What cables/connectors are recommended for mastering.?

[DaleRoyce]

What cables/connectors for mastering.?
As i have a limited setup (six peices of so called 'mastering' standard gear.. excluding monitors),
I figure i could splash a little on some fine cableing, you know..
....something above the norm, below the hype, but not a waste of money.
What to get, and where from?
Ok, here is what i'm in need of..
2x toslinks @ 1m
2x SPDIF 75ohm coaxial @ 1m
6x balanced XLR to XLR's @ 01m
2x AES/EBU 110ohm XLR to XLR's @ 1m
2x BNC 75ohm Word Clock @ 0.5m ................cables.
As usual i'm in need of these things yesterday.
Any advice will be handled in a desperate and reckless manor.. as always. Thanx

[rick]

i seem to have been spending a fortune on this stuff this year
i dont know what to tell you except dont follow me down this rabbit hole

try apogee cable is easy to get and they do most the digital stuff you need
and sound devices in the city stock it.

i have am putting custom parkside sound cables made in japan, and cryogenically frozen with the new neutric emf shielded xlrs with little ferrrite beads built in
does it make a difference...?

i 'll tell you next year when its either still here or i have chucked it all out

[DaleRoyce]

Thanx mate.
At first i started local @ Hi HiFi stores. "Sorry.. a 1 meter coaxial of the grade YOU require.. will set you back about a grand, and thats entry perfofmance for what you need it for... Hang on.. Bill.. Dont we have some of that liquid silver nitro coaxial out the back for about $200 a meter... Some bloke ordered it, it's usually $900.. Blah blah blah.."
Then I spent two weeks researching on the W.W.Wasteofmytime (enjoyably so).
I read on more than a few sites that in my $$$ league there a 2 large
manufactures. Belden and Canare. And there are countless players selling mystic
wires of great and magical abillity that are really only rebadged/sleaved versions of the above. apparently even the mighty Apogee's w/eye cable is just a belden 1800f 110omm goody resleaved). Some crazy guy say's he accually cut open the apogee and a the belden was waiting inside with a wink.
I dont have the loose change to care enough about it. So i went with some mass opinion, good marketing, great service and damn right on my $$$ range.
I'm going with Canare cables. It's a japanese cable and connector set (75ohm RCA/BNC'c), and The bal stuff use's Black Neutrik w/ gold pins connectors.
I sourced them @ http://www.cs1.net/products/cables.htm
I asked for a discount on their goods and got a yes ;) 10% ;) sweet.
I let ya'll know what i think when they are hot and runnin. :)
The sales gent was Mark Schneider.

[wez]

mogami.

canare is fine for live, but for quality without the audiophool price tag, it's mogami for me.

[TimS]

Yep, I agree Wez. Mogami all the way..
Also, try Arvind at www.puresonics.com.au
He's very quick (for custom stuff) and is very well priced - mainly deals with Mogami/Neutrik though.
I had some custom stuff done and I had it within 24hrs..
super quick and excellent work..
Tim..

[rob]

ah....the mythical world of cables...

my thoughts are :

anyone who is making big claims about special cables at very "special' prices are tugging your chain

buy "good" cable - canare, belden, mogami

buy good connectors, gold plating is good, solid pins are good - neutrik

if your cable is for AES / EBU - use specified 110ohm cable

if your cable is for 75 ohm SPDIF / wordclocks - use at least double shielded 75 ohm coax

your requirements seem to be all short lengths and it's a fixed installation so there is nothing else really to get hung up about.

IF you have really long cables, IF you have really long cables with Microphone level signals running down them, then there are some factors to be considered and capacitance, impedance balancing, resistance, shielding are important factors that will have an effect. All the big names produce cables that range from good to very average in this regard.

If you're wanting a mic lead for a death metal band that uses pyrotechnics and corrosive fluids in their performance then there are a bunch of other things to consider.

I always recall my days working in a radio station. It had four studios, a production room, a master control room and a news room with half a dozen journalists with audio setups. The whole shebang was spread across two floors each of something like 35m x 120m. The microphones were hooked up with shielded cable. Every other cable run ( and thousands of cables ran everywhere linking all these facilities together was done with solid core unshielded telephone wire! Now sure this wasn't a mastering studio. But the audio quality was fine as EVERYTHING was balanced in and out, and most of it and all the critical paths were transformer balanced. So despite probably thousands of kilometers of cable, all unshielded, there wasn't a hum or buzz in sight.
This tale is just to put a perspective on things, i'm not saying you should use solid core telephone wire! ( Although......)

Rob

[DaleRoyce]

Thanx to all,
and thanx rob for the perspective.. I think the only thing left is for rick to drop a short piece (a paper if you will) on the newest, latest, higher tech, spaceinvader-repella,
cryo-flex, liquid cooled, suna powered, wiz-bang (but not hum) silver sidded copperillium infused cableing, and ofcouse the connectors developed by nasa to withstand all outside interference from any and all other invadeing life forms..... Hey i guess i did learn a thing or two about cables this week on the web ;)

[rick]

talking about cabling there are not actually very many unique cable companies floating around and you will find that
small audiophile companies that claim to have actually "made" the wire are dubious claims at best

last year i very nearly went with an endorsement with a cable company that is considered to have the worlds best cables... we got as far as discussing the deal / the legals and the 60% discount .
the catch was the price .
how much would you want to pay for a total of 500 m of cables...? even with a 60 % discount...?

i believe $723,000 US was just a bit to much for me !

but at $18,000 for a 1 meter xlr to xlr cable what other price could they offer me ..?
i smiled and politely asked if i could get delivery in 7 days ..?
oh no they said it takes 3 months t "break the cables in ".
ok no deal i said .

i have since sourced a similar grade of wire straight from the factory that curiously had a 3 month waiting time
for custom runs .
price ...? well much closer to the price of your run of the mill - mogami , belden or no name branded jaycar cable.

did i mention close looped bandwidth limiting ...? you need that if your seriously going in to nutso cable land

err nobody needs to go into nutso cable land .. trust me

just use quality connecters good soldering and your easy to get pro cables and your are 99.8 percent there.

[mfdu]

and nobody has yet made a smutty joke about laying cable. oh. whoops.



rob - thanks for keeping it real, with your tale of solid-core cable runs!!!

oh i just kill myself.

c.mfdu

[DaleRoyce]

Hi TimS,
Took your advice. Thanx.

[tall_phill]

I always recall my days working in a radio station. It had four studios, a production room, a master control room and a news room with half a dozen journalists with audio setups. The whole shebang was spread across two floors each of something like 35m x 120m. The microphones were hooked up with shielded cable. Every other cable run ( and thousands of cables ran everywhere linking all these facilities together was done with solid core unshielded telephone wire! Now sure this wasn't a mastering studio. But the audio quality was fine as EVERYTHING was balanced in and out, and most of it and all the critical paths were transformer balanced. So despite probably thousands of kilometers of cable, all unshielded, there wasn't a hum or buzz in sight.
This tale is just to put a perspective on things, i'm not saying you should use solid core telephone wire! ( Although......)

Rob

When I attended some Syn-Aud-Con classes, Pat Brown actively encouraged the use of unshielded twister pair for balanced line level runs. No possibility of earth loops, or Pin 1 probs etc.

Neil Muncy wrote an AES paper titled 'Noise Susceptibility in Analog and Digital Processing Systems' that objectively looks at the noise susceptibility of the of different cables. Jim Brown and Bill Whitlock followed up on that paper with one titled 'Common-Mode to Differential-Mode Conversion in Shielded Twisted-Pair Cables (Sheild Current Induced Noise)'.

These two papers give a good insight into the some of the objective measurable differences between cables.

Cheers,

Phillip

[TimS]

Hi TimS,
Took your advice. Thanx.

Hey Dale,
Glad have been of help. Arvind is just up the road from you in Strathfield too - even better!!
Arvind is excellent and you'll be very happy with his work.
Fast, quality work/soldering and quick on postage/shipping.
Glad it all worked out right.
Tim..

[DaleRoyce]

Hi TimS, Thanx again
Arvind's work is flawless. And a nice bloke to-boot. He even sourced some flash
75ohm digital cable and connectors from KORDZ for me because i explained my needs and concerns regarding quality.
Beutiful to behold, and sound better than wife in the morning.
Attention all........ Arvind is recommended most highly. Affordable custom quality in my own backyard.. Damn.

[TimS]

Can't go wrong - he's worth his weight in gold XLR connectors ;-}