Topic: Minimizing cable strain on the R-09?

[dmaster]

So, there may or may not be problems associated with cable strain on the R-09's so I'd like to figure out how to minimize the impact...

I was figuring to get fairly short right-angle 1/8" cable, plug it in and attach it to the R-09 in a semi-permanent fashion (something I can get off if I need to, but secure enough that it'll stay in unless I put out some decent effort at getting it off..) and then use a barrel connector to plug my mic cable into the cable on the R-09, so I'm basically never taking the original cable out of the jack on the unit. 

Is there any one who's doing this already and might have some suggestions on which way to affix a cable?

How about any dealer/site/whatever selling a relatively small cable with a female end so I can skip the barrel connector?  Will having that extra connection significantly impact the sound quality?  I need to be able to use different cables from the preamp to the R-09 in different situations, so affixing a cable long enough to do what I need to do just won't work out for the times where i don't want an extra 2 feet worth of cable hanging around.

[stevetoney]

I just had a member (jkm78) on this list make me a cable.  His company charged a very reasonable $20 excluding shipping.  The cable will arrive on Monday. 

This is a six inch long cable made with Mogami 2330 cable.  It has a straight 1/8 female connector on one end and a right angle male connector on the other end.  The right angle end of course will plug into the 'line in' jack on the R-09 and I plan on leaving it plugged in all the time to prevent undue 'line in' jack stress (even though the jack has been  worked on by Edirol).  I will bend the cable down around the body of the R-09 and secure it in place by wrapping one or two velcro straps around the body of the R-09 so that the cable is snugly hugged to the body of the unit.  An alternative is that I may tape the cable slack to the body of the R-09.  The tape of course will be stuck to the body of the R-09 on the back underneath the AGC, Low Cut, etc switches. 

Obviously, with this cable attached, for each show I will plug into the female jack on the cable instead of the jack on the R-09.  Hopefully this will enable the R-09 to last as long as I want it to.

You asked if there should be any sound degradation...I'd think that as long as you use good quality connectors and quality cable, there should be no reason the sound quality should be affected.  However, I'm no expert.

I highly recommend contacting Justin (jkm78) if you want a similar cable or if you need any other cables.  Not only are the prices excellent, but the turnaround was only a day or two. 

Hope this helps!

Steve

[guysonic]

My USA company 'Sonic Studios' also makes a custom molded R-09 minijack extension for this purpose for $5 more cost that includes USA shipping.

[pool]

I isolated the jack like this:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,82987.0.html

[guysonic]

I isolated the jack like this:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,82987.0.html

Looks to be a really well built bump-guard for the deck, but hard to tell just how the shell works to relieve strains from a (way too long cable strain relief) right-angle plug like in the photo. 

Maybe try to explain/show just how this is working?

[manamana]

I used a dummy plug that plugs into the mic jack, attached it to my regular RA cable with some epoxy and fiberglass...the electrical tape was to mold the epoxy as it set.

I have yet to see another R-09 jack solution that works anywhere near this well.

[Gutbucket]

I used a dummy plug that plugs into the mic jack, attached it to my regular RA cable with some epoxy and fiberglass...the electrical tape was to mold the epoxy as it set.

I have yet to see another R-09 jack solution that works anywhere near this well.

Great idea with the double jack.  Does the line in jack over-ride the mic input if both are in use or are both inputs active simultaneously? I never tested this as I've only used one jack or the other.  If you flip your double "one active, one dummy" plug around does the mic input function?

[manamana]

I used a dummy plug that plugs into the mic jack, attached it to my regular RA cable with some epoxy and fiberglass...the electrical tape was to mold the epoxy as it set.

I have yet to see another R-09 jack solution that works anywhere near this well.

Great idea with the double jack.  Does the line in jack over-ride the mic input if both are in use or are both inputs active simultaneously? I never tested this as I've only used one jack or the other.  If you flip your double "one active, one dummy" plug around does the mic input function?

From the manual:

If a device or cable is connected to the [LINE IN Jack], input from the microphones is disabled. Therefore,
it is not possible to mix microphone and line input during recording. If there is sound input via both the
[LINE IN Jack] and the [MIC Input Jack], only the sound from the line input is recorded.

I've never flipped it around (or even considered that), but I would assume that the physical switches inside the jacks would detect a plug in the line-in, and record that (silence). So this is probably not a good solution for folks running mic-in. I'll double check this the next time I have it all set up (I'll just turn the sax down to 0 gain)

[Church-Audio]

I used a dummy plug that plugs into the mic jack, attached it to my regular RA cable with some epoxy and fiberglass...the electrical tape was to mold the epoxy as it set.

I have yet to see another R-09 jack solution that works anywhere near this well.

Great idea with the double jack.  Does the line in jack over-ride the mic input if both are in use or are both inputs active simultaneously? I never tested this as I've only used one jack or the other.  If you flip your double "one active, one dummy" plug around does the mic input function?

From the manual:

If a device or cable is connected to the [LINE IN Jack], input from the microphones is disabled. Therefore,
it is not possible to mix microphone and line input during recording. If there is sound input via both the
[LINE IN Jack] and the [MIC Input Jack], only the sound from the line input is recorded.

I've never flipped it around (or even considered that), but I would assume that the physical switches inside the jacks would detect a plug in the line-in, and record that (silence). So this is probably not a good solution for folks running mic-in. I'll double check this the next time I have it all set up (I'll just turn the sax down to 0 gain)

Nice work.. One of the things I do with epoxy to make a plug housing is use aluminum duct tape. And shape the housing out of it and then pour in the epoxy resin. Once it has hardened I remove the aluminum tape.. I use the aluminum tape because I find it sticks best to the jack... and does not allow for any of the epoxy to leak out.. Nice job one of the ideas I had that I wanted to share was using an IPOD headphone jack and taking it apart to use the "PIN" in the jack and then you can make it even more low profile. Nice job though it should work great.

Chris

[Nick's Picks]

brilliant!!!

what I would do...is just put an elastic around the deck, and holding the cable down its side.  that kept it still and relieved A LOT of potential strain by moving the point of flex down to the tight elastic.
sure, the deck can still be tweaked, but it would be a lot harder to damage the jack w/this rubber band in place.

[Gutbucket]

Photos of: Modified Body Glove case ($20) & HeadRoom 1' right angle cable ($10) that came with my headphone amp.  Case secures the cable in place.  It's the smallest, most compact right angle jack I've found.  I lost my original cable and they sent me another free of charge thats pictured here.  The original cable had an even more compact jack than this one, sticking out about 1/4" less than this one. The cable is at the top of this page on the HeadRoom site.  The photos of the cable on their site is the old one, but the 4" cable 2nd down is the newer 1/4" longer style. Works a charm.  I only wish they offered this cable a 1 meter length.

Here's the new jack (the barrell section just above the TRS contacts is the new 1/4" longer part):

[Nick's Picks]

yup.
I do the exact same w/my MR1 and its various cables.