adam_824 Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Ok this might sound like a really silly question, I am looking at getting a Roland M480 and what I would like to know is can I use regular Cat 5 cable or do I need to buy specific Roland REAC cable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 My main cables are VDC, but I've also used some cheap stuff off the market that I've "installed" in a few regular venues. No problems at all, though none of these are particularly long runs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_824 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share Posted June 7, 2013 thats what I wanted to hear, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Roland's own cables are of the crossover type, which isn't the norm for touring cat 5's. That said, it'll actually use 1 to 1 cables perfectly happily as it auto switches. There's a tick box somewhere in a config menu (think it's the one you have to enter with a special key combination on power up) that enables this which should come ticked by default. I'm currently using 75m Kelsey duracat without a problem. Also heard good things (from the Blue Room) about Thomann's cheaper ones. Cracking desk! Love mine to bits. Think you'll be very happy with it.I've bought a box of cat 5 and started leaving it in venues. Takes another hour or so first time round, but then it's in for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Roland's own cables are of the crossover type, which isn't the norm for touring cat 5's. That said, it'll actually use 1 to 1 cables perfectly happily as it auto switches.I'd actually forgotten that - caused me a headache when I first got my desk, as I wanted to use a drum with sockets in the middle for my main run & short cables from the drum to the stage boxes so that I could split them up. I couldn't decide which cables would be best as the crossover part & ended up making up some little adaptors. To be honest, I'm very glad that they're not needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriswebster Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Hi Adam. Roland have applied the IEEE standard of device connectivity which requires crossover between devices. However, the M-480 also uses AUTO-MDI which senses whether a crossover cable or not is being used. The key point here is if you want a guaranteed 100m run on REAC from Console to Stage Box then definitely buy the REAC CAT5 W-100SR from Roland as this will work the full 100m distance flawlessly. Some CAT5e cables are stranded and this reduces the long distance transmission. The REAC cables from Roland also feature Neutrik Ethercon connectors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjriley Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I own several drums of Van Damme Tourcat which have been used for both ethersound and dante.Usually use a 100m drum of solidcore but have used a 50m drum of stranded before with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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