Thoughts on running cables

[Bill Furnett]

Hey gang,

Any thoughts, tips, tricks, solutions or horror stories on running mic-headphone cables through walls or under floors?

I have three booths (in various stages of nowhere near complete) that will require passing cables through the walls and also a spot I’ll have to cut/drill a hole in the floor to allow cables to come up to my board.

I’m terrible at soldering and ideally it’d be great to forego that, but I know this might not be possible. (Can you imagine hiring someone to come in and solder for me?)

What kind of wall or floor plates are available (and where) ?
Who makes quality headphone extension cable and jacks?

- Thanks-

[mshilarious]

I use snake cable, and yes you should learn to solder. There are solderless connectors, but I'm not sure if those are available in chassis mount. Anyway . . . Parts Express has what you need, as well as some other vendors. Markertek I think is a popular one too.

[dementedchord]

ive done wiring jobs for people so yes i can imagine hiring some one to solder for you... go learn anyway... the thing that might be most advantageous in that hiring though is hopefully a knowledge of layout and its implications for noise.... (avoiding the overlapping of audio and power much lesss running them parallel) but its not daunting.... stay away from running the phones along the mics too for instance...

[TexRoadkill]

Originally Posted by Bill Furnett

I’m terrible at soldering and ideally it’d be great to forego that, but I know this might not be possible. (Can you imagine hiring someone to come in and solder for me?)

Hire? That's what interns are for. Just put an ad on www.craigslist.com or call the local community colleges or recording schools. There is always some sucker willing to work for free to be part of the 'industry'.

[Bill Furnett]

I can more or less solder and have all the tools, I just have a fear my connections will be noisey, but as the costs of materials are adding up -
it's time to get over it!

I've no doubt that a real facility (I am a humble home studio in progress) would hire out for such work or use an intern, so in truth, it's not really a stretch, but i have like 3 connections to make, so it'd just be embarassing.

I appreciate the responses and advice from all and am still looking for ideas as far as the floor goes (Should i just mount a wall plate over a hole in the floor?)

When looking at the wall plates (Thanks MS) I see the word "Gang" used,
is this the term for the outlet type box to which the plate is attached?


-As always, thanks guys-

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by Bill Furnett

I can more or less solder and have all the tools, I just have a fear my connections will be noisey, but as the costs of materials are adding up -
it's time to get over it!

I've no doubt that a real facility (I am a humble home studio in progress) would hire out for such work or use an intern, so in truth, it's not really a stretch, but i have like 3 connections to make, so it'd just be embarassing.

I appreciate the responses and advice from all and am still looking for ideas as far as the floor goes (Should i just mount a wall plate over a hole in the floor?)

No, there are special floor plates, just like you'll find for power outlets. Hmmm, PartsX only seems to have really large expensive ones but I know single or dual XLR floor plates are out there . . .

[Dani Pace]

Just a little tip about those cover plates; you can put a gasket behind them to help seal them better, if you can't find one where you bought the plates an easy way to make them is cut them from an old inner tube, most tire stores will give you an old inner tube and you can easily cut a piece to fit with sissors.