Canford Vs Van Damme

[Rich newby]

Hi again,

 

I am looking a buying a few hundred meters of mic cable for my pa system. I will be using them with Sennheriser E845s's. It will be for on stage and will be coiled ad transported for every use, so it will have to be pretty tough. I am at the Minuit looking at 2 different cables, with a substantial price difference. The Van Damme mic cable, and the canford FST. The van damme cable costs over twice as much as the canford cable. I have always been a van damme man, but for this I'm not sure I can justify the price. They will be used for some incredible bands, but they are mainly under 20's. They will not be used for any massive systems, the most being about 1.5kw.

 

What do you guys think? Obviously the van damme is going to be better, but I don't think I need that quality for what I'm going to be doing with it. Oh and the bands will mainly be rock bands with some indie rock style as well (I.e coldplay)

 

Cheers

Rich

[Brian]

Hi Rich

 

FST is not meant for mics, to quote the Canford datasheet...

 

This cable is intended for installation purposes, and is not recommended

for applications where continuous flexing is required.

 

If you flex it too much the foil bunches up and makes a nasty kink in the cable and stops being an effective screen.

 

As an alternative to VDC have a look at Kelsey's ATM Mic cable.

[Andrew C]

Obviously the van damme is going to be better, but I don't think I need that quality for what I'm going to be doing with it.

Having taken on board what Brian has written, for a fair comparison, look at Canford HST. (Helically screened Twin, as opposed to Foil Screened Twin)

[Simon Lewis]

Obviously the van damme is going to be better, but I don't think I need that quality for what I'm going to be doing with it.

Having taken on board what Brian has written, for a fair comparison, look at Canford HST. (Helically screened Twin, as opposed to Foil Screened Twin)

 

 

Rich,

 

I'd heartily support Andrew's suggestion. Whereas I do use VDC's standard mic cable, it isn't quite as "coilable" as Canford's HST. Also, HST is easier to prepare and there isn't much shrinkback when you tin and solder the two cores. Also, HST is cheaper than the VDC equivalent. I made up ~ 30 or 40 mic leads out of of HST back in 1985, and they are still going strong!

 

Two caveats though:

 

1) I am not a great subscriber to the "ultra pure copper hand plated by nubile virgins in silver offered to obscure deities and blessed by the goddess of esoteric hifi". What I will accept is that the copper needs to be of good quality, and that I have observed the effect of some impurities (predominantly in the insulation?) that have caused copper to form what appeared to be a non conducting copper sulphide layer. I didn't have a short wavelength laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer to check it with;-)

I believe that the Canford cable is fine for your application. However, if you are sold on oxygen free copper, you may wish to purchase accordingly.

 

2) Most of the cables I purchase now are ready made by VDC using Van Damme mic cable. Much as I'd like to, I don't have time to sit down and make them anymore :-(

 

Hope this helps,

 

Simon

[handyandi]

Hi Rich

 

I have been using Canford HST for a while now & its fine. Available in plenty of colours & easy to work with & coil. One factor you may want to think about is that canford offer free P&P over £25 which all helps especially if buying heavy cable.

 

HST brown & HST violet are currently on offer as well so you could save a bit more.

 

Have fun soldering & don't breath too many flux fumes!! :wacko:

[The Magus]

Studiospares bog standard mic cable, product code 543001 is perfectly ok for most applications and would be a good choice if price is an issue. It's moderately flexible and has a copper lapped screen (better longevity than foil if the cable is to be repeatedly coiled). Don't feel the need to buy 'top name cable' if you're not planning to use it with a Cadac console, Neumann mics, Lab Gruppen amps and EAW boxes! I doubt very much that your first car will be an Aston! Keep things in perspective.

 

By the way, I see you're still having problems with the spelling checker.....

[beware]

Always worth a gander at the ready made cables from theloudest.com. Done me proud so far.

[The Magus]

Slightly OT, but has anyone tried the ready-made XLR leads from CPC? They're cheap, cheap, cheap - but are they nasty too? Are the connectors any good?

[bruce]

I have used the CPC cheapies, in an environment where XLRs frequently get nicked. You get what you pay for - the connectors and cable are all very low-end.

 

But they work.

 

Might be useful in an environment where things were being connected once and never touched again...

 

 

I tend to use the CPC own-brand mic cable, which if I remember correctly is around 20 pounds per 100m drum. Surprisingly good for the price.

[paulears]

HST is my favourite - really tough, comes in loads of colours, is easy to put on. It seems to have really good rejection to interference - I regularly use it on stage with some quite spiky dimmers and it is great. I also use musiflex - with the conductive plastic jacket - which is so easy to put on, and is great with the Neutrik IDC XLRs. (Mind you, this is not so easy to get now)

[Andrew C]

I tend to use the CPC own-brand mic cable, which if I remember correctly is around 20 pounds per 100m drum. Surprisingly good for the price.

Not the Viper stuff where the inner insulation disappears if you even get the iron out of the drawer? If you are good, and patient, it can be soldered, but it's not easy! :wacko:

[bruce]

No - not the viper stuff - the Pro-Power one. and not the cheap variant, which has a rubbish screen.

 

Something like CBBR4168/69/70

 

http://cpc.farnell.com/productimages/cpc/standard/CBBR417006-40.jpg

 

Flexible, fairly substantial screen, plenty of "string" buffer. It's not in the Canford class, but is perfectly serviceable, and at list price 22 pounds per roll (or 26 for red/blue) it's good value. If it was a touch heavier, it would be even better...

[Rich newby]

Hi guys and thanks for the help. I am sold on the HST now, and will enjoy using my beautiful Weller WD1000 Solder station! I am planning on making my own for 1 main reason, the connectors. I am going to use the Neutrik NC3MXX-B and the NC3FXX-B as these with red cable will be pretty recognisable in a bunch of cables, even without the markers!

 

Cheers

Rich

[Chanter]

Hi Rich

 

I have been using Canford HST for a while now & its fine. Available in plenty of colours & easy to work with & coil. One factor you may want to think about is that canford offer free P&P over £25 which all helps especially if buying heavy cable.

 

HST brown & HST violet are currently on offer as well so you could save a bit more.

 

Have fun soldering & don't breath too many flux fumes!! :)

 

I know this is an old thread...I was searching and stumbled upon it. But....I am surprised no-one mentioned that the Canford HST comes in ready made up cables of various lengths and colours intended for mics and uses Neutrik XLRs.

 

Rich; the other advantage for you is that Canford are based only about 5 miles as the crow flies from Gosforth.

 

They must want rid of that brown HST though....it is STILL on offer :huh:

[TomHoward]

I was about to post a review of those cheap CPC cables before I realised this thread was over three years old. If anyone still cares, they are okay, I bought a load for use on really 'demanding' local venue stages; nowadays I pretty much only use them for intercom cables if we run out of the primary grade XLR. The connectors look like Neutrik but the strain relief isn't anywhere near as good.