Just trying to confirm it was the solder joints on the PCB mounted XLR that fail. We had a wall panel with PCB mounted XLR and speakons and the PCB itself would crack and the traces would fail making repair problematic.
Cost issues bent the demand curve away from the PZ-Pre, so we ordered five LR Baggs Para DI units. I will be making a couple modifications to them to increase durability and better fit our use.
1)Remove the OE XLR socket and replace it with a pair of hardwired outputs, ala
http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/black-boxes-effects-and-dis/direct-boxes/di2 one output to remain balanced post-EQ as original the other will be unbalanced pre-EQ tapped from the effects loop send.
2)Rewire the effects loop jack so it can be readily used as an input that bypasses the first gain stage for guitars with high output onboard preamp setups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izBGiLO3X0YHopefully once modified in this manner these will serve us faithfully for many years.