Cable question

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famous beagle

famous beagle

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So ... I bought a bunch of RCA plug connectors so I could save some money and make some custom RCA cable lengths for the studio, and I never thought it would be so hard to find bulk RCA cable. I'm just looking for two cables strung together, each with their own conductor and braided shield.

In other words, if you took a standard RCA cable and snipped off the plugs from both end, that's what I want. But I can't find it anywhere. Am I losing it?

Anyone have a link to something like this?

Thanks
 
Lt. Bob said:
shielded cable IS coaxial.
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Right. I understand that. But no one ever refers to guitar/instrument cable (which is shielded) as "coaxial" cable. And it's very easy to buy guitar/instrument cable in bulk and find it labeled as such.
 
Coax, strictly speaking, also includes guitar cable, but importantly for RF transmission coax has to have a given characteristic impedance. So cable referred to as "coax" usually has a specified impedance (in this case, 75 ohm).

You don't need 75 ohm cable for audio (audio frequencies don't care about such matters until the cable length gets to kilometers), but it's required for S/PDIF and video too, so you might as well get it--especially since that is all there is! :D
 
Ooh, watch out. All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles. Coax is shielded, but is very different from audio cable. Coax was patented and designed so the inner conductor and the outer shield share the same geometric axis; COncentric AXis. And no cable has an impedance. The term is from the design (i.e. dimension and materials used) so that it appears like a resistance and power generated by a source is transmitted through the line, but not dissipated in the line itself. Important for RF work, but not so much for guitar players.
Buy this instead; 100 Ft Bulk Stereo Patch Cable | 24-2580 (242580) | Distributed By MCM. Much cheaper.
 
ranjam said:
Ooh, watch out. All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles. Coax is shielded, but is very different from audio cable. Coax was patented and designed so the inner conductor and the outer shield share the same geometric axis; COncentric AXis. And no cable has an impedance. The term is from the design (i.e. dimension and materials used) so that it appears like a resistance and power generated by a source is transmitted through the line, but not dissipated in the line itself. Important for RF work, but not so much for guitar players.
Buy this instead; 100 Ft Bulk Stereo Patch Cable | 24-2580 (242580) | Distributed By MCM. Much cheaper.
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That's what I'm looking for! Thanks
 
If you're making snakes, Redco has bulk snake cable too, up to 32 channels worth. One of many projects on the list....
 
mshilarious said:
It ain't like I pulled the term "characteristic impedance" out of my butthole . . .

Characteristic impedance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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I hadn't heard the term before, but keep in mind I also haven't been in college since the early 80's, and I haven't worked in electronic servicing since the late 90's. But I (re)learned 'characteristic impedance' today, and the bit about reflection brought back memories. Hmmm, reflecting about reflections. Ironic. Seriously, when I think about one of my high school texts being an RCA Receiving Tube Manual, I feel old. And in college we worked on tube/transistor hybrid TV sets. I have to stop now, as there appears to be something in my eye. ;) I guess the point here is don't trust me on transistor theory. Or RF theory. Just believe me on tube 'stuff'. However, this was one rare exception, and I still almost blew it.
 
mshilarious said:
Coax, strictly speaking, also includes guitar cable, but importantly for RF transmission coax has to have a given characteristic impedance. So cable referred to as "coax" usually has a specified impedance (in this case, 75 ohm).

You don't need 75 ohm cable for audio (audio frequencies don't care about such matters until the cable length gets to kilometers), but it's required for S/PDIF and video too, so you might as well get it--especially since that is all there is! :D
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I probably wouldn't go that way. Most of the coax I've seen over the years was made under the assumption that you'd just be shoving on and crimping an F connector. As a result, the braided shield is flimsy, and ends up breaking off when you try to twist it together to solder it to something. I've found it to be nearly impossible to work with as a result. I'm sure not all coax is that horrible, but a lot of it is.

Unless you absolutely have to do S/PDIF cable making, I'd probably recommend using mic cable, since that stuff is guaranteed to be easy to work with. And if you absolutely have to make S/PDIF or word clock cables, you shouldn't see more than a dB or two loss if you just use a standard cable TV cable off the shelf at Wal-Mart and add adapters. Given how rare it is to need to make those in custom lengths, I'd definitely suggest optimizing for the common case. :)
 
Except with mic cable you have to heatshrink the ends to make a stereo cable, and if you're not good at that you won't have a very durable cable.
 
mshilarious said:
Except with mic cable you have to heatshrink the ends to make a stereo cable, and if you're not good at that you won't have a very durable cable.
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Oh. I missed that this person was trying to make a stereo cable. That's a real pain in the backside, starting with the fact that it's a lot harder to find bare wire with two separately shielded conductors. (Yeah, that S-Video cable would work, but yikes. I can get a six foot cable premade for significantly less than the bare wire. :))

For that matter, even if the wire were free, I'd question whether it would save the original poster enough money off a premade 6-foot $1.99 special to be worth it, particularly given that the cheapest RCA connectors I could find were $0.34 apiece, which means about a buck fifty per stereo cable just for four of the cheapest, least reliable RCA connectors you can buy. I doubt you can break even even for long RCA cable runs, honestly.

And if you're making cables long enough for it to be significantly cheaper to make them yourself, you probably shouldn't be running unbalanced signals that far.... :) Making mic cables is a lot more useful because the price of premade cables tends to be inflated somewhat and long cable runs aren't atypical. RCA? Not so much.
 
Well, that's why I don't make my own RCA cables even though I've made every other cable in my studio. They only get used for 3' runs from the tape deck and turntable, so quality is not critical. Everything else is balanced TRS or XLR . . . and I don't even run S/PDIF anymore.

But I figure if somebody wants to go to the effort to make RCAs, probably I would use the Neutrik RCAs and that Mogami cable. Otherwise, as you say, just buy generic premade.

The generic ones are getting tougher to find in local stores, even the Shack is stocking Monster these days :rolleyes:
 
I don't know y'all. With the supplies that I've already gotten and this stereo cable at 20 cents per foot (and this isn't buying in bulk), I can build an 8-foot, 8-channel RCA snake for about $11. I haven't found anything that cheap anywhere. And, by doing it myself, I know that it's likely to last forever because I'll do good work.

I personally have not had very good luck with cheap cables. I won't ever buy a cable from Radio Shack again. I bought two headphone extenders from them one time. One of them wouldn't work right out of the package. The other worked for about a week and then shorted out. You have to giggle it just right to get it to work intermittently.
 
famous beagle said:
I don't know y'all. With the supplies that I've already gotten and this stereo cable at 20 cents per foot (and this isn't buying in bulk), I can build an 8-foot, 8-channel RCA snake for about $11. .
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I actually enjoy a good soldering session. Put on some music .... take a toke and get to it.
 
So check it out. I was ready to drop the $20 on the 100 feet of bulk stereo cable yesterday when my wife tells me that we have reward points on our debit card, and we can redeem them for gift cards or merchandise. So, I was able to spend my 4,000 points on four 50-foot RCA cables, scoring 200 feet of bulk cable (after I snip the ends, obviously) for free! Can't beat that! :)
 
Why snip the ends? The factory ends are likely to be at least as reliable as anything you'll put together. Leave them on there and save yourself a couple of bucks on connectors.
 
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