Galaxy Audio JIB/S Jack In The Box Signal Splitter

We needed a simple 2-way split from a line level stage output to multiple headphone monitor amplifiers. After debating about building the equivalent of these, I decided my time was worth more than their reasonable cost and purchased instead. They have worked out well for our application so far. The jacks are 3-wire stereo (TRS) but the unit will work equally well when used in a 2-wire mono (TS) installation. The enclosure itself is metal and is well constructed, with rubber feet to protect the surface it's sitting on. The jacks themselves are less impressive - I opened one of the units and found five plastic bodied jacks designed for PCB mounting, but there is no PCB! Instead, three lengths of bus wire (looks like #20 or #22 AWG) bridge the tip, ring, and sleeve connections of the jacks in a simple parallel arrangement. As the jacks were designed for circuit board mounting, there aren't even any holes in the terminals to insure a solid mechanical connection. The manufacturer is relying solely on the strength of the solder joints. This is probably fine for a fixed installation, but I wouldn't rely on it for road warrior use. Although I didn't test with a meter, it appears that the metal case is not connected to the internal sleeve bus wire at all. This could result in hum if the unit is used for a low level, high impedance application and someone touches the box. With the plastic jacks, I can see a potential problem if the inserted plugs get stepped on. Unfortunately, there aren't any slots for wall mounting. I would have preferred to see more robust jacks with solid metal sleeves such as those used on guitars. Although the product could conceivably be used to split speaker runs, I do not recommend it for that application due to the type of jacks supplied. Finally, note that without any resistive padding between the input and the outputs, a shorted cable anywhere in the system will cause problems for ALL users. So the final tally from me is three stars.