Another cable question

  • Thread starter Thread starter getuhgrip
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getuhgrip

getuhgrip

Bring Back Transfat!
Nobody around here seems to like Hosa which I see in most of the catalogs.
What do most of you guys like?
I need a couple 10' XLR for mics. 10' midi for my cheapie keyboard. And some short 1/4" lines for FX sends and returns.

Any basic rules or suggestions?
 
You're looking in the wrong catalogs... (;-)

You ought to try the prebuilt cables from a real studio equipment supply house. Some place like Markertek, or Full Compass, or some other equivalent vendor that uses decent wire (Canare, Mogami, Belden) and real connectors... Whirlwind or ProCo at a minimum, just for reliability's sake. Markertek will build you anything you want, if you need odd lengths or configurations.

Hosa is cheap, and often very convenient (since their product hangs on pegs in every podunk music store on the planet). But their budget product is basically the equivalent of Radio Shack: poor wire (especially in the shielding department), indifferently molded-on connectors, uncertain reliability, and probably limited life span under normal studio abuse.

My real advice would be to do what I like to do: keep a couple 500' or 1000' spools of good wire around, and lay in a boatload of connectors- say 10 each of male and female XLRs, 1/4" TS and TRS, and a few good RCA pin plugs. Then just build what you need as you need them, and refresh the stocks of connectors every so often when they get used up...

Hosa will certainly *work*. So will Rat Shack. But for long-term reliability and minimization of heartache, you want something better.
 
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