Topic: best cables?

[tommyn473]

Greetings tapers!

    I have no taping experience, but I'm working on putting together my first rig.  Thanks to the advice and suggestions of Brian Skalinder I've put together somewhat of a phantom rig in my mind.  I plan to run ADK A-51TLs > Edirol UA5 > D8....
   I haven't bought anything yet, so if anyone has other suggestions feel free to let me know... I'm a guy on a budget - the goal is to build the rig and keep the girlfriend ; )
    I currently have 1 million questions so I'll just start with one.  If I buy the ADKs (or any other type) will they come with the cables I need, or do y'all customize and purchase new cables to run to your preamp/dat?  
are there certain cables that really kick butt?

"baby steps to the cable shop...."

- Tom

[wboswell]

Personally, I began with something cheap and upgraded everything else before I did the cables.  You'll get much better results by investing in better mics than better cables.  That being said, with some patience, you'll find someone upgradinging their nice "old" cables for something new.  I have seen some really good deals on used cables on this board and others.  Used pays!

[geoff piper]

I'm in the same boat except instead of the rig and the girlfirend its the rig and the parents that fund my education. But you ahve come to the right place because everyone is willing to help. As for cables you will need one from your mics(xlr) to the UA-5 which has (xlr) inputs. Now you will need two of them one for each mic and as for kind well it narrowed down between a few. Audio Magic cables are  very good cables but they are also expensive around 180 for a pair of 15 ft cables. Most everyone that I have talked to recommened to go the make your own cable way which are carne quad cables. they run about 34 cents a foot. I'm about to order 2 18 ft sections with connectors( which are from 2-6 dollars a piece) to build. In order to go this method you need to know how to solder. But for 21 bucks you can make cables that are around 150 bucks its a good deal and not hard to learn. Thats all i can think of. Someone else will fill in the blanks i may have left.

[Brian Skalinder]

You'll need:

mic cables to go from your mics to the UA5
No need to spend big bucks on mic cables.  If you don't want to make your own, Markertek has very reasonable prices for quality Canare Starquad cable / Neutrik XLR connector cables:

http://www.markertek.com/MTStore/product.CFM?BaseItem=SC3XXJ

coax cable to go from your UA5 to a Sony 7-pin cable
75 ohm coax digital cable, RCA male / RCA male.  You can get a good, solid, inexpensive one at Radio Shack for ~$10-15 or so.

7-pin cable to get the signal into your D8
RCA female / Sony 7-pin, passive cable is okay.  The best quality and most popular are the Oade Bros passive cable (http://www.oade.com/audiocenter/oadecable.html) and the ProDigital cable (http://www.cascademedia.net/cgi-bin/cmedia/prodig.html) because they have the Sony proprietary 7-pin head.  Stay away from the Core Sound 7-pin cables.

And wboswell is absolutely right - go with inexpensive cables for now and focus most of your money on the other gear.

[Craig T]

Thanks to the advice and suggestions of Brian Skalinder I've put together somewhat of a phantom rig in my mind.  I plan to run ADK A-51TLs > Edirol UA5 > D8....

Excellent choice in components.  I run the TL's> wmod-UA5 and have been very happy with it.  I'm going to fall in line with others and recommend Canare StarQuad with Neutrik xlr's.  Get a 15-20' pair (xlr-to-xlr).  I have AudioMagic SceptorII's and really like them, but I also have a 50' pair of generics I use for split omni or stage setups when the 15' AM's won't reach.  Cables are about the last thing I'd worry about - they change the sound the least.  Spending more than the price of StarQuads gets you very little improvement, if any.  If you have a big budget, it might be worth the $400+ for that sliver of extra detail or bass extension, but most won't hear it.

[tommyn473]

Thanks to all the respondents!  I like the idea of not spending too much on cables, definitley want to make sure I get some solid components to work with from the outset.  Thanks for all the advice!  I'm gonna click the topic solved on this one....