how important is microphone cable?

[dravenzouk]

You see? Audiopile/Mark's response here? How about that for well thought, expert, helpful, and considerate advice? AND it just so happens that the cables you get from him are EXCELLENT and really well priced (who woulda figured, huh?)

 

Trust me, get EWI blue cables from Audiopile and be happy. Great product, great prices, fast shipping, and the added bonus of dealing with really nice folks who know their sh*t.

 

As far as old cables "acting up" - do yourself a favor while you are on Audiopile's site and purchase a BugCatcher cable tester. Super handy tool to have and will eliminate all the guessing.

 

NEVER buy Monster cables. just don't.

[Killa J]

 

So you are forcing the cable to wrap around your wrist & elbow, making the kinks yourself. If hired as part of a stage crew, you would be kicked off and never hired again. I have a lot of inexpensive & mid grade mic cables that can and will last me my lifetime because I properly coil them. So will my speaker & power cables and snakes. Boomerweps

 

 

Well, I don't really "force" the cable around my elbow and hand. I don't wrap it tightly, and even then, I barely ever wrap them up at all. All of my thin cables just seem to twist themselves with normal use.

[W. M. Hellinger]

 

Well, I don't really "force" the cable around my elbow and hand. I don't wrap it tightly, and even then, I barely ever wrap them up at all. All of my thin cables just seem to twist themselves with normal use.

 

There's a better way.

 

Somewhere around here is a video.

[StanEllis]

Stop rolling your cables the wrong way! I've seen you do it a few times!

[DJ Swydez]

Are Live Wire cables "good"? A GC salesman through in 2 25-foot 12awg speakon cables free when I bought all of my gear a while back and they have worked well so far... seem to be good quality and fairly sturdy. Am I rite? Or are they one of those "off-brand" cheap companies?

[Unalaska]

Livewire stuff can be ok. I think it's Hosa stuff though but I can't remember. I know the speaker cables are good quality, the instrument cables would be the only thing to get considering the ONLY other option is monster. ug..

[Craig Vecchione]

 

Well, I don't really "force" the cable around my elbow and hand. I don't wrap it tightly, and even then, I barely ever wrap them up at all. All of my thin cables just seem to twist themselves with normal use.

 

 

 

Cables don't twist themselves. You twist them when you do the elbow/hand wrap.

 

Learn how to over/under or figure-8 your cables. They'll last longer, won't twist, and you can literally toss them by letting go of one end and it'll lay flat across the floor.

[session_of_jam]

Good discussion guys. I don't hang out in here much, but I'm having a good time absorbing all these useful tips. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has to refuse help coiling his cables. I get such a look of dissaproval from wanna be stage hands, but I usually just end up re-doing the knot they hand me. It usually hurts the helper even more if they got it super tight cause they were proud of the configuration and all they room they thought they would save me.

 

I use velcro ties on every cable. Sometimes one on each end. I use them not only to keep the cable coiled, but for other things too. I velcro cables together in a make shift snake as they run across the stage. This way they all run together and create only one or two isolated tripping hazards instead of many various hazards in every direction. The velcro even helps it stick to a carpeted stage! At first I was buing them in the velcro section of Homedepot. They had the nice bright colored ones, like $3.00 for (5). Then I found rolls of them in the electricians section. Slightly shorter, and grey and black in color, but they were rolls of 100 for $4.00..........Yeah! (Thats when I started putting two on every cable).

 

Its been a while since I have had a cable failure. And although I am quite happy with their performance, I have to admit that the last cable that failed me, was a monster.....but it was a guitar cable and it was my fault. I did the ol' kneel down, accidentally step on the cable, shortening the run from my foot to the guitar to about two feet, and then I stood up. Either my Strat's input, or the cable had to give, and the Strat won. And again in Monsters defense, I did go right down to Daddy's, and they handed be a brandy new one!

 

I think its that warranty and service that you pay for with Monster. And I do agree that you can get the same, if not better sound quality out of much less expensive cables.

 

Just my two cents.

[flanc]

 

There's a better way. Somewhere around here is a video.

 

 

http://stagecraft.theprices.net/gallery/cablewrap/cablewrap-qt.html

 

Here is one I saved.

[Les_Izzmor]

We use one of these for mic cables.

 

 

We just string the cables together. It keeps them all in one place as well. Is that not a good thing to do?

[Craig Vecchione]

We use one of these for mic cables. We just string the cables together. It keeps them all in one place as well. Is that not a good thing to do?

 

 

It's no different than wrapping over your elbow from the standpoint of it twisting the cable every time you put it on. This shortens cable life.

[W. M. Hellinger]

 

Cables don't twist themselves. You twist them when you do the elbow/hand wrap.

 

Correct.

 

Elbow wrapping oftentimes puts one full twist in a cable a little less than every 2 cubits (approx 40") of length. Besides that, elbow twisting forces these twists while putting a fair amount of tension on the cable. Imagine taking a 30ft. mic line, pull it nice and tight, then put about 10 full 360deg twists in it under that tension... and then let it sit for a week or more. Elbow wrapping is the same basic effect, except it's also all coiled up while enduring this torture.

 

Ever broken a piece of haywire, or coat hanger by bending it back and forth in one spot till it broke? Well... that's what elbow wrapping can functionally do to a signal cable over time... 'cept signal cables usually have stranded conductors, so what happens over time is a few (or many) of the strands will break here and there in the cable. That's bad since electricity doesn't "flow" very well from one strand to another... so having a bunch of broken strands in the cable functionally reduces the gauge of the conductors... plus audio is generally a complex AC signal... and with AC signals, if they don't have an exit path, then they just sort of sit and ring till they randomly dissipate (MOL into adjacent strands via induction). All this stuff adds to the noise floor in the cable, and though the cable might appear to function, and might check with a continuity checker, it could be adding otherwise unnecessary noise.