Upgrading my mic cables - durability!!!

H

hoursonend

Member
Hi,

I usually bought the XLR cables from thomann, their own brand (Sssnake). Now three out of four mic cables I bought from them, failed on me: Pin 1 and 3 just short out, so my condensers won't work with them as they don't receive any power. Now I can't blame them, I mean they were 25' cables for like $5. They look very good though, well not the plugs, but the cable itself: I've inspected it, and there's a rope in it, and a VERY strong shielding. Weird that they fail, you'd say...

Anyway, which cables should I get? I'm also good at soldering so I'd be happy to build my own cables. I'm thinking NEUTRIK or Amphenol ends, but what cable?
Note that I'm not really going for awesome sound quality, I'm thinking to buy some Mogami for my studio purposes, but I'm looking for cables that will last live work.

What cables can you recommend, preferably something available in Europe?

Suggestion: I've heard good things about the GLS "SM57" mics, how are their cables? (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...egory=29947&ssPageName=STORE:PROMOBOX:GENERIC)

Thanks,
Stan.

Oh, PS: the Jack-Jack cables from thomann have never failed on me, although I have like 12 of them, so they seem very good quality :)
 
i got a 5 or 6 pack of those gls brand mic cables (i emailed them and did everything outside of ebay cause i was ordering an odd number of 57s as well) and use them all the time. unfortunately i don't really have the means to see if cables are any good outside of cranking up the gain with one plugged in and hearing if its noisy. they seem to "feel" better than the generic groove plug or whatever cables i got at sam ash.
 
I'll wait for some more suggestions, but would anyone be interested in receiving the GLS cables for me, and send them to me in the Netherlands (or do you think they'd do that themselves?). I can do paypal or wire transfer, PM me if you're interested :)

Stan.
 
Those sssnake cables are really the bottom of the barrel, the thomann "cordial" cables are made with good quality cable and neutrik connectors, I have had no problems with any of them. Four of my cordial cables have seen live action for four years with no difficulties.
 
I have had many problems with mic cables. Especially the Musicians Friend cables. I have bought the 10 pack twice...there will not be a third time. I have started making my own. I bought a 500 ft spool of West Penn cable and some connectors off of Ebay and put them together myself...I had NEVER soldered anything before but I picked up on it very quickly. I have not had any problem out of my cables. I made a 30' , 12 channel snake and Im about to start making some 10' cables to go from the snake to my drum kit. Unless I were to run up on a KILLER deal on some AWESOME cables...I probably wont be purchasing anymore.
 
stanjanssen said:
I'll wait for some more suggestions, but would anyone be interested in receiving the GLS cables for me, and send them to me in the Netherlands (or do you think they'd do that themselves?). I can do paypal or wire transfer, PM me if you're interested :)

Stan.
Click to expand...


i'm sure they would. they were a pleasure to work with, i think their phone number is on orangecountyspeaker.com, you can give em a call or send them an email.
 
idd make your own !

Cables are the most cost effective diy products(well allmost)

Get yourself 150 feet bulk cable and 10 + 10 neutrick xlr's and go solder.
Thats 10 15feet xlr cable for 3/4 the price.

You can even customize lenghts !!!!!! (i'm getting to excited am i ?)

probeer misschien conrad.nl voor stekkers

greets

btw, a while ago I tried to buy smthing on ebay from orangecountyspeaker.com and they wouldn't ship internationally (to belgium )
 
stanjanssen said:
Hi,

I usually bought the XLR cables from thomann, their own brand (Sssnake). Now three out of four mic cables I bought from them, failed on me: Pin 1 and 3 just short out, so my condensers won't work with them as they don't receive any power. Now I can't blame them, I mean they were 25' cables for like $5. They look very good though, well not the plugs, but the cable itself: I've inspected it, and there's a rope in it, and a VERY strong shielding. Weird that they fail, you'd say...

Anyway, which cables should I get? I'm also good at soldering so I'd be happy to build my own cables. I'm thinking NEUTRIK or Amphenol ends, but what cable?
Click to expand...

How about the cable you already have? Odds are pretty good that unless you somehow kinked the cable in a really sharp way (e.g. running over it with a chair on a hard floor), the short probably involves one of the wires coming unsoldered and shorting against the next one right at the connector....
 
dgatwood said:
How about the cable you already have? Odds are pretty good that unless you somehow kinked the cable in a really sharp way (e.g. running over it with a chair on a hard floor), the short probably involves one of the wires coming unsoldered and shorting against the next one right at the connector....
Click to expand...


Exactly. Most of the time, when a cable goes bad, it's simply the connectors. Just replace all the connecters and should be back in business.
 
dgatwood and prestomation said:
How about the cable you already have? Odds are pretty good that unless you somehow kinked the cable in a really sharp way (e.g. running over it with a chair on a hard floor), the short probably involves one of the wires coming unsoldered and shorting against the next one right at the connector....
Click to expand...

No, I've removed the connectors, and then measured it with an ohms-meter, but they still short-circuit....so it has to be the cable...

For what I've heard, most people advise to build my own cables (yes you ARE getting exited about customizing lengths on your DIY cables), any specific type of cable to look for?

Treeline said:
Take a look at Canare star quad cable. Nice stuff. That and Neutrik connectiors and you're in business.
Click to expand...

That's MOGAMI cable, is there difference between Mogami cables or are they all the same? I've heard about the sonic qualities of mogami, but is that mogami cable durable? Does that website ship internationally?

Are there any brands of cable I should look out for, or stay away from?
How about this cable, or is this too expensive (eg can I get better for my money?)
http://www.thomann.de/index.html?partner_id=97926&page=thoiw7_cordial_cmk_222_sw_prodinfo.html

Thanks for the suggestions so far though, really appreciate it :)

And it's good to talk about something INEXPENSIVE for a change ;)

Stan.
 
Oh, and I have one more question too: any recommendations for mini-XLR cables (thinner)? I need one with a lenght of like 6 feet... recommendations, anyone?
 
I have been using the Belden studio quad cabling with Neutrik connectors both in the studio and in my live rigs and have had no problems. I got all of mine from CBI cable. The prices are very fair as well. You may want to give them a call:)
 
CBI...not available for me in europe I think...

I'm going with the cordial cable per meter, it's €0,70 per meter, which is not the cheapest of cables, but it looks to be good quality. Anyone thinks there should be a different approach for me?
________________________________________________
I want to make these cables:
2x 10 meter (35') = 20*0.70 = €14
3x 5 meter (16') = 15*0.70 = €10.50

add to this:
5 male xlr connectors = 5*2.55 = €12.75
5 female xlr connectors = 5*2.90 = €14.50 (jeez the connectors really ARE expensive!)

Total for 5 cables would be: €53.85​
________________________________________________

Any better ideas are welcome...
 
dgatwood said:
How about the cable you already have?
Click to expand...

The cable used to make these is one of the worst I've seen, its highly microphonic, the shield isn't wrapped properly in many cases just runs down one side of the cable. There are very few twists per meter. The sheath is also reactive turning the copper in the cable black. It's thoroughly unsuitable for anything to do with audio.

The cordial cables on the other hand use a decent cable and neutrik connectors even buying from farnell or rs it would be difficult to make a similar cable cheaper.
 
If you really want to make your own try using neutrik IDC connectors (solder free) - easy to assemble and repair on the road or even during a gig.

IDC assembly instructions ;)
http://www.neutrik.com/images/ock/downloads/Media_996806503.pdf

Try farnell as they have free delivery http://nl.farnell.com

The farnell numbers for those are

439-010 (for male connector)
439-022 (for female connector)

I've been using vandamme cable but farnell have 100m reels of twin screen cable that looks good quality and is very reasonable you might try:

389-4691 (black)
389-4708 (red)
389-4710 (blue)
 
Strange, as I said the shielding on the Sssnake cable seemed very good to me, but whatdo I know...

Do you think the Farnell cable is as good as the Cordial I linked to in my above post?

Thanks for the suggestion.

Stan.
 
stanjanssen said:
Oh, and I have one more question too: any recommendations for mini-XLR cables (thinner)? I need one with a lenght of like 6 feet... recommendations, anyone?
Click to expand...

For the mni-xlrs the local live engineers are using vandamme installation cable

1m lengths farnell codes:
385-5697 (black)
385-5703 (blue)
385-5715 (red)

The installation cable is fairly stiff so if you need a more flexible cable have a look at
385-5958

The mini-xlr connectors are:
145-138 (male)
145-135 (female)

Regarding the twin screen cable I havn't tried it yet, I still have a few meters of vandamme cable left here but I'm ordering the twin screen when I run out.
 
paddyponchero said:
[...]
I've been using vandamme cable but farnell have 100m reels of twin screen cable that looks good quality and is very reasonable you might try:

389-4691 (black)
[...]
Click to expand...

I appreciate the suggestion and help (really do), but I'm a bit hesitant, I mean, the Sssnake cable looks very good too, and proved to be not.. so if no-one has had experience with it to tell me it's good quality.... :o

Please advise me on this... any other suggestions too?

Oh, and for the mini-XLR, I expressed it wronly, I meant miniature XLR cable, not mini-XLR, so ordinary plugs but just thinner cable...but it's not really important, I might just use normal mic cable for that.

Thanks a lot so far :)
 
stanjanssen said:
Oh, and for the mini-XLR, I expressed it wronly, I meant miniature XLR cable, not mini-XLR, so ordinary plugs but just thinner cable...but it's not really important, I might just use normal mic cable for that.
Click to expand...

I bought a 1000 foot spool of that micro XLR cable at Markertek and a dozen or so connectors for somewhere around $140 a couple of weeks ago. I'm now using it for all my drum kit mics including the phantom-powered overheads. No problems so far.
 
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