building snake- need some referance

[antofants]

First question: for XLR-XLR connections should I use quad style cables? second question: What guage? I'm looking at 20 channels for 175-200ft. I know that's a little long, but I'm in an akward set-up right now. Any recommendations on brands (other than monster- oh my God, 4000 ft of monster cable would be more expensive than my car) I've heard some good things about gepco, haven't heard too much about mogami, and I'm tryin to do a little better than hosa. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[Track Rat]

Mogami is very good stuff for sure. I've built several out of Beldon 8451 wire. It's shielded 22AWG. I've never had a problem out of them and IMHO, you'd be hard pressed to hear a difference. If you have a problem with RFI in the location you plan on using it, then the StarQuad might be a better choice. Otherwise, the Beldon would be fine. YMMV.

[Velvet Elvis]

Antofants,

Gepco is a great choice. I *just* had another bunch of cable ordered from them.

They do great prices on custom assemblies too. I (on Monday) ordered two 20 ft. 24 channel 1/4inch TRS snakes from them.

They told me this morning that it should be done being built today!!!! WOW... that's a boat load of solder joints (think about it... 24 x 2 ends x 2 snakes x 3 solder joints each end = 288 solder joints that they did in less than 24 hours).

Anyhow. I use this stuff for my patchbays in my studio and have been very pleased with it.

And the funny thing is, I got my Gepco custom snakes for less money than buying a well known cheapo brand through the cheapest source I could find.... go figure.

There are several who would contest that the Gepco is every bit as good as the Mogami wire if not a little better... and it is by far cheaper.

They have multiple gauges in their snake cables.... and of course it depends on the number of channels and whether or not you go with the quad wire. Track Rat hit the nail on the head with the RFI interference... if you don't have much of it, you'd probably be just as well to use their standard high end balanced cables (it will save you some $$$).

Give them a call and see what they suggest for guage etc.

Velvet Elvis