[00lunar]

Hey there,

Quick questions mates:

1. Are ViaBlue XLR,s good enough to go with HD800 and Audio-Gd gear? I mean, there are lots of great XLR's out there, but the ones from viablue are great priced in a place, where i am living. Are they good compairing them to Locus Design XLRs or furutech?

2. Are y-splitters from Viablue ok? They look excellent but don't they have some weaknesses?

3. What can i get linen sleeve for cables, like the one which is originally on HD800s cable? I don't want to get synthetic stuff on my wire. I've also noticed that viablue has some sleeves on their site, but idk if they are linen or synthetic, well, at least the pictures don't tell me that.

Any replies will be appreciated

Peace,
Dave

 

[scootermafia]

1. They all have gold-plated bronze pins so they're on an even footing.
2. How can a y-splitter have a weakness? They're decorations...anyway they're extremely nice.
3. Wirecare, nylon multifilament sleeving is similar. There's no such thing as linen sleeving. You can get white cotton from various places.

 

[musicman59]

I don't have experience with the XLR connectors but I have their 1/4" TRS and it is very nice as well as the spliters.

 

[ericdube]

The ViaBlue line of connectors are of nice quality. In my opinion (with a few exceptions to the rule), it really just comes down to personal preference on which connector to use rather than anything else.

The ViaBlue SC-2 splitter is also of nice quality and made well. While it's light enough to use on a headphone cable, the only thing I don't like about it is the single opening end is a bit on the large side for the diameter of most headphone cables. It has an 11.5mm opening which ends up leaving a large gap around the cable (and the screws aren't long enough to hold the cable in place either). Even with some of the thicker cables including any techflex/multifilament and heatshrink you might install over it, the best I could come up with is a thickness of around 8.5mm (using both nylon multifilament and 3:1 heatshrink (a little thicker than 2:1) (without adding any unneeded additional layers and extra weight.))

I notice a lot of people either load up a couple more additional layers of heatshrink to fill the gap or pack something insides the splitter (I've also read about people using cotton and glue to keep the weight down) to make it fit properly without being loose around the cable. I actually just ended up ordering the ViaBlue Ferrite Filter Core in case that has a 9.5MM opening to try to get a closer fit around the cable and just mate the housing to the "split" portion of the SC-2 splitter. (From what I read on the spec sheet, it looks like it should work (since you can discard the ferrite core which would add too much weight), but until it arrives I won't be 100% sure yet.)

Anyway, I'm sure others may have different opinions on this issue, but I figured I'd point it out anyway so you would be aware of the issue before trying to assemble your cable. Good luck!
 
Update: You can mix & match the SC-2 with the Ferrite Filter Core case to get a smaller diameter hole. It's a tiny bit heavier than the original SC-2 body, but not much and the screws are plenty long enough to secure the cable inside from pulling out.