Making my own cables

[nddhc]

Ive tried searching as many threads as I could and couldnt find a definite answer.

Im going to be buying supplies from Redco.com to build my own cables and was wondering if balanced cables made a big difference for a small home studio?

My longest cable is 12 feet



I am going to be using Balanced XLR cables for mics. But for instrument cables, and for connecting all my gear (DMP3, Hp4 headphone amp, etc) to my Delta 1010 card, im going to be using unbalanced cables. Will this be a problem?

I was looking to buy the Mogami 2524 cable and Neutrik NP2C Connectors for my unbalanced cables. For the Balanced mic cables I am planning on getting the Mogami 2549 cable and Neutrik NC3MX-B and NC3FX-B XLR connecors.


Do you think that using balanced XLR mic cables for the inputs of the DMP3, then using unbalanced TS cables for the outputs of the DMP3 to my soundcard will defeat the purpose?

 

[rweiss]

Another thing to consider is that if you have a lot of unbalanced cables together (some kind of wire mess), it could have an impact on the signal quality, but as far as this scenario goes, unbalanced cables wouldn't really hurt if they're only going to be 12'. (This DOESN'T mean that my previous statement would be false).

That's my 2 cents.

 

[Gilliland]

If your equipment supports balanced connections, then I would recommend that you use balanced cables.

BTW, I make up some of my own cables as well, but for many standard cables it turns out to be cheaper to buy them ready-made. Shop around a bit. For example, I recently placed an order with these folks:

http://www.audiopile.net/

I can't give you a recommendation (as the order hasn't arrived yet), but others have recommended them to me and they appear to be a pretty good outfit.

 

[SonicAlbert]

Check your gear manuals. If the gear is balanced use balanced cables, and if it is unbalanced use unbalanced cables. If you are going from balanced to unbalanced make sure you build the correct kind of connecting cable, i.e. balanced on one end and unbalanced on the other. This is if you really want to do it the completely right way.

But the most important thing is to check your gear and use the kind of cable that it specifies. Your choice of Mogami cable and Neutrik connectors is excellent in my opinion--you'll have a bunch of very good cables.