Economy in Snake Building

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phyl
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Phyl

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I want to run two snakes from the control room to the live room. Each will terminate at a wall panel in the live room and have a XLR/TS fan out in the control room.

I've researched cable, connectors, wall plates, etc, and even with drilling my own wall plates and building my own wall boxes, it's hard to compete with companies like Horizon who sell pre made snakes with breakout boxes attached.

Granted their products are meant to be used on the stage, but is there any reason they wouldn't suffice for a studio? What major differences in performance could I expect when compared against a snake I home build using good cable (mogami) and good connectors (nuetrik, swithcraft)?
 
What a deal - the auction started at $25 and has no bids yet; I think there is less than a day to go before it closes.

Anyone else have an opinion on the original question of pre-maufactured snake quality versus handmade?
 
Unless you're skilled at soldering I wouldn't attempt making my own. I've worked in electronics 25+ years and had no problem making my own. I had 2 plates stamped out for 24 XLR connectors each. Got a really good price for bulk Neutrik XLR's on eBay and found someone on eBay with just the right length of Belden install snake cable to pass through the wall. Let's see, that means I had to make 144 quality solder connections. A very tedious process where Every solder connection counts. Anyhow, just my 2 cents worth.

DD
 
I've done plenty of soldering, I did it for a living as a radar repair tech in the USAF.

I find the older I get the more willing I am to have someone else do the grunt work, as long as I'm reasonably certain they are using quality parts and know what they're doing.

When I add up the price of parts and compare it to some of the (seemingly) higher end pre-made stuff, there is only about a $40 difference.

I'll probably do it myself, just because I want to make sure I'm not compromising the signal chain.

Thanks for your help Don. BTW - How are you liking the studio you built? Seems like you've been in there a little over a year now.
 
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