cable brand recommendations

[Robert Bobson]

(after posting this, I searched some more and found the answers I was looking for)

StarQuads with Neutrik, Canare or Mogami cables are generally deemed "best".

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Starquad is great, for fixed installations, for people who are extremely cautious with cable, or for the guy who can afford to throw away cable and have extras on hand during location shoots. All of our internal cabling is starquad, none of our portable kits have starquad; we started discovering all sorts of leaks and little noises creeping in after a couple months of hard use. Turned out the superfine copper breaks fairly easily inside the jacket.
Just a word of caution.

[Ross Jones]

Coming from the UK where a lot of pro audio folks use Klotz/Neutrik as the norm, I was disappointed that Klotz is virtually unheard of over here. I brought a few with me and use them when possible, but there's always a need for new cables, right..?
I have also used Belkin/Neutrik - which have been OK, but not very flexible. StarQuad is a more flexible cable, but I'm open to suggestions for cables for field use.
DSE - what do you guys use in the field for location shoots..?
Ty - ...and what do you use?
Rgds, Ross.
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[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

We use standard two conductor/twisted pair Canare cable, I've forgotten the part number, but it's the middle of the road in diameter. They make thin and thick, we're "medium" if that would be a descriptor. We have a bunch of the thicker cable for long runs over light traffic areas as well. FWIW, we keep them separated on two reels, color coded. On aspect of note, we had a few of the very thin cables at the US Snowboarding Championships last year, and in spite of being SOW and sub-zero rated...they failed after being out all night on a reel in a truck. Unreeled the cable, you could hear and feel the snapping, and that was that.

[Robert Bobson]

So no Starquads for location work.

what about Audio-Technica or Audix?

canare over mogami?

[Tim Gray]

If you don't want to go starquad, check out Musilux by Wireworks (www.wirelux.com). It uses a conductive plastic shield instead of your standard wire braid or foil shield. 100% shield, extremely flexible (way more than any other mic cable I've used), and very little memory.

There's a user (Matt G.) that I've seen here who will make you some cables with it if you don't feel like ordering it in bulk. He's also on DVXuser under the name MattinSTL.

I'm not related to the company. I was introduced to it in college by one of the sound guys there and have been using it the past 5 years very happily. I do want to note that I don't do sound for a living, so I'm not (ab)using these cables every day.

[Ross Jones]

Musilux looks interesting.. looks similar to a product in the UK called 'Musiflex' I believe.. (it's been a while since I was there..) which also had a conductive plastic sheath/shiled. I used them for a while, and yes, they're extremely flexible... however we found that the cables failed fairly quckly.. We think it was due to the fact that the conductors/sheath/outer protective layer - all moved relative to each other, which resulted in unnecessary strain at the soldered pin in the connector. Even though the Neutrik cable grip appeared to clamp the cable OK, internal 'slippage' seemed to happen - which eventually resulted in a failed cable..
The Canare StarQuad has a braided sheath which whilst being significantly more robust limits flex in the cable itself. Klotz uses spiral wound copper wires as the shield which allows both increased flex, and ease of use - when preparing cables for soldering..
Rgds, Ross.
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[Glenn Davidson]

My experience with Canare StarQuad has been excellent. All my pig tail patch cords are made from this. They are now 14 years old and have travelled with me to well over 200 locations. No problems that I have noticed. I just did a visual inspection and see no signs of breakdown. I pulled one from my attic, it had melted styrofoam stcking to it from the heat but the cable jacket looks and sounds fine. I like my Canare Quads.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Robert Bobson

So no Starquads for location work.

what about Audio-Technica or Audix?

canare over mogami?

Audio Technica isn't a cable company, and Audix definitely isn't either. Both offer cables, but AT gets them from HOSA, if i remember correctly. HOSA isn't exactly high-quality stuff.

Hard to go wrong with either Canare, Mogami, or higher grade Belden.

[Robert Bobson]

Great ~ thanks for the info.