Gear / Technical Help > Cables
Two great mic cables for DIY builds
voltronic:
Over the past year, I have started making my own mic cables, and have had great experience with the following two cable stock that I would like to pass along:
1. Mogami W2930 2-channel snake cable
Extremely flexible and low-profile, ultra-low capacitance. The very fine wires are a bit challenging to solder.
Redco link
Another member alerted me that Redco's own TGS-02 is the same stuff at lower cost without the Mogami branding and with different fill between the individual channels. I have not yet tried it myself, but the appearance and specs seem to match up.
2. Gotham GAC-3 3-wire double-shielded cable
Highly flexible, lays flat, performs great, handles very nicely.
Redco link
GS thread on GAC-3 soldering
Here are pictures of what I have made with the above cable stock.
jerryfreak:
+T those look like great options
this is semi-unrelated but i just remembered an article from Benchmark discussing the rejection qualities of star-quad, so ill drop it here
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/116637511-the-importance-of-star-quad-microphone-cable
ive used canare's fullsized version (L4E6S), but i see that gotham offers a version as well
im not sure if the 'mini star-quad' like L4E5C offers the same rejection, but techinally if the relative geometry is the same i imagine it would I always thought star-quad was a canare brand/trademark but now that i see gotham has a version, perhaps there is a larger standard somewhere, or maybe it is an original Canare product for which any patents have expired
wiki with more links
fireonshakedwnstreet:
Very nice!
EmRR:
I’ll also add I’ve used a lot of Canare, and all versions handle well with little to no coil shape memory problems. I’ve got a lot of l4e6s that’s 25 years old and still coils/lays as it did when new.
I haven’t used the Mogami or Gotham, but both are well regarded.
voltronic:
--- Quote from: jerryfreak on January 23, 2021, 11:25:21 AM ---+T those look like great options
this is semi-unrelated but i just remembered an article from Benchmark discussing the rejection qualities of star-quad, so ill drop it here
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/116637511-the-importance-of-star-quad-microphone-cable
ive used canare's fullsized version (L4E6S), but i see that gotham offers a version as well
im not sure if the 'mini star-quad' like L4E5C offers the same rejection, but techinally if the relative geometry is the same i imagine it would I always thought star-quad was a canare brand/trademark but now that i see gotham has a version, perhaps there is a larger standard somewhere, or maybe it is an original Canare product for which any patents have expired
wiki with more links
--- End quote ---
Yes, I know about star-quad, and I have some long lengths of Canare SQ cable. Star-Quad also tends to have higher capacitance, though this won't really come into play until you have fairly long runs.
http://audiosystemsgroup.com/CableCapacitance.pdf
I purposely went with GAC-3 rather than GAC-4 because GAC-3 already has outstanding noise rejection, and I never have runs of more than 50 ft or work in environments where SQ might start to have a benefit. GAC-3 is a mainstay among the classical recording people on GS Remote. Many users their praise its sound quality, reliability, and rejection of dimmer noise and other similar sources. It seems Gotham's 3-wire cable performs like many others' 4-wire cables, at least in terms of noise suppression.
GAC-4 looks great, but I don't see any benefits for what I'm doing right now. I will consider it for the future if I ever want to make a very long stereo cable like this but at far lower cost.
That Benchmark article is very informative, but they are comparing star-quad to 2-conductor + shield mic cables. GAC-3 is 3-conductor + double shield, so I doubt the performance differences will be as great. I haven't seen any other mic cable assembly outside of GAC-3 where an equal-size inner conductor along with two outer shields are all tied to pin 1.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version