and stick with it for many generations. A not unsubstantial amount of time we spend when helping our clients with finding the right cables is digging through internet archives to dig up pinouts, sometimes mindlessly obscure. That said, we are happy to do it because being able to make a custom cable that allows someone to use an older or obscure piece of equipment brings us joy. Plus its one less piece of electronic hardware that ends up in a landfill. Talk to us about your custom pinouts. We have seen some wild ones over the years!