High End Cables for my Studio

[guitarz]

Hello,

In the constant quest to elevate the quality of my Project Studio I'm considering now, replacing all the cables with High End, High Quality cables.
What are your toughts, advices, etc?

Thanks in advance
Ricardo

[dbjp]

What are high end cables in your mind?

[guitarz]

I'm not talking about unreasonable high prices.

I have cheap'o regular cabling, and I need some advice on price/quality relation on my upgrade.
It also not easy here in Portugal to find decente cabling other then the regular everyday cables.

[flute player]

There are some good cables in the market.
- Zaola ( maybe a little over priced )
- Vovox

greetz,

Paul

[DarkSky Media]

If you go for "boutique" high end cabling you can spend a lot of $$, but there is a law of diminishing returns beyond a certain point.

OTOH, you won't go far wrong with good solid professional quality cabling from Canare, Mogami or Belden. Most of the cabling here is Canare L2T2S and it is great. However I do have a few instrument and mic cables that are Vovox, and felt they were worth the investment.

I've also recently been impressed with the modular snake system cables from Planet Waves also, so you might want to check them out.

[guitarz]

But from the cable point of view, are the cables used by planet waves any good?
I always thought they were ordinary. Not much different from the regular cheap'o.

[ThatSoundsWHAMMY]

High end cables or Coat hangers

[guitarz]

LOL

Originally Posted by ThatSoundsWHAMMY

High end cables or Coat hangers

[DarkSky Media]

Originally Posted by guitarz

But from the cable point of view, are the cables used by planet waves any good?
I always thought they were ordinary. Not much different from the regular cheap'o.

The quality of the cable itself in the modular snake system is what has impressed me. The "modularity" is a bonus.

[theslygoose]

Originally Posted by guitarz

I'm not talking about unreasonable high prices.

I have cheap'o regular cabling, and I need some advice on price/quality relation on my upgrade.
It also not easy here in Portugal to find decente cabling other then the regular everyday cables.

Don't know what is available in Portugal but brand wise great quality for a reasonable price would be Mogami and Canare (both Japanese). You are also close to Switzerland which is the headquarters for Neutrik connectors. Stick with them.... I think Mogami is a studio standard in the US and I know a lot of people here in Canada and the UK (so I'm told) use Canare.

[INDECISIVE_2000]

If you have some time on your hands, building your own cables is a cost saving way to improve your cabling. I went to an electronics distributor and bought Belden cables and Neutrik 1/4" connectors as well as XLR connectors and built the cables myself.

You would need to know how to solder, but that isn't very difficult and you'll get better as you make more. It is a time consuming task.

The cables I made are 10 times better than cables I bought, although, the ones I bought aren't known as high end cables. It will save you money if you need a lot, but if you are making dollars during the time you would need to build them, probably should buy. Time is money.

[Plush]

Any quality cable will work for you. Avoid star-quad cables because the capacitance is much higher with those.

Check Gotham, Mogami, Gepco, Clark Wire and Cable and Belden.

Standard issue cabling to the stars.

[Audiop]

Originally Posted by Plush

Avoid star-quad cables because the capacitance is much higher with those.

Not necessarily true:

What do you think about Schoeps mic cables?

Which cables do you used?

Besides that, most electronics has a parallell cap on the input that shunts HF between hot and cold or hot and GND.

The capacitance is seldom a problem since the low pass will set in very high up in frequency.


/Peter

[Sonik31]

Ricardo, se vives em Lisboa há uma loja, Arestel, que vende Gotham a metro. Já comprei cabos da Belden, no Porto, há alguns anos atrás, não me lembro em que loja...

Just helping Ricardo in Portuguese... thumbsup

[guitarz]

Thanks for the Help Sonik.
I contacted a reseller for Mogami here in Portugal. Waiting for a quote!

[Fletcher]

In every studio where I have ever specified the wire it has always been Canare "Star-Quad" for the mic lines [excellent RF rejection!!] and Mogami for all the line level interconnects.

You can get better and fancier but you'll spend tens of thousands of dollars more. If you've got it, go for it... if you don't those will work just fine.

Peace.

[basshoss]

Go the whole hog. Blow your mind and wallet.

Van den Hul: MC - The PLATINUM HYBRID Balanced (Halogen Free)

[Fishy1500]

I would highly recommend making your own cables. I bought mogami cables (ie: 2932 snakes, 2534 quad mic cables, 2524 instrument cables) in bulk along with neutrik connectors (xlr, db25, etc), shrink wrap and nylon sleeves and saved a ton of money making them myself. You can find these online for pretty cheap (ie: redco)

Soldering XLR cables is very easy (connectors are gigantic) and will be very quick after making a few. I must admit that it was a bit more challenging to solder DB25 snakes, but you also have the option of crimping them if you want.

If you're up for it, going this route will save you a lot in the long run.

[Bassmankr]

Don't forget to check ebay's "Business and industrial" section for audio cable from the above listed producers. Some fantastic deals for new cable there, left over on big spools or damged spools (cable is good but the spool got cracked up in shipping). Some great deals on large quanities of heat shrink there too so you can dress up your connections nice.

[guitarz]

Thanks for the tips.
What mogami cable did you use to connect mic pres to ADs?

Regards
Ricardo

Originally Posted by Fishy1500

I would highly recommend making your own cables. I bought mogami cables (ie: 2932 snakes, 2534 quad mic cables, 2524 instrument cables) in bulk along with neutrik connectors (xlr, db25, etc), shrink wrap and nylon sleeves and saved a ton of money making them myself. You can find these online for pretty cheap (ie: redco)

Soldering XLR cables is very easy (connectors are gigantic) and will be very quick after making a few. I must admit that it was a bit more challenging to solder DB25 snakes, but you also have the option of crimping them if you want.

If you're up for it, going this route will save you a lot in the long run.

[Fishy1500]

I have mine connected via the mogami 8-channel snakes (2932), but if you just need two balanced channels, you can just make two xlrm/xlrf mic cables (2534 quad mic cable)

[guitarz]

I think I'm gonna use W2549.

Originally Posted by Fishy1500

I have mine connected via the mogami 8-channel snakes (2932), but if you just need two balanced channels, you can just make two xlrm/xlrf mic cables (2534 quad mic cable)

[Fishy1500]

That should be fine too, but the 2534 quads are supposed to be a bit better, and will be the same cable that they use to make the pre-packaged "Mogami Gold" mic cables. The 2534's have two hot and two cold cables inside that you'll just join at the ends along with the standard copper shielding

[Jim Williams]

If you go with common copper audio wire like Mogami or Canare, use the digital 110 ohm versions. Those are less capacitance and do sound more open on the highs. The audio versions sound cloudy in comparison, if you do that sort of thing.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[guitarz]

Hmmm, I have never heard that tip before.
Has anyone tested this also?
Are they much more expensive?

Thanks for the info Jim!
Regards
Ricardo

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

If you go with common copper audio wire like Mogami or Canare, use the digital 110 ohm versions. Those are less capacitance and do sound more open on the highs. The audio versions sound cloudy in comparison, if you do that sort of thing.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[Fishy1500]

Hmm, thats interesting. I've never tried that before either, but I just found this in the product description:

"All of MOGAMI 110W AES/EBU digital audio cables are designed with flexibility and handy configuration. Since AES/EBU digital audio cable is low capacitance characteristics, it can result in high quality analog audio transmission in general especially for high frequency range."

Has anyone else tried this before?

[Jim Williams]

I've speced this wire for audio runs in studios since the early 90's. Everyone that uses it says the same thing, more open audio. Mogami makes it in snakes too, just like the audio snakes with the colored runs. The audio stuff is cloudy. I found that out in 1988 when I first used Mogami snakes in a large control room with 30 foot runs to the outboard racks. If I pulled out a piece and patched it in at the bay on the console, the clouds went away. Then so did that wire as it was replaced with the AES versions.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[SRS]

Canare for every cable in my studio. It is just great wire... and the sheathing is super pliable and it does NOT kink or get twisted and lays nice. Oh, and it sonically is superb, which is the most important part. There is a guy on the Bay that custom makes any type for a really good price. He has made all of my custom runs. PM me if you want his info.

Just to add some Canare info...

Canare Star Quad obtains its name from the 4-conductor style construction

that minimizes the “loop area” between twists of the conductors. This

“double balanced” pairing, reduces susceptibility to electromagnetically

induced noise. The improvement in noise rejection is so noticeable that even

SCR dimmer noise (stage lighting consoles) is reduced to less than 1/10 the

level found in other 2-conductor microphone cables.

Canare Star Quad is designed for use with microphones but is also

excellent for all line-level signals (e.g. mixer to power amps). The 4-conductor

Star Quad arrangement cancels electromagnetically induced noise from

SCR dimmer packs, fluorescent lighting ballasts and AC power transformers.

Handling noise is prevented by use of cotton filler material. Excellent frequency

response is maintained due to special irradiated polyethylene insulation which

provides a low capacitance dielectric.

Canare Star Quad cable is super flexible. We use large numbers of thin

wire strands in the copper conductors and overall braided shield. We

extrude a special compound PVC outer jacket that remains pliant at

extremely low temperatures with no wait between cold shipping and

installation.

[guitarz]

And it has no bad effect on the low end of the sound?
Do you hear any difference in the audio in the low end as well?

Best regards
Ricardo

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

I've speced this wire for audio runs in studios since the early 90's. Everyone that uses it says the same thing, more open audio. Mogami makes it in snakes too, just like the audio snakes with the colored runs. The audio stuff is cloudy. I found that out in 1988 when I first used Mogami snakes in a large control room with 30 foot runs to the outboard racks. If I pulled out a piece and patched it in at the bay on the console, the clouds went away. Then so did that wire as it was replaced with the AES versions.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[space2012]

Originally Posted by flute player

There are some good cables in the market.
- Zaola ( maybe a little over priced )
- Vovox

greetz,

Paul

i dont like the zaolla sound.