[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by direcow /img/forum/go_quote.gif wow qusp... that looks great! Where'd you buy it from?

het man; sorry I took this long to answer, I got them from percyaudio; but in all honesty after havbing used them now I wouldnt recommend them. they are very loose fitting in some jacks and actually pop out somehow; even when there is seemingly no pressure on them at all. I made a LOD for DIYMOD, with jena and kimber stranded silver (so not a cheap cable as I made it twin tribraid) I then set it in the perfect shape for my rig withmy hot air tool and it would still pop out, with absolutely no force pulling it out. so Lee I would stay away from them. pity because they had great potential; I actually sanded the logo off, so it looked like brushed alloy and it looks really sweet, really compact and was siumilar top the XLO which I really like.. so thats $40USD down the drain as I epoxied the cable up. may be able to salvage some wire, but will have to be for an exceedingly short cable.

anyway; this week I recieved my order from cryoparts of the vialue minis among other things and they are really quite easy to use and well made. the strain relief system is quite good; if a little bit painful to use with a middle of the road thickness cable.

plus Lee was kind enough to send me one of his new minis to see what I thought; and put it this way; I ordered some more. nice job. not just blingy, but also solid and well designed; i'll post some pics in a couple days too busy at the moment.


i'm not a huge fan of the huge gold stripe on the viablue, so I used black shrink for extra strain relief (which it actually needed too) and covered it all up but a thin hairline, so looks pretty tastefull now.and at first I was really disappointed with the viablue as I thought it was some sort of polymer barrel as it was soo light, so dont let the bulkiness fool you; they are lighter than switchcraft and these are the oposite of the ultralink; they fit very well with a firm fit in the jack.

 

[Xan7hos]

Is there an Ultimate DIY: 1/4th Plug thread out there?

What do you guys think would be the most appropriate plug for an 8 conductor (26AWG solid core) with some vintage/old school looks thats also black? I'm leaning towards Switchcraft or perhaps painting a Canare F12

 

[boomy3555]

1/4" or 1/8"

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xan7hos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there an Ultimate DIY: 1/4th Plug thread out there? What do you guys think would be the most appropriate plug for an 8 conductor (26AWG solid core) with some vintage/old school looks thats also black? I'm leaning towards Switchcraft or perhaps painting a Canare F12

well its not so oldschool looking, but I would still recommend the Furutech for an 8 wire cable the cable opening is quite large and yet the strain relief well thought out. second I would recommend vampire

but your message is a little confusing; the Canare F12 is a mini

 

[Xan7hos]

Yeah sorry, I'm leaning towards a mini plug (1/8).

 

[qusp]

forget the canare; its a POC, worst connector I have ever worked with and also limits the number of amps you can use the cable with as its sooo large that it gets in the way of inputs and volume knobs. really a very very crap connector IMO. besides the connector in your avatar has a cable exit that is just as large as the canare without all the issues. the canare is heavy, terribly designed internaly and a PITA to solder. seriously stay away.

any particular reason you want to make an 8 core cable?? more trouble than its worth IMO. 6 is about as far as I go.

but if you arew set on it; the viablue is probably the most suitable as it doesnt need drilling out to accomodate that amount of conductors. otherwise the switchcraft and actually the new cryoparts mini would do fine. might need drilling out a bit, but will accomodate it no problem.

either way..not the F12

 

[scootermafia]

If you're 8 wiring it, the Viablue mini would probably work, although I really don't envy whoever is soldering the plug with that, unless the wires are really small. Is that like 4 ground wires, 2 left, and 2 right?

Edit: headphone cable or just a general interconnect?

 

[musicmaker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif either way..not the F12

x2.

Xan7hos, The F12 is no good. Badly designed, total pain to work with and bulky. Go with the XLO, switchcraft or one of the others that are easy to work with.

 

[scootermafia]

Yeah I don't understand the draw of the Canare - ALO seems to favor them, but I don't admire their looks and if they're that hard to work with they seem to have nothing going for them. For me, it's either Viablue or keep it cheap with Neutrik, although I have to mod them to fit anything in them.

 

[FooTemps]

I firmly believe that if you can't solder a Canare well, you need to go back to practicing. I've actually had the best results working with Canare connectors versus others. I find the tabs to be much more sturdy and easy to solder to with multiple conductors.

Generally, the only people who hate Canare are ones who can't handle connectors without wire loops, IMO.

 

[qusp]

LOL; I can do them, but they suck. LOL; nice attitude; whats wrong with wanting to keep it easy on youself when you can. the F12 just presents too many problems, for what I consider to be no real benefit. if it were just one or even 2 of these problems maybe, just maybe I would consider using them for projects that suited them.

I dont use wire loops on even the ones that have them because the wire gauges I tend to use are too big. anything 24AWG and smaller is OK, but above that and I prefer to just tin the whole terminal, its a much cleaner solution. I think you need to put you attitude back where it belongs. IMO the only cables that you would use F12s for, shouldnt be going in a minijack anyway; you'll kill the sockets of whatever you use them in. If you cant fit all the wire you want in a switchcraft (drilled out) or viablue, then you are going for something more than sound quality and should probably rethink your motives. I make a living soldering DIYMODs among other things; the solder tabs on the F12 are not too small to solder; they just suck IMO; they are pissweak, doesnt come in a decent plating; they are IMO ugly and are way too expensive for what they are. I realize you are probably just trying to have a bit of fun and stir the pot; pretty transparent if you ask me. there is a reason they are not so popular among professionals.

there is a difference between cant and and cant be bothered

plus: just a thought, I think if you put minis up in a poll and asked portable amp manufacturers which minis they liked best, that canare would be pretty near the bottom, the amount of return/repairs there would be with F12 as the cause of minijack failure would be pretty massive I would think, they are actually thicker than some of the things they are supposed to plug into

 

[FooTemps]

lol, i'm not stirring the pot. You just seemed to be trashing on a connector unnecessarily. I'm dead serious when I say that the Canares have served me well and have been way easier than neutriks or switchcrafts in terms of soldering. If you say Canares are piss weak then What are neutriks, tissuepaper? Canares have double the thickness of neutriks from my experience.

I will agree that Canares are way too heavy and big for their own good though. Still, I personally still like the internal design and the plating has never been crappy for me. But then again, I've only bought them hand picked from a bin so I tend to chose the best ones I find.

 

[musicmaker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FooTemps /img/forum/go_quote.gif I firmly believe that if you can't solder a Canare well, you need to go back to practicing.

I have probably made close to a hundred interconnects. Soldering a canare isn't the issue. It isnt rocket science and anyone reasonably familiar with making interconnects can solder them. I find the canare to be bulky and awkward. When thin wires are used those plugs dwarf the wires and the connector looks wierd. I prefer the switchcrafts, XLO or even neutrik plugs anyday. Those are better options and I use them.

Now, if you like the canare plugs cool ! Use them to your heart's content.

 

[zeroibis]

Does anyone know of any plugs that have sleeves that come in two parts that perhaps snap together? I want to make a very very short cable but I realized that I could not fit the sleeve on if I made it as short as I want. My only other option would be to cut the sleeve in half and then epoxy it back together and then screw it in. (Logically I would like to avoid that for aesthetic reasons)

 

[Good Times]

Why not just cut the barrel down, but not split? You'll see some examples of this in the cable gallery (especially from EFN).