audio snake vs individual audio cables

[phil t]

I was looking around trying to figure out if I should build my own cables or not and I came across someone in a forum posting these words:

"I'm a cable snob only up to a point, but I feel good knowing that I haven't bottle-necked my signal path at the snake side of things."

it somewhat confused me and worried me a bit because I never thought about the differences between audio snakes and audio cables.

I'm going to be needing 16 ins & outs, preferably 1/4". I don't plan to move my setup at all so mobility is not an issue.

Is there any difference in quality between an audio snake and individual audio cables?

 

[Track Rat]

No. A snake IS audio cables.

 

[phil t]

That's what I assumed, but this isn't necessarily the most straight-forward trade to get into. The bottle-necked part is what tricked me but thank you either way.

 

[gecko zzed]

The bottle-necked part is what tricked me but thank you either way.

I'm not surprised it tricked you, because it has tricked me as well. Without further explanation, I have no idea what it means.

Separate cables or multi-core; either will work. The multi-core is handy because it keeps everything tidy.

 

[Farview]

Anyone who thinks a snake "bottlenecks" the audio, like trying to run too much water through a small garden hose, does know enough to listen to. Never take anything that person says seriously ever again.

Snakes are really just individual audio wrapped together in the same rubber sleeve. It's no different than you taking all of your audio cables and taping them together.

 

[miroslav]

The only thing I can think of...is that "physically", the snake does bring ALL the individual channels to a single place.
So when you use a snake, where it terminates may not be the point where all your gear/mics are...and then you need more cables from that point to the individual spots.

Maybe that's what the guys was trying to say...though it does sound like he's thinking the actual audio signals will be "bottlenecked".