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| Junction Box, by Sonicake |
While preparing the review of the Sonicake “Levitate” delay/reverb I came across this little jewel, appropriately named “Junction Box”. This is very similar to a box I’ve been building for years in my workshop and which I use regularly in my studio. It’s nice to find it already built but it's not exactly dirt cheap for a dumb metal box of jacks, is it good?
WHAT IS IT?
The Junction Box by Sonicake is four balanced audio thru paths — like a little patchbay — in a stompbox form factor. Simple, useful and brilliant once you understand all the places this little box can be used.
NO POWER SUPPLY REQUIRED - it’s a patchbay, plugs and cables - no power is needed
This is basically a box of balanced jacks, all with separate signal paths, all with discrete grounds, easy to mount and fits in lots of unusual applications once you free your mind with these technical features.
UNUSUAL APPLICATIONS
- DAW Patchbay - bring those annoying balanced line inputs on the rear of your DAW interface around to the front side for convenient access with one of these boxes (and some TRS patch cables).
- PEDALBOARD CONNECTION - Standardize the in and out from your pedal board with one of these boxes, get rid of cords dangling off or odd connections. One of these Junction Boxes can give you a place to plug in your guitar, plug your pedal board to your amp and plug your send and return connections to the effects loop on the back of your amp. You’ll always know where things go with one of these.
- CONNECT BALANCED AND UNBALANCED CABLES - Its not easy to connect two 1/4” plugs together, this box can do it x4 connections, all with discrete ground connections. The TRS jacks in the Junction Box can be used with TRS plugs or TS plugs or one can plug to the other… lots of ways to use this little Junction Box.
- EXTEND STEREO CABLE CONNECTIONS - You can use this box to plug multiple cables together to reach long distances.
- FOOTPEDAL AND VOLUME PEDAL CONNECTIONS - you can use the Junction Box to extend a sustain pedal cable or maybe you need to remote locate a volume pedal in your keyboard or guitar rig, this box can help join those cables together.
- EURORACK EXTENSION - I have a lot of synthesizers, the Junction Box makes it easy to bring some annoying connections on the back of my rig around to the front side for connecting things up without having to go diving in the cables out back. I used standard Eurorack cables to feed adaptors which plug into the Junction Box, which then feeds to my two synthesizer amplifiers. All of these options help me get more mileage from the cables I’ve got.
HOW IT’S MADE
The Junction Box by Sonicake is basically a steel box, with eight TRS jacks connected in four pairs. The steel box provides shielding much better than plastic or even aluminum. The paintwork on the enclosure is top notch, first quality paint and printing.
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| Each of the four signal paths flows thru to the opposite side |
COMPARING VALUE
Eight Switchcraft TRS female jacks from Mouser cost around $3.50 / jack plus shipping. A die cast aluminum enclosure this size from BUD is around $9.00 from Amazon. This gives us $28 of jacks, plus $5 shipping, plus $9.00 for the Bud box - and all this adds up to $42 before you do any soldering or drilling to make something like this. At $29 (today’s price on Amazon) the Junction Box by Sonicake is a great deal.
EPILOGUE
I’ll have some pictures of it in my lab soon. I’ve been trying it in a number of different setups so it’s moving all over at the moment. Since it is on special sale today ($6 lower than my last one) I did order a second one for more extensive use and testing making connections.
If the jacks don’t turn out to be crap (in the long run) this little Junction Box from the folks at Sonicake is going to be one of my favorite accidental finds. I’ll report back when I have a lot more data (and maybe a lot more of these little boxes).
Thanks for reading High on Technology, Good Music To You!
©July 2025 by Mark King, it is NOT ok to copy or quote without written permission from the author.
ADDENDUM 1.0 : As it turns out the Junction Box is on a special sale so I ordered a third one. This is the kind of box you're glad to have on hand when you need it.
Go forth and create something beautiful…… . . . .
