OK - so I bought some of these. Shipping was quick. However - the quality is
NOT up to typical Switchcraft standards: knurling is rough in a bad way and
the sheath threads refuse to lock. They are marked "Made in China" and come
individually shrink-wrapped to cardstock.
So, has Switchcraft moved production? No matter, they are worth what they
are priced at, but certainly no more. Counterfeits? Quite possible. If I
paid full price for these I'd pretty unsatisfied.
-----Original Message-----
From:
motm@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
motm@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mkoapl
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 5:36 AM
To:
motm@yahoogroups.comSubject: [motm] Patch cable tips
I saw a great deal on Switchcraft 280 Phone Plugs. $1.59 each at
music123.com, free shipping at any quantity.
I had already bought a hundred count of the Pomona 7150 from mouser.com
(565-7150). I like them a lot. I am very surprised by the quality for this
price ($1.09 each). They are heavy and have a nice flat finish. Switchcraft
280's are bulkier and have a smoother assembly. I think the Pomona 7150's
might be quicker to solder and to clamp the strain relief.
I've also had a chance to compare Canare GS-6 and Mogami W2524 bulk cable.
The biggest difference is that the Canare shielding is braided and the
Mogami shielding is spiral wound. The Mogami has better coverage and the
shield is really easy to combine and twist. The Canare shielding has to be
combed out; it does so easily, but it is a notably longer job. Both cables
have a conductive carbon sleeve under the shield. This comes off really
easily from the Canare cable but is really stubborn on the Mogami. My last
note is that the Mogami cable is a displeasure to handle. The spiral shield
is very noisy and grinds in your hand when jostling the cable. I settled on
the Canare cable because i would be handling it frequently. I re-used the
Mogami cable for permanent installations. Both cables have a nice, dense,
smooth PVC jacket. They seem to be very resistant to kinking and memorizing
bends. I like markertek.com for either cable, but ebay might be the place to
go for a whole spool.
I use 1/2" 2:1 polyolefin heat shrink for color coding. I only use 2" per
termination -- this shows about half an inch. If you use longer than this it
makes the cable very stiff and protrusive. Using the 1/2" 2:1 creates a
heavy finished sleeve, about 1mm thick. I go under the phone plug, but this
size does fit over as well (which is also nice if you forget to get it on
before you solder). I used Alpha Wire FIT-221-1/2. I also got a 100' spool
of something else from bb-trading.com. Their prices were great but I
couldn't afford those quantities for everything.
My previous set of patch cables were always unscrewing on me so I fixed
those and finished off all my new ones with a bit of blue threadlocker.
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links