Cables... 2 conductor or 4???

[esun127]

I'm gonna order some bulk cable for mics and stuff from markertek. They have a wide selection of 4 conductor cable that goes for about 34 cents per foot. They also have normal 2-conductor cable for 17 cents a foot. Is there a point in spending more for the 4 conductor cable if my snake is only two-conductor anyway?

[jake-owa]

Depends on what type of cables you need to make. Simple instrument cables need only 2 conductors while balanced or mic cables need three. Four is fine if you can't get three for balanced cables.

[esun127]

I'm not referring to two-conductor plugs, but the cable itself, not including the ground/shielding stuff. The 4-conductor wires I'm looking at have four inner wires along with the shielding, so you basically have 5 soldering/connection points.

[Light]

The advantage of the quad is that you get a higher copper to insulation ratio. You also end up with more copper using 4 26 gauge conductors than using 2 22 gauge conductors, so your cable is thinner, and less likely to kink.

I think it is worth it, if you are making your own cables. I use Mogami 2534.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[maddrummer]

Hey, I'm looking to make my own cables too. So a four conductor cable like the 2534 that you mentioned, how would you solder that, what do you do with the two extra cables? Thanks

[tdukex]

Twist the two blues (or whatever) together and the two whites together, solder each twisted pair to the correct pin, then solder the ground.

[maddrummer]

Great thanks!!

[maddrummer]

One more question (sorry to take over the thread), for TRS cables, would you use that same cable as for a mic cable? I am assuming yes but I just want to make sure. Thanks

[eeldip]

if you are doing a short run, and you arent in an RF heavy area i would NOT get the quad cable.

they are just a bit more difficult to solder, but it gets pretty annoying when you are making a bunch.

[skippy]

Yup. The quad cable has a small but definite noise advantage over simple 2-conductor (shielded twisted pair) cable, due to the way the magnetic fields around each conductor interact. This is *much* more important for mic level signals than for line level signals: mic level signals need all the noise rejection help they can get, especially if you have a noisy EMI/RFI environment (dimmers, flourescent lights, computers....).

I'm not convinced that quad offers a big enough advantage for line level signals to say "use it for everything": quad still carries a pretty high price premium. I personally use both, and tend to reserve the quad for mic cables only. But if you can afford it, or if you only want to stock one roll of cable, then quad will give you the best noise performance for mic signals...

One thing to add: the capacitance of the quad cables is usually significantly higher than regular 2-conductor. This isn't an issue with mics, because their source impedance is so low (a few tens to a few hundreds of ohms). Ditto for line-level use, where the drivers will always have very low impedances. But if you use quad with a high-impedance source (your Telecaster, for example, or your old Shure Uniball high-Z mic), the higher capacitance can and will roll off your highs: the longer the cable, the more profound the effect. So if you decide to have only one roll of cable, and you want it to be quad, _don't_ use it for building guitar cables...

For that sort of high impedance, single-ended use, you really want the specialized low-capacitance single-conductor cable that is optimized for that use. One size does not fit all!

[Light]

What Skippy said.

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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi