Patch bays?

elenore19

elenore19

Slowing becoming un-noob.
My friend reccommended me to get a patchbay the other day...

Any suggestions on which one to get?
 
With patchbays you really do get what you pay for.

I have three cheapo bays and I have major complaints about all three. Quite often they have not-so-good cable connections which can cause drop-outs in the signal during use. Even if I wiggle or bump the cables while inserted all the way, sometimes you can hear it cutting in and out. Who the hell wants that? Also a few of the little circuit flip-cards have gone bad and don’t work at all.

I do have one ADC bay which is a much tighter (and more reliable) fit for the plugs. Also, I just ordered three Neve (Moses and Mitchell) patchbays so, I expect my patchbay troubles to go away. (Well, most of them, anyway.)

If you buy a cheap one, you'll probably find out the same way most of us do, ...the hard way.

Good luck,
RawDepth
 
By "cheapo", how cheap do you mean? Hosa/Behringer cheap, or Neutrik cheap, or what? I'm bouncing between eventually getting a couple of the Neutrik pays with 1/4" on front and back, or some refurbished ADC punchdown bays from Mr. Patchbay.
 
Adam P said:
By "cheapo", how cheap do you mean? Hosa/Behringer cheap, or Neutrik cheap, or what? I'm bouncing between eventually getting a couple of the Neutrik pays with 1/4" on front and back, or some refurbished ADC punchdown bays from Mr. Patchbay.
Click to expand...
Well, I don't want to just name a bunch of names because I am not familiar with all of them. Perhaps it is more about the design than the price. It seems to me that the ones that have the little flip-over printed circuit cards with the plastic jacks like this one, tend to be more trouble prone than something like this.

Although, even on the good long frame jacks, those shunt contacts can corrode and/or wear out.
 
I agree with raw depth on this although it might be a little overwhelming for a beginner to solder one up and understand the configuration of the bay (is it normalled, open, etc.) People also tend to buy the pcb neutrik type bays because they are cheaper but they forget to factor in the added cost of having to make 48 1/4" connections on the backside for a full bay. Also these connections start to come lose over time. At around 1.50 for a 1/4" jack that adds at least $75 to the cost if you're making your own cables and even more if you're buying snakes.
 
I agree, a lot of folks do seem to forget the cost of cabling with the 1/4" bays. Even with the cheap Hosa snakes you're looking at $150 at least for a 48 point bay. I guess it comes down to the level of quality you're looking for and how much value you place on your time.
 
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