Cables and connectors

Audio guy here! You're looking at a fantastic piece of gear, a digitally controlled analogue patchbay via proprietary software: just connect everything here, and then choose, at a glance of a mouse click (or else), your signal path! I've this patchbay since 2022, always patched into my machine room, and by its software I decide what combination of rooms/musician/signals I want to drive into my SSL mixer. Besides, 16 preamp and 16 hi-Z input, give me all the elasticity I want to. Really appreciate this product, Colin!

The DBX PB48 is a low-cost, no-frills, 48-point, 1/4" TRS jack front-and-back patch bay. Patch channels can be normalled or de-normalled depending on how you have each module oriented--to change configurations, you loosen a plastic nut, remove each module, rotate it an re-install. The plastic nuts are spaced close together which can make them difficult to access and manipulate, and care must be taken not to crack them. The process of removing the modules for re-configuring is fiddly and tedious. If you expect to re-configure your patching scheme very much, I would look at other bays with easier mode-changes. The faceplates are very simple, clean and dull: charcoal metal frame and white label strip areas. I suggest using a thermal label printer with 1/4" tape for labeling these bays. I used 8 or 10 of these bays for years until my recent installation of a vintage console with internal TT patch bay. Patching is good and solid for a while with the DBXs, but in due course you will find the need to clean the internal contacts (coating a patch cord end in Deoxit D5 and inserting it several times in each patch point will do the job. Due to poor chassis rigidity and flimsy plastic-nutted module mounting, the modules are very prone to cracked socket solder joints on the module PCBs with continued use, which will cause intermittent connections and incorrect signal levels. I was pleased as punch by the time I upgraded patch bays and retired the dbx bays after about 5-7 years of service because they'd gotten to a point where I was having to pull and re-solder modules all the time just to keep the studio usable. I have also owned and used similarly priced and classed bays by Re'an and Neutrik. I consider the dbx and Re'ans to be very low duty, suitable for a light-use home studio and no more. The Neutriks are the best of the bad bunch, easier to reconfigure, a little more rigid hence a little better life expectancy, and good connectors. It would be a better spend of money for more serious or frequent patchers such as commercial facilities or frequent-use home studios to to bite the bullet and look into more expensive, slightly more permanent but better built, more difficult to install BUT more efficient, reliable and professional TT/Bantam patch bay options with multipin quick-connects or hard connection terminals on the back. The patch points on my 31 year old MCI console are much more solid and reliable than a ~5 year old, routinely used dbx PB48...let's put it that way (the dbx bays sure install easier, though!) Again, in a light-use home situation, I expect they would be longer-lived and just need periodic cleaning. Sonically, well, you're always going to lose a little something with the additional connections points a patch bay adds to the signal chain, and this rings especially true with jack in, jack out bays like the dbx PB48, but beyond that, these guys don't do anything especially horrific in a worse-than-average sort of way to the sonic quality of the signal. They're no better or worse than other similar bays in this regard...er, until you've patched one too many times, the solder joints start letting go and your signal starts getting wonky.

I bought this cable in jan'2025 to use w/ my Jackson DKMGTFF & Orange Crush 20. 1st i did, i tested the capacitance. Having ~530pF for 10 feet gives us 53pF/feet, almost x3 of what good guitar cable should have. Actually i'm searching for a replacement and i will return this article back (bought on amazonfr). There are good cable w/ 15pF/feet to no problem. So just need some time to check datasheets (capacitance aren't mentioned for this cable btw!). Shielding is average. 20.50€ too expensive for what is it. I'd say, no more than 10 bucks.

The Gotham GAC-3 cable assemblies are high quality low-noise cables available in various lengths and jack colors. Mine employ Switchcraft XLR connectors that hold up well over time: the black metal housings are very strong, and the gold contacts do not oxidize over time like nickel contacts tend to do. The jackets are available in multiple colors for coding; this is great for keeping track of the typical spaghetti mess of cables on a stage or studio floor, and the cables coil well and feel nice. The cable stock features very high quality copper conductors and braid which, along with the good connectors, equate to fast, clean, quiet sound. The quality of soldering and assembly strain relief are all excellent and better than some others I have peeked into. My assemblies all came in a thick-mil plastic zipper bag, along with a red plastic cable tie that is reusable for years. The prices are premium compared to more pedestrian cable assemblies, but quite fair compared to other premium assemblies. You do get above average parts and build for the price, in addition to some thoughtful packaging. In more critical situations such as studio recording, I feel that they are well worth the premium given the return in quality and confidence, and in fact represent good value for the money. I have used many other brands and types of cable assemblies at various pricepoints; my Gothams mainly see use in a commercial recording studio and hang on a wall along with BLUE Kiwis, EWI Starline and Starquad, and others including custom Belden/Neutrik assemblies. The Gothams rank right up at the top as far as I'm concerned. They are my go-to cables and I much prefer them in all parameters to the BLUE Kiwis, whose jackets and quad cable stock are much stiffer and have clumsier, less reliable XLR ends. I have found Gotham's US distributor pleasant to deal with and genuinely concerned about quality of materials and signal transfer. I have and will continue to purchase the Gotham GAC-3 assemblies, as well as their other products. Price paid was for 25' assemblies with black/gold XLR ends.

Hi-fi use. Since 2014. I've used plenty of cables before these. Overall opinion. After some listening time, the Diamond are neutral, the sound is smooth, the resolution is soft, due to its transparency with lots of details, without really highlighting any given frequency. The dynamic response is accurate, there's no question about it! What you hear is music. All sorts of music. From studio to live, from classic rock to electronic music. They are the best cables I've had. And I've heard quite a few...In fact you don't hear the Diamond, you forget about them, because they give way to the recordings, to the music. The elegance of music at its height. That's what many other cables lack. They are among the 3 or 4 best cables for hi-fi. A cable is not meant to make a unit sound better in this or that frequency range, it's only supposed to let through the signal in its entirety without adding anything. Price isn't everything.

I purchased 50 ft. of this cable when I got tired of my George L's cutting out on my board. I shopped around for prices and could not believe what it would cost to have custom cables made for my board so I decided to take a crack at it myself. I have a loaded Pedal train pro along with a few smaller boards I use so I need a lot of cables and I need them to last. The Pedal train boards allow you to route cables underneath the board so you get a nice clean look with no cables to step on but, as I learned with the George L's , you need a sturdy cable with a solid soldered end. This cables looks and feels like a good quality product. It is not too stiff and also does not feel like rubber in your hands. Some other cables seem to have too much bend memory where they tend to just coil themselves into a knot on stage. Assembly was easy with a good soldering iron and quality plugs.I chose g&h plugs. I custom cut and wired my whole board in a few hours and did not have one bad cable. The sound was fuller to me compared to the George L's and seemed more present than the Canare cable I tried. These are not huge differences but sometimes the little things can make a big difference when getting into a performance. I can now lift my board out of the case and plop it on stage without any worries of loosening a non-soldered plug and re-arranging pedals also no longer results in re-doing my cables. At a buck a foot plus plug ends I see no reason for anyone to buy store made cables. You will be much happier with custom lengths and it's a great way to learn how to solder

The Furman PB-40 is your run of the mill patch bay, consisting of 40 points in a single space rack mountable unit. It has all 1/4" TRS connections, and is all around quite standard for a TRS based patch bay. I've used the PB-40 on its own in a smaller home studio, but you can definitely get a few of these and use them as a full on patch bay in a professional studio if you so choose. That's pretty much all that you need to know in terms of characteristics, and it really isn't much to know at all. The PB-40 seems to have a pretty good build as well, although since I don't own myself I can't say how well it will hold up over time. Having said this, I think that as long as you treat it properly and don't move it around violently too much, you should be all set. There are a whole slew of 40 point patch bays available, including that made by Tascam which I have also used, and I have to say that I really don't see a difference at all. A 40 point 1/4" TRS patch bay is going to be what it is regardless of who makes it, granted that it is made with the right equipment and isn't made incredibly cheaply. Basically what I'm saying is that if you're in the market for a patch bay of this size, I'd do a comparison of the price between brands as the first thing to look at. The price of the Furman PB-40 is very reasonable and is right in the range of what you should expect for a patch bay like this. There isn't too much more to say that I haven't said, but the bottom line is that the PB-40 is a solid patch bay that will get the job done for anyone who needs a 1/4" TRS patch bay of this size...

Many people ask me what this machine is, and what it can do. First off, this box is designed for a keyboard player who has multiple synths in a keyboard setup. No, it's not the 'most' user-friendly device that has ever been made, but if you read the manual carefully, you should get somewhat a good idea how to use this. First off, you need to make sure you are always in the correct 'mode.' Otherwise, you're routing assignments and Midi configurations will all be messed up! So always double check what mode you're in, because it can get confusing. That being said, it also obviously has many options, and is such a high class Midi router. It can route anything to anywhere. Really professional, really powerful. It also sends program changes, or "sound changes" to each individual Midi Output. You can custom-build these sound change messages just to you're liking. You can even save these settings into 64 separate user-preset locations on the machine. They can be recalled in Program "PGM" mode by using the eight push-buttons to enter the numbers. This program change mechanism is my personal favorite part of this machine, and it's exactly why I said it is designed for a keyboard player with multiple synths. Many synths these days are so complicated, and take for ever to call up a sound because of keyboard's modern complexity. This machine can do all of that for you, via Midi. It can do all of this for ALL keyboards in your setup at ONCE, by simply punching in the number of the preset! Again, so professional. To put the cherry on top, it has two built in Midi Processors. This is actually the most complicated part of this JL Cooper MSB+ Rev 2. They call it a "Rev 2" because it is the second version of the JL Cooper MSB+. The difference between the classic MSB+ and the MSB+ Rev 2, is the Rev 2 has two built in Midi Processors, which basically allows more Midi control! You can transpose, channel bump, and much more. As mentioned earlier, you can save 64 user presets on the JL Cooper. On most old patchbays, these presets are individual for what you are trying to do. For example, only a routing assignment can be saved to a preset. If you want a program change, that is its own preset. A midi processor is another separate preset, etc. With the JL Cooper, it combines all of these into one preset! You can send program changes, use Midi processors, route custom assignments, etc. all in one preset change! You no longer have to have separate presets for separate things. Very convenient. Some patchbays don't even have a processor, or the ability to send program changes. So, this machine CAN do all of the above, and CAN do all of it at once. It is the most sophisticated Midi patchbay ever created and continues to be in a class of its own. It was actually the first ever patchbay to be considered a "Midi Switcher," because it can switch so many Midi messages (Program Changes, Processors, Assignments) all at one time. I remember a good friend of mine had to have five different patchbays (Yamaha MJC8 to be exact). One MJC8 sent program changes, one was routed to a tone module to apply a reverb effect, another one was sent to a seperate sold Midi processor to send to each keyboard. Another simply merged midi data from one master keyboard. What a pain! That's almost as bad as having to change all keyboard settings manually! Point is, the JL Cooper MSB+ Rev 2 would have been the better buy for him over the Yamaha MJC8, because the Cooper can do EVERYTHING each of his five other patchbays can do, all in one small box. Switch to a mode to do whatever Midi message you want to do, and when you're all set, touch the "write" button and assign it to a preset location by punching in the desired number. Switch to PGM mode to recall those presets. GET THIS MACHINE. BEST ON THE MARKET. THERE ISN'T A BETTER BUY!

Cables are often the part of our signal chain that is taken for granted even though they play a vital role in the signal chain. I have owned and used Mogami instrument cables for years and have never had one fail and still believe they offer some of the highest quality of sound available. The price stated above was for a 25 foot length of cable. When I upgraded my studio this year I needed to add many new devices that I had not had in the past. Now that I had the need for a few XLR cables for reamping, micing sources, and routing signals I knew that I would want to keep the signal quality as high as possible. To anyone not familiar with Mogami cables they may appear to be odd and cheap looking but do not judge the book by the cover. While the connectors are big and substantial with gold plated connectors are as tough and responsive as they look many people think the cables will not work well because of the thinness. These cables may look thin and honestly I agree they do seem like they would be inadequate but that is not the case. As I stated earlier I have been using these cables and I still have all my original ones from almost ten years ago all in perfect working order. They are incredibly tough. They also reject outside noise and handling noise as if they were 5 times ticker than they are. It is truly confusing how they achieved this but they did and it works. Now the real deal is in the quality of sound. I have found that these cables do not color the sound like some other high end cables do. Instead they are airy and full. I can hear less compression then with a cheaper quality cable and the frequency response seems broader and even. If it were in my budget I would move up to the gold series cables all around as they are even more pristine sounding but as far as bang for the buck goes I would always say the silver series wins hands down.

The Alesis Guitar Link Plus is a perfect way to get your guitar tracks right in your computer without having to purchase an interface with other inputs or having any other bulky gear around. All you need is this cord and your computer. You can even use it with an iPad via USB connections but you will need to purchase the iPad USB adapter which is not very expensive. I mainly use this with my iPad and recording into various apps. It does come with Guitar Rig LE that has a few amps and effects to work with right out of the gate. I do own the full version of Guitar Rig and I can say it is worth the money to have it. The LE is ok, but upgrade to the full version if you really want to get the best out of it. The cord length is over is pretty long making it easy to have my iPad on the table while recording into it from sitting in a chair or at my desk. The quality of recording you will get is ok but it is nothing that makes me not want to record with my interfaces anymore. This is just a cable that I keep with me in my bag with my iPad so that I can always record some guitar riffs and ideas into my iPads and sometimes later I will take that audio clip and bring it back to my studio to add more effects via Guitar Rig and other plug ins. The Guitar Link is very inexpensive and it is a must have for any guitarist that wants to record and doesn’t want to mess with bulky interfaces dealing with a bunch of technicalities. I have been using the Guitar Link Plus for a while now. I do not use it a lot because I definitely get better sounding recordings with my interface but it is handy to have and pretty darn cool to use with an iPad.

The big question, does a $54 cable sound different than a $15 cable? The unexpected answer is hell yeah! I never in a million years expected to hear what I did when trying the Mogami Gold Instrument cable. A buddy of mine picked this up because he had credit at GC so he figured why not try it. Boy am I glad he did. We were both blown away by the difference in the thickness of the tone from this cable compared to the other cables we had to compare it with. It provided a thicker, chunkier tone and simply was way better than a standard cable. I had heard that these were great choices but who has or thinks that a cable can make that much of a difference, especially at the price of almost $60. After we compared back and forth more than a few times, I didn't want to go back to the old cord, let alone go home and not take this with me. Needless to say I will be getting one for myself as soon as the funds will allow. I took off the jack to see the construction and it is so meticulously built and soldered on the inside. You can see why the cost is what it is for sure. My only concern was the way it curls up. Whatever they use to construct this cable is somewhat different based on the way it doesn't quite lay flat for you, it wants to curl up which is annoying as heck. Yes it can be dealt with but it is the only thing that keeps this review from being perfect. I would also be curious how this would affect you in a gigging situation and if it would cause more issues than it might be worth For sound difference alone, this cable is worth it. Bottom line is yes you will pay for it but as is not always the case, you get your money's worth with this item.

For years the name Mogami has been synonymous with high quality studio grade cabling. After all the money and time we spend getting our perfect rig together it makes no sense to break things down by using a poor quality cable. I ordered three 12' cables back in 2002 along with five 8" cables and have never looked back. All eight of these cables are still in service today and even though I have other high quality cables available to me these are among my favorites for many reasons. Before acquiring these cables I had been through the normal slew of mediocre cables. All had problems and none ever seemed to be long lasting. Premium cabling had been available for a short while at the consumer level so I did a little research and decided on the Mogami brand. I took advantage of a special offer at the time and ordered enough to satisfy the deal, basically putting my eggs in one basket. When I received the cables in the mail I was highly suspect that they would be any good. They seemed thin and flimsy at first glance. I was sure that they would never hold up even if they sounded good. I was dead wrong. My first impression after plugging in was drastic. It was almost as if a haze had been removed from my signal chain. There seemed to be more definition and a wider frequency response available to me. My eyes were immediately opened. The next thing I was pleased to discover was that there was no handling noise. I had never owned a cord that did not make some kind of noise if it was moved or kicked when in use. I realized at this point that there was a vast difference in the way that these cords were designed and manufactured that I had not encountered at that point of my experience. The final test would be the durability. I placed all of the sleeves with the receipt away safely, sure that I would be making good on the lifetime warranty at some point. Well I am on the careful side with my gear but I am proud to say not one of these cables has ever failed me or underperformed. Each and every one of them is still in use in some manner in my endeavors. I have purchased other high end cables for different purposes over the years. If the need ever arose for me to purchase more of these type cables I would not hesitate to add more to my closet. Needless to say if anything happened to the ones I have now I would immediately replace them.