Members mlamarche Posted September 4, 2009 Members Share Posted September 4, 2009 I'm posting this here to take advantage of your expertise...can Coax (cable tv) type wire be used to connect units together...ie: preamp to power amp...effects loop in and out..etc etc....I'd heard somewhere that if you solder 1/4 " ends to this kind of cable, it makes a great and quiet connection.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillESC Posted September 4, 2009 Members Share Posted September 4, 2009 It should work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brent2_0 Posted September 4, 2009 Members Share Posted September 4, 2009 It wont be balenced, if that matters to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TimmyP Posted September 6, 2009 Members Share Posted September 6, 2009 Difficult to work with, more prone to breakage owing to the solid center conductor. I've never tried it in a PA, but tried it in a hi-fi and was not please with the results (and no, I was not using Monster or other BS gucci cables as my comparison standard:)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 6, 2009 Members Share Posted September 6, 2009 Will work but not a great solution. Difficult to work with and the foamed dielectric tends to melt with heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillESC Posted September 6, 2009 Members Share Posted September 6, 2009 We use compression connectors on coax cable. Very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 14, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 I hate to disagree but I made 5 of them about 3' each....2 from my preamp to power amp...3 for effects unit in and out of the preamp...they work great...almost no noise...good o/p ...made a noticable difference for the better....I was using HOSA pacth cables before...my homemade coax's are better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 14, 2009 Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 There should be NO noise. None. You may disagree, but you obviously are not in the business of making cables and supporting your products over the long haul. Hosa isn't a product to be proud to compare to BTW. That's like saying my cooking tastes great using spoiled meat... compared to bear {censored}. Coax cable has about a 70% shield coverage and a solid center conductor (most) which is not suitable for portable pro audio applications. Shield coverage should be ~98% braid and the center conductor should be stranded 22 gauge or larger. You have made a sub-standard cable that will work sort of ok for a while. If it works for your lower standards of performance, then it's a good choice for you. It is not a good choice in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 14, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 this is way over my head .... a 3ft monster patch cable costs over 25.00..I made a cable that costs nothing and to my ears sounds as good...Am I messing with the laws of nature? ....Maybe some folks out there do not want the usually broke musician to ear about this.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted September 14, 2009 Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 andy is saying so long as it's not going to be moved or abused it should work fine. but for those of us who need to use these cables every day, these kind of things would cause problems later on, and it'd be a problem that's tricky to diagnose in a hurry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 14, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 got it....I have these cables in my rack ...does not move much really ...I misunderstood what you guys where saying but at 50cents an end and free cable tv cable ...not a bad deal you think?..I would never use it as a 20ft guitar cable ...not flexible at all really ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 14, 2009 Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 Who spends $25 for a patch cable? Should run about $5 or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dark Ice Posted September 14, 2009 Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 I dont really get it. Off the reel, in my shop at least, the brown '{censored}ty' cheap coax isn't much different in price than the '75 ohm' (the cable you should be using) cable. How is it cheaper in the long term to use the wrong cable? I've got probably about the same amount of spare phono leads lying around as I have coax leads, if I were going to recycle I'd rather use the cable from the phono leads for your application. One wont 'sound' better than the other any more than your monster patch lead will sound better than any other mechanically sound lead. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 14, 2009 Members Share Posted September 14, 2009 Shouldn't be using either 50 or 75 ohm coax. The difference is zero for audio, that's just the characteristic impedance for managing RF signal transmission lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dark Ice Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 I should have clarified, '75 ohm' is just the term we use to describe general audio/video cable (a pretty thin gauge flex, usually twin with red/white internal insulation). I dont know of a better descriptive name for it, sorry. Obviously I'd rather use microphone cable for this purpose but if I were going to substitute for something I'd find lying around the house for free, I'd much rather use that than hard coax and its just as cheap. Conversely, out of curiosity, are there any pitfalls in using this type of cable instead of hard coax for aerial cable? Aside from the fact that in most cases the connector probably wont grip the cable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 75 ohm is specifically video cable and has the specified characteristic to match with source impedance and termination for kinimum reflected signal. This is important where the electrical wavelength is short compared with the cable length and becomes a transmission line. You probably don't want to use 75 ohm for arial cable, generally that cable has a characteristic impedance of 50 ohms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 15, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 OK now you all have me worrying that by using cable tv coax I may be damadging something...please let me know if this is the case...I also have lots of broken guitar cables lying around too ...and I can make my 3foot patch cables from that if that is the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NUSound Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 I may be damadging something Nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Chinese Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 OK now you all have me worrying that by using cable tv coax I may be damadging something...please let me know if this is the case...I also have lots of broken guitar cables lying around too ...and I can make my 3foot patch cables from that if that is the case. No, You're just kinda buying into some snake oil that is rampant through our biz. Monster cable anything is a complete and utter ripoff. Todd A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Chinese Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 I'm posting this here to take advantage of your expertise...can Coax (cable tv) type wire be used to connect units together...ie: preamp to power amp...effects loop in and out..etc etc....I'd heard somewhere that if you solder 1/4 " ends to this kind of cable, it makes a great and quiet connection.. Are you making a Guitar rack? IN that case, just get George L's. Work great, field repairable, sounds good, and is reasonably priced! Todd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 15, 2009 Members Share Posted September 15, 2009 OK now you all have me worrying that by using cable tv coax I may be damadging something...please let me know if this is the case...I also have lots of broken guitar cables lying around too ...and I can make my 3foot patch cables from that if that is the case. No, you are not damaging anything. I would have used guitar cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 16, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 16, 2009 yes this is for a guitar rack....and since it's not gonna mess anything up and it seams to work ok...I'll just leave it as is...good solid connections with very little flex to them and they don't crowd the back of the rack with a lot of loose cabling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 16, 2009 Members Share Posted September 16, 2009 Loose cabling has nothing to do with the type of cable. A 3' cable is always 3'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlamarche Posted September 18, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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