Mic Cable. DIY vs Premade, $$$?

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ambi

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I've heard that you can make really good cables with a good roll of cable and some good connectors (neutrix).

Is it really a lot cheaper to buy a roll of cable and a bunch of connectors and solder them yourself? I made some speakers cables before using 16 gauge wire and a coulpe of mono 1/8' male connectors for my computer speakers. I did a bit of soldering, etc.. Besides taking quite a while it was fun and i had some cheap cables that were pretty good. Now mind you i bought all that at radio shack.

But on this board people say buying high quality premade cables is really expensive, but you can just buy a roll of the cable and the connectors and do it for cheap.

Is this a good idea? Easy to do? Would it be a lot different than the cables i made before? And what type of cables/connectors would be the best? Or where i can order them from?

Also i'd need some 1/4' connectors, xlr, and rca. All mic cable i guess. To go from sound card to amp, mic to preamp, preamp to sound card, preamp to amp, etc..

Anyone have any experience with this? i'd be greatful for some sharing!
 
do it for this reason: when the chips are down late at nite, on stage or at a session, youll be able to save the day by fixing a bad cable, since you had bult them before yourself. The most valuable piece of equipment in any studio is a soldering iron, and the knowledge of how to use it.
New worlds will be opened to you, as you will be able to throw things together where once they didnt fit.
 
now if you only knew how to time align your cables..........hehe
 
Hmm, time align eh... complications?

What about actual brands of cables and where to get them?

Is it actually really cheap to do it that way? And could i solder on an RCA connection?
 
It's way cheaper to make cables even if you don't buy an entire roll.

You can get cable in whatever lengths you want from places like markertek.com ... last time I checked Canare Star Quad mic cable was like $0.34 something a foot. Mogami Quad was around $0.68 a foot. You can also get regular satin switchcraft XLR connectors (A3M & A3F) for $1.99 apiece.

So a 10' canare mic cable would run you like $7.40. A 20' cable would be $10.80. Built from these parts they would be high quality cables...you tell me where you can get high quality cables for that price!

Even mogami is a steal. A 20' mogami quad cable could be built for like $17.60.

DIY cables is the one DIY project that I'd recommend to ALL homerec'ers. Not only is it reasonably easy to make them, but you save a lot of money in the process. Plus you get some extra skills...no more throwing bad cables away!

Slackmaster 2000
 
RCA shouldn't be hard ...........its an unbalanced cable anyways. There are some good cables I have tested on a wave chart as well as overall performance. The BLUE Cranberry cable (quad cable) is really nice, but doesn't have the lifetime warranty as the Moster cable does.

I would have to say if you want some kick ass cable look into the Studio Pro 1000 series from Monster. This shit is bad ass, time aligned, with all the trimings. This stuff has a huge difference on the wave chart......hard to understand until u see and hear the difference.

: )
 
Could i also buy this monster in bulk for relativly cheap?

And just as i can buy 1/4 or xlr neutrix and switchcraft (is switchcraft better than neutrix?) i could buy an RCA one?

Zallen any ideas where i could order this stuff? Mind you i live in Canada, i don't know if i'd have access to any of this locally, but it's nice to get some names of good cables and connectors so i can call around and find out my options.

Also what gauge am i looking at?
 
What the fuck is "time-aligned" cable?????????????
 
well to make it a short story.........your frequencies arive from start to finish of the length of the cable at the same time. Similar theory to aligning speakers between high and low frequencies............

all you need to know is, its a good thing! : ) and u can get these cables at any music store......GC, sam ash ....bla bla bla
 
And they cost... I'm guessing a lot!
Are they mic cables or speaker cables?

Also is mic cable a standard gauge or do you have to pick which one? If you have to pick, what is the standard gauge?
 
the most expensive Mic cable i have seen was about 130.00 bucks .........this was the Moster 1000 time aligned cable. there are others cheaper though. Standard mic cable gauges are 22, although i have seen larger.......being smaller number of gauge. You can get this type of cable in a mic or speaker cable. Hope i could help you out...........im going to bed now...........so I can have energy to say these answers to the millions of people that will ask me tomorrow at work lol har har...tee hee...........oh boy..

later
 
time aligned cables?....sounds like a scam to me...haha
 
It's not a scam, but that money can certainly be put to much better use in a home studio. Some DIY canare with switchcraft or neutrik connectors will perform very well and not break the bank.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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