50' Snake

[wjgypsy]

I got to buy a 50' snake for my new studio building and i need to know this: You see, when you plug one 25' mic cable into another 25' cable (for extra feet) you loose quality or power (i think), well if i get a 50' snake and plug the mic into it, am i still looseing quality or is there something about the snake that reduces this?

thanks,

zeke

 

[cominginsecond]

From what I understand, since mic cables are balanced, signal degradation will be minimal if you use a snake, regardless of the length. Most snakes are a few hundred feet if I remember right. I think the same, pretty much, applies to connecting mic cables in series.

 

[Herm]

Dont worry about it.

 

[wjgypsy]

Ok. and will 24 gauge be ok? I know that it's not as good as 22, but it's the only thing in my price range. From a scale from 1-10, what would you rate 24 gauge cables?


zeke

 

[Light]

24 gauge is fine.

The issue involved is impedenance, more than balanced or not. Balanced is important in long runs as a means of RF rejection. The real issue with long cables, however, is capacitance. A guitar cable that long will roll off the highs quite severly. Microphones, however, run at about 1/10th of the impedenance, so they do not have a problem with cable runs of up to about several hundered feet (large tours frequently run snakes of 300-400 feet). A fifty foot snake is fine. I actually prefer 24 gauge quad conductor mic cable (made by Mogami). With instrument level cable, 24 gauge is slightly better, as the capacitince is lower.


Light

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