All user reviews for the Hosa CRA803 Octo RCA / RCA 3m

The Hosa CRA803 is an audio snake with 8 individual cable connections in a 3 meter long length. The connections are available as RCA-RCA, or 1/4"-RCA. In either case, the cables are unbalanced, which means the shorter the cable length that's being run, the better. These snakes are a good choice for connecting mixers to Tascam and Fostex reel to reel multitrack recorders because they are cost-effective, fairly rugged, and have the proper connections. Generally, the user will want to set up the snakes to and from the mixer to the reel to reel recorder and leave it set. The less the cables are moved around, the less likely they are to suffer from disruptions in the signal.

Each channel is color coded to avoid confusion. For a 16 track recorder, four of these will be required for all of the necessary ins and outs.

These cables are readily available as the "low-end" snake from Guitar Center and Daddy's Junky Music. I've never had one fail on me, and if you own equipment requiring unbalanced cables, there is really little need to run a "higher quality" cable unless it is being run over very long lengths. Generally, the shorter the cable (under 10 feet) when running unbalanced cable the better.

If you need cables quickly, Hosa is a great choice. But, if you want to save money on a cable that is of comparable quality, I recommend Pulsar Tech's cables from www.pulsartech.net. I haven't had any issues with my Pulsar Tech cables and I first bought them about six or seven years ago.

With any type of cabling, especially unbalanced lines, avoid as much electronic interference as possible by locating them away from power lines. And just to reiterate, the shorter the cable length, the better.