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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: Richard Turner on February 05, 2019, 12:05:49 PM
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few years back someone posted the pieces claire bros use for long life rugged mic cables and i cant pin the tread with a search
was it neutrik M amphrenol F and some sort of belden for the cable or canare?
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It may have been @TimMcCulloch who posted it. As I recall the original was Belden 8412 cable and one end was Switchcraft and the other end Cannon. There was also internal heat shrink tubing involved.
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Might have been me, but I didn't post pics.
The female is an ITT Cannon Electric XLR-3-11C.
The male is a Switchcraft XLR A3M.
Cable was/is Belden 8412.
Shrink tube is applied to the drain wire or shield braid, then shrink is applied where the outer jacked it cut, and smaller shrink or Hellerman sleeves are used where the wire enters the solder cups.
I'll look around the shop and find the Clair cable we "inherited", that I keep as an example of how things should be done, but seldom are.
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The male is a Switchcraft XLR A3M.
Ever since I saw the first post I've wondered about this. The Cannon connector is beefy (and costs more on its own than some of my mic cable assemblies), but any ideas why the Switchcraft is preferred over, say a Neutrik?
-Russ
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Ever since I saw the first post I've wondered about this. The Cannon connector is beefy (and costs more on its own than some of my mic cable assemblies), but any ideas why the Switchcraft is preferred over, say a Neutrik?
The standard Neutrik male XLR shell gets damaged pretty easily, especially the latch. They've since come out with a heavy duty "XX" line that is better, though.
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The standard Neutrik male XLR shell gets damaged pretty easily, especially the latch. They've since come out with a heavy duty "XX" line that is better, though.
Ah right, of course, that makes tonnes of sense.
Thanks!
-Russ
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well it was the combo they used from the 80's
Neutrilk XX amphenol AX3 tool less connectors might be more comon in 2019
8412 is still awesome cable. Have some 100ft that I've had for 20 yers that were used when i got them, scary to think 1000' roll is $1650 from mouser/digikey now
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well it was the combo they used from the 80's
Neutrilk XX amphenol AX3 tool less connectors might be more comon in 2019
Ironically, I loaded in Clair's P.A. for Justin Timberlake just this morning. Sure enough, every mic cable was a Cannon XLR-F and a Switchcraft XLR-M.
-Russ
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well it was the combo they used from the 80's
Neutrilk XX amphenol AX3 tool less connectors might be more comon in 2019
8412 is still awesome cable. Have some 100ft that I've had for 20 yers that were used when i got them, scary to think 1000' roll is $1650 from mouser/digikey now
It would take some significant changes in connectors and cable for Clair to alter this. The concept is "build it heavy duty, build it right - almost never need repairs." In all these years I think I've witnessed a Clair person do 1 connector repair - to replace a partially crushed A3M - which is how I first observed the construction.
I shopped 8412 and XLR-3-11c a couple years ago and the best prices I found were around $1200/1000ft 8412 and just under $13 for the XLR. Higher prices today wouldn't surprise.
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It would take some significant changes in connectors and cable for Clair to alter this. The concept is "build it heavy duty, build it right - almost never need repairs."
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... and then rent it to your customer Over and Over and Over. Reminds me of the Western Electric phones that the Bell System leased to customers for decades. They figured out early that it was worth it to make them as bulletproof as possible no matter the cost because it was far more profitable in the long run...