hey folks... to go along with my newly ordered pair of beyerdynamic CK 930 mic pair, I'd like to make myself a couple more pairs of "active" cables. the remote cables that seperate the mic cap from the mic body aren't really "active", so I figure it will be fairly straight forward to make myself a couple more sets. the remote cables that come with the mics are 3 meters (9.84 feet). I was thinking that I would make two more sets of cables, a 5-foot set and a 15-foot set.
here's the issue that I'm running into.
the cables need to be 4-pin mini-XLR
male female to 5-pin mini-XLR female.
ordering those connectors is no problem, as they are readily available.
For the connections, 4 independent conductors are needed - which got me thinking along the lines of star-quad cables, because there are already four conductors in the single cable. (one of the pins on the 5-pin mini-XLR female is left unconnected).
but here's my problem:
according to the Switchcraft specs for the mini-XLR connectors (
http://www.switchcraft.com/products/qg_assembly.html), the max diameter for the cable is 0.170 inches.
The Canare L-4E5C (the mini-star quad cable) has an outer diameter of 0.189 inches. so it's too big to use with the mini-XLR connectors.
Similarly, the Mogami W2893 (star-quad mic cable) also has an outer diameter of 0.189 inches... again too big.
so, it looks like I have two options here:
Belden 1804a (silver-clad star-quad)
this has an outer diameter of 0.115 inches, so this will fit into a mini-XLR housing...
Markertek says that this is an AES/EBU digital cable, but a search though past postings here on taperssection indicate that others have successfully used this for mic cables... any input?
http://www.markertek.com/SearchProduct.asp?off=0&sort=prod&skuonly=0&search=1804a&pagesize=0also, markertek only sells this 500-foot rolls. Anyone know where I could get this by the foot?
another option is to get this:
Canare L-4E3-2P.
this is a two-channel snake, with two sets of star-quads inside. not too long ago, I made a stereo cable using the L-4E3-2P (see
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,111443.0/all.html). the outer diameter of each star-quad here is 0.134 inches, so it would fit inside a mini-XLR housing... however, I'd have to completely take apart the two channel snake to separate the individual star-quad channels.
so, it looks like those are the two options
Belden 1804a vs Canare L-4E3-2P.
one is silver-clad copper, the other is straight copper.
one is supposedly an AES digital cable, while the other is designed as a mic cable.
Are there other options? Any opinions?