New Member
Looking for Cheap supplier or resellers of Multipair cables or Snake cables to build my own custom made size snake looms or stage boxes. I have managed to ring one place here in Australia from a place who supplies already made cable snakes, and the store puts so much of a mark up on the parts that its RIP-OFF. Any international stores or suppliers that any of you audio people know that sell it cheap or if you know of one here in Australia.
Ta
3D VIP 2004, '05, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12
It's usually not worth it, unless your time has no value. The guys who make and sell snakes do it so cheap that I cannot justify doing it for myself. By the time I've bought the XLRs, boxes, Kelum grips, various sizes of srink wrap, wire numbers, clear shrink, solder, cable, punched and painted the boxes, mounted the connectors, etc etc,.. well, as I said at first, it is usually not worth it.
I don't know what the import duties are to Australia, but the duties for parts verses the duties on completed items, can it be that different?
I make my own cables for the studio, I buy snakes.
Belden, West Penn Wire, Canare, Mongami, and many other make the raw cable. You probably have a national manufacturer you can buy from.
Neutrix and Switchcraft make the most sturdy and popular connectors. You can web search for your best price, but there is little dealing to be done unless you are buying in hundred lots. Usually the companies that make snakes buy in large enough quanitites that they can sell the connectors alone for a better price than most retailers.
Bill
Bill Park
Welcome Home Studios
The elites have squandered the country's wealth on two of the costliest and most useless wars in American history while blithely pretending that the environmental crisis doesn't exist. We no longer have any mechanisms within the formal structures of power that will protect or advance our rights.
(Chris Hedges)
Showbusiness. We're all here because we're not all there.
Old Timer
Unless you have some special applications, I agree. You said a word that set me back though, "cheap". That will equate to crap wire most of the time.
http://www.markertek.com they have everything you would need to build your own cables and snakes.
3D VIP 2004, '05, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12
Okay, so lets review.Originally posted by Carl Fuehrer:
<STRONG>http://www.markertek.com they have everything you would need to build your own cables and snakes.</STRONG>
assume a 50 foot 8 channel snake. All parts sourced from Markertek.
1 foot large black shrink for fanout end $3.60
2 feet clear shrink to cover fanout labels (you probably need about 15-18 inches) $4.00
48 feet black shrink to cover the fanouts (6 feet x 8 channels) $105.60
Whirlwind fanout cable end hanger (optional, but cheap and worth it.) $12
60 feet of 8 channel Belden snake cable (you need about 58 feet to make a 50 foot snake) $69.00
project box big enough for 8 channels $12.00
Neutrix chassis mount XLRs $17.68
Neutrix cable mount XLRs $12.32
What don't we have? Kelum grip for box end, wire labels, punch for chassis mount XLRs, shipping for any of the parts, solder, bolts, nuts, and washers for mounting the XLRs, clear shrink for drain wire on each channel... anything else?
Total cost so far... $224. And you still have to build it. There was a cheaper chassis mount XLR, but it was all plastic, and not that much cheaper.
A premade 12x4 50 foot snake from Markertek.... $150.
Bill
Bill Park
Welcome Home Studios
The elites have squandered the country's wealth on two of the costliest and most useless wars in American history while blithely pretending that the environmental crisis doesn't exist. We no longer have any mechanisms within the formal structures of power that will protect or advance our rights.
(Chris Hedges)
Showbusiness. We're all here because we're not all there.
Titanium Club Member (4000+)
I was going to post earlier, but I'm 100% with Bill on this one.
The only time I build my own cables is when I buy a broken one from the store and forget to check it before I pull it.
Ain't worth the time/hassle/trouble/flux fumes/burns.
Jim Dugger
Poorhouse Productions
At 20 bits, you are on the verge of dynamic range covering fly-farts-at-20-feet to untolerable pain. Really, what more could we need?
Diamond Club Member (5000+)
What is your time worth to you? Building snakes is a chore and the materials are expensive. I recently inherited a huge amount of raw 4 and 8 pair Mogami snake from a studio liquidation and bought some additional cable and all of the connectors to mmke up the harnesses, snakes, pastch cables, etc for my studio. Thank God a friend teaches studio installation at a college in Houston and unburdened me of this idea and made it into a *for credit* project for one of his classes or I'd still be trying to find the time to solder something like 400 balanced connectors.
Doug Joyce
Animix Productions
New Member
I do agree to an extent but I love to build and make and maintain. Everything from Studio furniture to cabling and maintaining and sprucing up my old ex 66 dodge. I wish I could build and fix gear but maybe in the future. So I only do little handy electrical problem fixing like light bulb is out, valve needs replacing, need knob cap on outboard replaced, etc. Everything I have in my studio I try to build or make or fix if I can. I guess it's an accomplishment thing like a person building a house, or maybe I am just a tightass. But I dont have big budgets or clients if any and I have built the studio for my own goals that I have since I was 14. I'm 15 ; ) just kidding. I guess, maybe the more expensivier the studio is, the more a person will rely on a professional to do the mediocre simple things. I think making cables is a time waster, if I was over the "building things or trying to save" but it's a good break from making music, plus you know each cable you make is to a quality your happy with.
Your right, it's only useful if you don't care for time, because it's not such a major thing as building your own preamp or furniture maybe which is more noticeable to a setup as well as more satisfaction of building something, than it is to just build cables that only makes a big difference in your studio if your into audio unless your comparing really crappy cables to good cables, but if you don't have the money to try to come up with good cables then your gonna have to make the time if you can save.
My other option was to buy those 50 foot snakes and cut it up in 6 meter lengths. I am still looking at my options.
Who know's, if I can get a good price for cables to supply my studio, then I too may take the easy route.
Ta
3D VIP 2005, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14
Radial engineering will sell snake cables that you can build yourself. The sell both Mogami cable and their own 'flex' cable (or something like that).
Nathan
Am I the only one without a small type signature?
Nathan
3D VIP 2004, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12
Greetings.Originally posted by Odeo:
<STRONG>Looking for Cheap supplier or resellers of Multipair cables or Snake cables to build my own custom made size snake looms or stage boxes. I have managed to ring one place here in Australia from a place who supplies already made cable snakes, and the store puts so much of a mark up on the parts that its RIP-OFF. Any international stores or suppliers that any of you audio people know that sell it cheap or if you know of one here in Australia.
Ta</STRONG>
Email me haigelbagel@senet.com.au
I may have some answers.
Cheers,
Haigbabe
Proud supporter of 3D as a 2012 3D VIP
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