patch bay and cable question

[baydariz]

i've asked about basic patch bay stuff before, but now i'm ready to plunk down the cash for one

so, my question is two-fold

1) can anyone recommend a good, sturdy patchbay that's reasonably priced (TRS, not TS) and has switches that are easy to get to?

2) can anyone recommend where i can find good patch cables? i need 4 XLR to 1/4" cables, and a ton of 1/4" patch cables

i'm dying to rewire my rack!

thanks a ton!

b[a]y

[Vurt]

A guy I trust at a local pro audio shop here highly recommend Neutrik patchbays over the standard Furman stuff. I don't have any experience with any other units than the Neutrik TRS bay I bought, but it's been solid and reliable so far.

[pipelineaudio]

most of the TRS 1/4" bays will be 1/2 normall or non normal ONLY

in most cases you will have NO option for full normal

be careful with the nuetrik one( if youre talking about the heap under 100 $ one ), they have had a few BAD batches. The jacks wouldnt make good contact with most pro spec plugs...except certain nuetrik ones of course, though they didnt work with ALL nuetrik 1/4"'s

take a cable doctor to the store with you and really give em a good wiggle...the bad batch will make itself known, and the good batches will not give you any problems for a LONG time

as far as ones with actual switches, mostly only unbalanced ones work this way...most balanced ones work by flipping over the jackfield card itself

the big problem with these is that you cant get a full normall configuration, so forget about using em for mics

another is the waste and unreliability of using jacks to connect the backsides

horizon used to make a nice one with switches for full normall/parallel/half normal/denormal AND had screw terminals in the backside....of course it made too much sense so they discontinued it