Curly Microphone Cable

[Dan LB]

I'm looking for some good quality curly microphone cable.
Can anybody recommend some?

I've done the usual searches but can only find cheap 'made in Taiwan' stuff. I couldn't seem to find any on Canford's website. I've had cheap cable like that fail on me before so I'm just really looking to see if there is a high quality version - the thinner and lighter the better. It's for boom poles by the way.

Thanks,
Dan.

[Martin Walker]

Hi Dan,

Constantly stretched curly cables are not the most reliable things, although they can be great for headphone use.

However, I’d personally avoid curly mic cable like the plague - to me the whole point of high quality mic cable is that it never makes any creaking and crackling noises due to the lapped/braided screen, cotton packing, or conductive plastic layer moving around.

I suspect this is why Canford don't stock it

I’d set up the booms with normal mic cables, carefully routed and tied, and then coil any excess on the ground if needs be.

Others may disagree though

Martin

[John Willett]

I agree with Martin.

Curly cables are normally only used inside boom poles and come with the the pole as it's inside.

Otherwise you use normal cable wrapped round the pole.

[Dan LB]

I appreciate your comments. I should have explained fully.

I am using a Sennheiser SKP 2000 plug-on transmitter. I have experimented with the transmitter plugged directly on to the mic but the added weight gets a bit much after a while when at full extension, so because of this, I am running a cable from the mic to the transmitter which is now mounted at the bottom of the pole, with the cable wrapped around.

The normal cable is fine when I have the pole at full length but when I need to shorten it, the excess cable is a bit of a pain to be honest.

When I'm using a cable plugged from the mic to a wallbox or to a camera, a long cable is no problem wrapped around the pole and the excess coiled on the ground.

If there is such a thing as 'high quality' curly cable this would solve my problem for the 'wireless' boom.

I understand that I could replace the poles with models from Rycote that have the cable built-in but the cost would be too great.

Dan

[John Willett]

I appreciate your comments. I should have explained fully.

I am using a Sennheiser SKP 2000 plug-on transmitter. I have experimented with the transmitter plugged directly on to the mic but the added weight gets a bit much after a while when at full extension, so because of this, I am running a cable from the mic to the transmitter which is now mounted at the bottom of the pole, with the cable wrapped around.

The normal cable is fine when I have the pole at full length but when I need to shorten it, the excess cable is a bit of a pain to be honest.

When I'm using a cable plugged from the mic to a wallbox or to a camera, a long cable is no problem wrapped around the pole and the excess coiled on the ground.

If there is such a thing as 'high quality' curly cable this would solve my problem for the 'wireless' boom.

I understand that I could replace the poles with models from Rycote that have the cable built-in but the cost would be too great.

Dan

Talk nicely to Rycote - they are nice people - they may do you a special and supply you with a curly cable on its own that would fit into a boom for you to wrap around the outside.

It's certainly worth a try.

[ROLO46]

Try mounting the TX as close to the mic as possible
More weight for the boom op but more manageable
Never found a star quad curly cable anywhere
Curlies get tangled especially with one another.