building my own XLR cables

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antispatula

antispatula

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I was reading SOMEWHERE about good brands of wire and adapters to make your own XLR wires....
I need to know, because I need 3 snakes, and they have to be wired to pin 3 hot, and would rather make them all myself instead of wasting a bunch of money just to break into them all and reverse pins 2 and 3. Plus, this should be fun!
Does anyone know of a good brand for this? I don't want any of the gereric crap.....Unless that works just as good too :D Thanks!
 
neutrik connectors are a good balance of quality and low price. mouser has good prices on neutrik connectors but you'll have to dig thru the online catalog unless you have the printed one (never received mine). canare, belden, and mogami cable are recommended around here pretty often. horizon cable is good too for the money if you ask me. i've never had a problem with it.

www.mouser.com (neutrik connectors)
www.partsexpress.com
www.markertek.com
www.jacksmusicstore.com (horizon cable, adapters, etc.)

figure out exactly which connectors and cable (part numbers) you want to use and compare prices at those places. don't forget to include shipping cost in your figures.

do a search here and you'll find alot of info on this stuff.
 
Canare and Mogami cables are worth every penny! Trust me, shit cables= shit recordings! ;)
 
There are plenty of excellent quality cables made by companies other than the "big three". The reason people mention Belden, Canare, and Mogami so often is that they are well established manufacturers of high quality cable known to be excellent throughout their product lines. But it is certainly possible to get excellent results with cable made by other manufacturers.

I've recently been using cables from Audiopile, and I'm very happy with both the price and the performance. I bought some from them ready made, and some I made myself from their raw cable and connectors:

http://www.audiopile.net/
 
TravisinFlorida said:
neutrik connectors are a good balance of quality and low price. mouser has good prices on neutrik connectors but you'll have to dig thru the online catalog unless you have the printed one (never received mine). canare, belden, and mogami cable are recommended around here pretty often. horizon cable is good too for the money if you ask me. i've never had a problem with it.

www.mouser.com (neutrik connectors)
www.partsexpress.com
www.markertek.com
www.jacksmusicstore.com (horizon cable, adapters, etc.)

figure out exactly which connectors and cable (part numbers) you want to use and compare prices at those places. don't forget to include shipping cost in your figures.

do a search here and you'll find alot of info on this stuff.
Click to expand...

hey thanks. I'm having a hard time finding calbes without the jacks on them though..........
 
If you need prices on Belden cable, send me a PM, or for Mogami:) Also, you might be surprised at how little you can get one for already assembled, even pin 3 hot:)
 
The braid cable from Parts Express works very well for XLR cables. They sell it under the Dayton brand, but I do not know who the OEM is.

I bought a big spool of it, and am 100% satisifed with it in combination with Neutrik XLR and TRS connectors. I build all my console interconnects with this cable. Flawless.
 
BigRay said:
belden 1804A...outstanding stuff.
...
I also like belden 89207 and Mogami Neglex 2534.
Click to expand...

I've been surprisingly pleased with Belden 8451. It's mainly designed for permanent installation, so I wouldn't use it as a cable for gigs, but it rocks for semi-permanent use. I have a bundle of eight of the things running through a single piece of those threshold wire covers. :D
 
I've got a Hosa snake that I want to use. It's got 1/4" to RCA. If I cut off the RCAs and put on the Neutrik XLR femail jacks w/ nickel contacts, do you think that would make a decent cable snake?

It would have Hosa 1/4" jacks and cable to Neutrik XLR jacks w/ nickel contacts.

Thanks!
 
the hosa cable is not nearly as good as the multipair mogami,belden,canare. The import chineese stuff is not zfolded and the strand count is low. It will pass signal, but if you want high quality you need to pay for it. depending on how long the runs are you should look at mogami multi cable its reasonable if you are doing shorter runs.
 
antispatula said:
http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/pages.cgi?buildPage=item&ProductID=005604

I think I'd rather just get it by the foot. Does this look ok for unbalanced audio?

Have you ever heard any real difference between cables?
Click to expand...

Honestly? No. Not outside the realm of speaker cables (where size matters significantly).

As for that particular cable, I'd be a little nervous about 22 AWG if you're planning to move the cable around a lot. That's pretty small stuff. That's the same size as my Belden miniature cable. It's tiny stuff, and at least the Belden 22 AWG I have was primarily intended for permanent installations. I love it for what I use it for, but I'd be terrified about it breaking if I were using it on a gig.

If I could, for throw-around cables, I'd probably go with 18 AWG, or at least 20 AWG. (Smaller AWG numbers mean that it's a larger wire.)
 
antispatula said:
http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/pages.cgi?buildPage=item&ProductID=005604

I think I'd rather just get it by the foot. Does this look ok for unbalanced audio?

Have you ever heard any real difference between cables?
Click to expand...

you had metioned unbalnced audio. It will work, but its 2 conductor so its made for balanced audio. And as someone else mentioned 22awg being too small, Its a pretty standard size for both live and studio in cable. The ability for something to stand up to the riggors of live use has to do with the shield winding and cable memory. some cables are made to be able to be twisted and turned, some higher end are not. Mogami spent a ton of money developing a cable for live use with real high strand count. They ended up kind of dumping it because it was too expensive to manufature. The cable you have a link to is fine for balanced signal and is of high quality. Even better would be quad cable.
 
So when people say "GET EXPENSIVE CABLE!" is it for the durability or the sound? I honestly can't believe anyone can actually hear a difference between lets say a hosa and a mogami when it comes to SOUND quality.
 
antispatula said:
http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/pages.cgi?buildPage=item&ProductID=005600

This is unbalanced and what I need I think. It's 28 Gauge though, is this ok if I'm planning on keeping it in the same place forever? I'd using it as a snake to link my recorder to my mixer.
Click to expand...

this is real thin single cond for use with lavalier mics relatively frail cable. how many cables are you going to require in one run.
They make multi cable in 4 8 12 16 24 32 48 counts that can be made into a patch snake ranging form like .89 cents a foot to like $5.00 a foot. Are these unbalanced connections you are looking for. If you let us know what exactly the devices you plan to connect I or someone else can reccomend the exact nature of the cable you need
 
hey, thanks!

I need it to be an 8 cable snake, going from XLR (UNBALANCED xlr, pin 2 doesn't conduct) to 1/4". I'm running it from my unbalanced tape recorder outs into the ins of a cr1604. Thanks!
 
petermiller said:
you had metioned unbalnced audio. It will work, but its 2 conductor so its made for balanced audio. And as someone else mentioned 22awg being too small, Its a pretty standard size for both live and studio in cable. The ability for something to stand up to the riggors of live use has to do with the shield winding and cable memory.
Click to expand...

Well, while it is true that a heavy braid can limit the flexing of the wires inside, smaller wires are still more prone to metal fatigue, particularly at the connectors. The more strands (and, consequently, the larger the wire and the smaller the gauge number), the longer it should hold up to abuse, if all other things are equal.

I'm not saying that 22 AWG isn't usable. As you mentioned, you see a lot of premade cables at that size. However, if I were buying wire to make cables, I'd lean towards something a little larger. Not too big, though. Once you get past a certain size, it becomes too hard to get a good twisted pair and cable flexibility will also suffer. I think of 20 as a good compromise, personally.
 
I can do a 10' snake with Neutrik connectors and Belden wire for $90 if you are interested:)
 
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