Stuart91 Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 I have a project coming up imminently which requires some 4 way balanced looms. Looking for (ideally) 5m, 10m, and 15m lengths. I remembered buying some from CPC a while ago, but can only find 8-way in their current catalogue and online. Studiospares and Thomann are similar. I'm ideally looking for XLR looms, but could cope with jack looms as long as they are balanced. Cheap moulded stuff would be fine. The use is going to be relatively light, and the budget doesn't really stretch to buying Van Damme or Sommer cable and building myself. Anyone able to recommend a source? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Could you not just do 8 way ones if you find them cheap enough, gives you spares on what can be a little unreliable cable and allows you to expand. Perhaps you could change 4 to XLR and leave 4 jack so you had a choice. Without buying the 4 pair cable and terminating it yourself I'm not sure. As you say most is 8 pair, it probably only costs a few % extra to manufacture 8 pair and as such it isn't worth making 4. I bought a pre made 4 way loom once, about 5m in length, heatshrink, braiding, numbered etc, very good quality, until part of it got caught up in something and destroyed the end. I cut it off in its entirety in order to re strip and terminate and it turned out to be 6 pair cable not 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 Could you not just do 8 way ones if you find them cheap enough, gives you spares on what can be a little unreliable cable and allows you to expand. Perhaps you could change 4 to XLR and leave 4 jack so you had a choice. Rob makes a good point, and indeed I may have to resort to 8-ways in the end, but I'd like to keep the cable bulk down, along with the number of tails that the users have to work with. The application definitely requires only 4 pairs, and will need to be XLR. I'd be happy enough rewiring jack looms if it works out to be the most economical option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sound Man Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Found this on eBay. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mixermend Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 If you need 4 way looms - why not make them up using really good materials?Van Damme cable will cost double the price of the eBay stuff, but you can put pliosil nylon braiding on the tails and use genuine Neutrik XLR's - and end up with something really decent that will last.Compare the cost with using individual microphone cables - now a multicore cable looks like good value!The (occasional) availability of very cheap multicores has 'distorted' the market, making good quality items seem 'expensive' - but they are not really..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gruner Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Compare the cost with using individual microphone cables - now a multicore cable looks like good value!The (occasional) availability of very cheap multicores has 'distorted' the market, making good quality items seem 'expensive' - but they are not really..... Very very well said - I hate all this cheap stuff..! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boswell Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 In their latest offers, CPC have 8way XLR looms on offer, Unfortunately I've just tidied up an can't find the flyer!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mixermend Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I have just had a look at the CPC multicore offer - these are available in 3m, 6m and 10 metre lengths, none of which are ideal for Stuart. Boy are they cheap though, being £13.50, £15.00 and £16.50 (plus VAT) respectively for 8 way XLR to XLR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 Thanks for all the replies. I agree in principle with building from good materials. We are Van Damme dealers and have very little else in our hire stock. However this particular application is very lightweight use and a pretty tight budget. If I quote for tailor made looms using Van Damme and Neutrik the project won't get off the ground. The 8-way looms boswell refers to would probably fit the bill as far as cost and durability goes, but the customers only need four lines to each location, and will likely just get themselves in a confused tangle if I give them twice as many as they need. The cable that David turned up on eBay is also available from CPC at £50 for a 50m reel, so that might be a route I go down. Whilst I appreciate Rob's point about it being almost as much hassle to manufacture an 8-way, I still can't fathom why nobody supplies pre-made 4 way looms... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djtom29 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Does this help?? Link Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boswell Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 The 8-way looms boswell refers to would probably fit the bill as far as cost and durability goes, but the customers only need four lines to each location, and will likely just get themselves in a confused tangle if I give them twice as many as they need. If that is the concern then chop of the ones not required! It's still cheaper than buying a 50m reel plus 8 XLR plus your time, KISS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Am I right in thinking that the cpc cable reels (50m of 8 pair etc) have gone up considerably in price over the last couple of months. I seem to remember them being very cheap, and suddenly, only slightly cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave C Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Am I right in thinking that the cpc cable reels (50m of 8 pair etc) have gone up considerably in price over the last couple of months. I seem to remember them being very cheap, and suddenly, only slightly cheap. Maybe - but be careful. They seem to use a couple of 'cheap' suppliers, and both are supplying multicore looms, with only a pound or two in the difference. One uses moulded XLR's and the other uses re-solderable 'neutrik' type copy XLRs. Also, the bulk cable (could be 'pulse' brand but could also be 'pro-signal' or something like that- it's one of the value brand suppliers) in 50m reels shows on the website that it comes in BLACK, but when I ordered a reel last year and it was delivered it came in BLUE. Not a big deal for some, but for us it was as we were doing a lot of stuff for video at the time, and needed things to be as un-notiiceable as possible. I eventually got the Sommer Mistral cable and it is super. Dave C. (edit) Actually - I've just had a look and they have 3 brands of looms: Pulse (moulded), Prosignal (copy neutrik XLRs) and a 'no-brand' with solderable XLRs which are not neutrik copies. I have one of these 'no-brand' ones and it is important to note that the core numbers are NOT pronted on the individual core sleeves. These looms seem to be made from offcuts of other multicores, as the XLR shell labelled channel 1 is soldered to a core sleeve which has another number (eg 17) printed on it. This (number 17 printed on a core sleeve) is on an 8 way loom! The core sleeve numbers do NOT correspond to the XLR shell number, nor to a regular 1-8 numbering scheme, on these 'unbranded' XLR looms. However, if that's ok for you (it didn't matter in my application for that loom) then they might be better than the molded ones, but I'd say not as good as the looms with the neutrik copy XLRs. Dave(end edit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickb12345 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 If you need 4 way looms - why not make them up using really good materials? From the original post: The use is going to be relatively light, and the budget doesn't really stretch to buying Van Damme or Sommer cable and building myself. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundspider Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 What is your budget? There's this stuff http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/mc0005/balanced-multi-core-cable-4-pair/dp/CB1332387?Ntt=cb1332387 from CPC which is 50m 4 way cable at about a pound a metre, so you could make several looms with XLRs (either good Neutriks or slightly less good CPCs!) for about £70-£80 altogether - surely that's cheaper than buying pre-made looms? OK, so the cable is blue, but even so...! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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