paulears Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 I have some HST in orange - I'm not sure why, but is really collects dirt when gaffer residue is on it and it looks simply dreadful. Other light colours like white and grey suffer - but the orange seems very nasty looking compared to others. Blue fares well, as does red. Yellow is similar to orange but not quite so bad. Maybe it's because it's very vivid - so dark or dull marks stand out? Thanks for the canford tip - I now have some more orange! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 I've just placed a Thomann order so thought it'd be a good chance to do some experimenting. I've ordered 5m lengths of 3 different cables - the Sommer SC Stage 22, The SMK44BK (starquad) and the CMK222. They cost me pence so I'm not too bothered if one turns out to be rubbish. I've got some 5m lengths of the Studiospares Europa stuff so I'll compare the 4 types and post my findings. Canford HST is still looking like the most likely candidate, but I don't think orange is going to work for me so it'll have to be the full price stuff - hence why I'm keen to see if a cheaper product (particularly the Sommer stuff - seems a nice halfway house) will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Ok, the Thomann stuff has arrived and has been handed round quite a few friends whose opinions I value. So far the results are as follows (all very subjective and non-scientific). The Sommer SC Stage 22 feels the nicest of the 3 to touch. It's got a silicone/rubber sort of feel and coils nicely. That said, over time we're not sure how robust it would be. It maybe feels a little fragile in comparison to; The Cordial CMK22. This is slightly more rigid than the Sommer stuff. It coils really nicely and feels really quite robust. Similar feel I'd say to Duracat - flexible but not floppy (don't say anything!). Which brings us on to the SMK44BK. Even as it came out of the box it was twisted and tangled. Doesn't coil nicely and seems to have a memory of the last time it was coiled (I know most cables do, but this is far more prevalent). This is similar with the Studiospares Europa stuff. Whilst it feels nice to touch, it doesn't tend to play nicely when it comes to coiling. I also had my hands on some Van Damme mic cable over the weekend. Used it loads in the past but never stopped to take note really. I think compared to the cordial CMK22 stuff, I prefer the cordial product. Again it just seemed to coil nicer. The Van Damme seemed to behave more like H07 mains flex than a mic cable. Maybe that's why they last, but it's at the expense of flexibility. Yorkie, how have your Cordial cables lasted over time? I don't see anything to suggest they wouldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyandi Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Another vote for the Canford HST. Have quite alot of the Violet in stock (I like it too Paul) bought when they had it on deal along with some brown. Have a reasonable amount of Van damme which I think coils better than the HST. HST, at least the older stuff seems to kink worse when cold. Have alot of Belden 8412 which came FOC on a 1000ft drum & was when I acquired it(over 20years ago)was the over a £1 per foot. Has an immense construction with so much cotton? braiding in various layers makes it a nightmare to terminate but is insanely strong & with an H07 type outer sheath I have never had a single failure. A pig to coil long lengths mindyou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Yorkie, how have your Cordial cables lasted over time? I don't see anything to suggest they wouldn't. My experience of it is in churches, so we're not talking about the most abuse. The church I'm part of has had some lengths of it for about five years and it gets coiled twice a week, often by those who don't know how to coil mic cables. It seems to have held up well; well enough that I've been happy to sell it to other churches for their cables. For entertainment venue use I'd expect Canford HST/Van Damme/Evolution XPC stuff to hold up better, how much better than the CMK222 I don't know, but I can't get them for £55/drum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Chris, just wondering how the CMK222 has held up so far? Is the SMK44BK still nasty to coil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 While I won't settle for anything less than VDC cable and Neutrik connectors for my own stock, in the venue I frequently engineer in I specced up CPC's cheaper cables. £6.10 + VAT for a 10m XLR cable was too much of a saving for them to ignore over a large quantity. The cable itself isn't perfect, but handles well enough. I've had a couple of connector failures where the latch on the female XLR has given way. But, with a few of their cheap 70p female XLRs you can simply swap over the latch. So, certainly "good enough", and less of a problem when they go walkies... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's funny that this topic has raised itself this week. My living room floor is currently covered in mic cable as I begin terminating my new cables. I eventually went with Klotz MY206. I managed to get a couple of hundred metres for quite a good price from one of my regular suppliers at trade rate. I bought based upon a recommendation from an international big name who buy by the 10km roll! All their festival stages are cabled in the stuff so it must be ok! Initial impressions are really nice. 2 cotton fillers keep it in good shape and it coils really nicely. Also feels quite robust, without sacrificing ease of coiling. Thanks for the help and suggestions. It was between Canford HST and the Cordial stuff, until I got the pricing on the Klotz. I'm also in the middle of making up a load of shorter 16A cables from some longer lengths of 30m 15A that I got from a local hire firm when they closed down. Despite being marked up as 30m, chopping them in to 3 is producing 9m cables! I suspect somebody was on an economy drive when they made them up! I was going to make a post asking what standard lengths people used for their cables, but then I just did some experimenting on a few gigs and in an orchestra pit and reasoned that 5m and 10m would work pretty well for most suff. I've made 10 x 10m and 20 x 5m, plus some 1.5m patch leads out of some short lengths of Van Damme I had lying around. The theory with having more 5m than 10m is that I can always join 2 5m's together, plus as a digital snake user my runs tend to be pretty short as I can position my 2 stage boxes at different points on the stage or in the pit. I've used coloured heatshrink to identify lengths (my own scheme - used it for years and everyone who works for me knows it, plus my old cables are done with matching LX tape) and also some printed heatshrink labels with my name, their length and an individual number to make identification of 2 ends easier. I'm keeping my old cabling as the "B box" and it can now easily go out to schools and on dry hires as a cable package, once I get them all fixed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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