You may want something like this:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/mill-max-manufacturing-corp/0327-0-15-15-34-27-10-0/ED90081-ND/947089as mentioned here,
Oversized collet sockets are available which would fit potentiometer leads. Collet pins solder directly into oversized holes in the printed circuit board. They are expensive but no more than a good potentiometer.
Mind that you will find pots with tin plated PC pins; use tin-plated contacts as well. This particular one is gold plated, which will lead to fretting corrosion against tin.
Plating works roughly like this, in order of preference, best to worst:
- Gold on gold
- Tin on tin
- Tin on gold
- ...
- None (just bare copper or whatever)
That is to say, dissimilar plating is still much better than nothing, but it's not the best.
Connectors are notoriously unreliable, so you may just be adding another unreliable component into the mix. The sum is less reliable than just the pots alone.
So you want to make sure the contacts are good, and that you give them the best chance of success.
Strain relief and secure mounting are key. Every sliding or rocking motion on the connector wears away some of the plating, or allows some dust or dirt, or condensed goo, into the contact area. The gunk can be washed away with contact cleaner and a few cycles of "wiping" movement, but when the plating eventually wears out, it's over, the surface oxidizes and the contacts get bad really quickly. So, you want to make sure that takes decades to happen.
If you'll be using vertical mount potentiometers, then consider mounting them on the panel directly (threaded collar, panel mount type pots), and having the pins stick into the PCB. The PCB then is mounted to the panel with standoffs (which can be PEM(R) style press-in hardware, or screws and standoffs or spacers, or sheetmetal tabs even), so that even as the panel flexes and vibrates in use, the PCB follows it, and minimal strain is applied to the pins and connectors.
There are many other possibilities for layout, of course. You could make a cheap sacrificial PCB and mate it to the main board with a ribbon cable or whatever.
it's easy, cheap and reliable. also allows you to simulate a multi turn pot for better accuracy for much cheaper than a multi turn pot. just keep in mind most digital pots are linear, not log. if you want a log taper, then you should pre compute a list of values or use special digital pots meant for audio applications.
This may be a better solution than OP realizes -- if an optical or magnetic encoder is used, it will never wear out (mechanical ones are as bad as pots!). The semiconductors involved, if protected from transients, can last basically forever.
The major downside, in regards to general circuitry, is that digipots and multiplying DACs have awful bandwidth (100s kHz). More than sufficient for audio, just not so good for other things.
Tim