Source for cables and connectors?

[Giganova]

Where can I order good cables & connectors for cheap?
I am thinking about rewiring my studio using Neutrik plugs and Canare Star Quad cables.

Any idea where I can order them cheap? The only vendor I found was Markertek.

Thank!

[SonicAlbert]

I buy those items from Full Compass.

That's going to be a real hassle, wiring all those star quad cables. Are you talking about doing your back of rack wiring in star quad as well, or just mic cables?

[Giganova]

I wanted to rewire everything. Good cables are just SO expensive, and by doing it mysellf I can safe a lot of money!

[SonicAlbert]

I did the same thing. I'm just not sure that there are any advantages to star quad everywhere. Canare makes console cable that is small and easy to solder. You might want to take a look at it. The model number is: L-2B2AT.

http://canare.com/index.cfm?objectid...24BF296C253796

[Ed Dixon]

These guys have good products and very low prices:

http://www.partsexpress.com/index.cfm

ed

[fraserhutch]

Where is it advantageous to use star quad, anyways?

[SonicAlbert]

I always thought the time to use star quad was on mic cables where there is going to be a lot of handling and moving about. I don't remember ever being in a studio where the back of the rack wiring was all star quad. It's normally the mini console cable, like the Canare I mentioned earlier.

Ed, thanks for that link to Parts Express, I'm glad to know about them. The connector prices are very comparable to Full Compass. Depending on the quantity ordered, you can save a few cents by ordering from one or the other, but generally their pricing is very close. Thanks!

[boingoman]

Star Quad (or any other quad mic cable) helps cut down noise. People use it where they have lots of EMI or RF problems.

[Craigory]

Originally Posted by Giganova

Where can I order good cables & connectors for cheap?
I am thinking about rewiring my studio using Neutrik plugs and Canare Star Quad cables.

Any idea where I can order them cheap? The only vendor I found was Markertek.

Thank!

I used the exact same setup for my studio.
Markertek had the best price on Canare Star Quad (though I bought 300 feet), and Partsexpress has the best on the connectors (buy 10 or more for better price)

[SonicAlbert]

Originally Posted by boingoman

Star Quad (or any other quad mic cable) helps cut down noise. People use it where they have lots of EMI or RF problems.

So is there any point in using it if you don't have those EMI or RF issues?

[boingoman]

Originally Posted by SonicAlbert

So is there any point in using it if you don't have those EMI or RF issues?

I don't know. Every little bit helps, I guess. It's kind of up to you. Without any solid experimenting, I made four 30' star quad mic cables for vocals for live work, because it made me feel good. It might help in a rack, as there is a lot of EMI in there sometimes.

Pretty much everything else I did used Belden brilliance, with a braided shield. Like you said, extra effort to solder. It felt good to get it done.

I'm not advocating either way, just wanted to point out the idea behind quad mic cable.

Damn- every time I see your name, I get annoyed, as I had a question for you at one point, but I can never remember it. It seemed to be important, too. I'll probably remember at a gig, when I run into the problem again.

[SonicAlbert]

It seems like there are a couple people around here that get just plain annoyed when they see my name! :-)

Lots of times I'll have a question that's important and then I forget what it is. Or I want to do a search but then I forget what it was I was going to do a search for. Very annoying, yes.

Anyway, I did build some 40' star quad mic cables for myself, and have used them. They sound fine, I don't know how much of an improvement over regular mic cable they are though. I have so much gear that building star quad for the whole studio seemed really unattainable. I've built *hundreds* of cables as it is, and I'm a little tired of it at this point. So cable that's nice and easy to solder is tops with me!

There's also the size factor. Mic cable is pretty thick, and if you have a lot of cables going in and out of patchbays it really gets crowded. That's why I'm a big fan of console cable.

Another brand of cable I love is Connectronics. It has a conductive plastic shield instead of a braided metal shield, so it is extremely flexible. It's as easy to cut and solder as cable with foil shield, too. I use that for certain connections, and for my front of the patchbay patch cables. The Connectronics cable is the kind that feels sexy. I know that sounds sick, but I think pretty much any engineer knows what I mean.

[Giganova]

Well, I don't insist on geeting the Canare Star Quad cables. Right now I only use unbalanced Hosa cables (except for the mic cables) and I heard the Canare is good. Now I wanna install balanced cables throughout my studio (including the patch bays which are very cluttered). So if I do it once I better do it right. Also, its fairly cheap actually, to get the Quad Star cables (100 feet for $30 or so) plus Neutric connectors ($3 each). This means I can rewire my entire studio for 100 buxx or so if I do it myself! If I'd buy cables it'll be much more expensive.

So which cables would you recommend and where should I get them from?

[cellardweller]

Is it true that using shorter lengths of cable, when able, lessens the necessity of using higher quality of cable?

[SonicAlbert]

Originally Posted by cellardweller

Is it true that using shorter lengths of cable, when able, lessens the necessity of using higher quality of cable?

I think there are a lot of answers to that question. A bass player friend of mine wanted me to listen to a coupld different cables on his bass. He was going from a longer less good cable to a shorter Monster cable. The difference was truly dramatic and clearly audible, with the shorter Monster cable sounding better. However, in this case it was partly due to the fact that the shorter cable worked better with the bass players pickup, as in less loss.

This is very unscientific, but to answer your question I think the cable would have to be under four feet long to have the effect you are talking about.

The other answer is a question: why not use shorter runs of good cable? Best of both worlds.

In a practical sense, building very short cables can be problematic if you studio configuration changes frequently or will change in the future. This is because a longer cable can always be coiled a bit for shorter runs, but a shorter cable connot be stretched for longer runs! I''ve got probably a hundred cables (at least) that I custom made to fit *perfectly* with my old mixers and racks. Very short runs. The problem is, my studio changed and now all those cables are sitting in a box in the garage. Any cable I made that was over three feet still has some use, but the super short lengths are so specific that they can become useless fairly easily.

[Tonio]

Albert, ever considered selling those short cables? I sure could use some.

Just how short are they?

[cellardweller]

Originally Posted by Tonio

Albert, ever considered selling those short cables? I sure could use some.

Just how short are they?

I'll second that notion!

Now you said you "coiled" your cables? I thought it was preferable to not have the excess coiled?

Less than 4 feet huh? Damn. I was trying to find TRS to XLR cables in 3 foot but all they had was 5...

[SonicAlbert]

Yes, it's preferable not to coil. But after making all those little cables that I'm not using right now, I would rather have a some extra slack and be more likely to use them in the future. I don't have like tons and tons of deeply coiled cables laying around, maybe a single loop here or there. But I do make them with more slack than in the past.

Those short cables are mostly 12-18 inches. The real stupidity of it is that they are all made with console cable, so they are not suited to handling or much of anything other than permanent install.

I appreciate the offers, but I'm hanging onto them as I do pull the connectors when I need to make more cables. And who knows, someday I may need those little shorties again! The last thing I want to do is to build more of them, because I know they are hard to find and you pay out the nose for the short cables because they are all connector and no wire. :-)

[Tonio]

I do have shorites too, but they are too short but yeah they may come in handy some day.

The connectors gotta be worth something. Guess you can't have too many extra's just in case.

[Giganova]

Back to the original topic, if I may:

Which cables & connectors would you recommend and where should I get them from?

[SonicAlbert]

I thought we covered that: Canare star quad (or LB2AT for console cable), Neutrik connectors, and buy the stuff at Full Compass or Parts Express. I also mentioned Connectronics cable, which I personally like very much.

What more do you want to know that we haven't covered? :-)

[Giganova]

all right, I must have forgottten that