3ft Patch vs Snake Cable

[OliverATX]

Hello, Y'all!

I hope everyone is doing great!

A quick question for the experts here. I am going to put the new X32 into our rack. The X32 XLR ports are all out the back and I would like to put a patch panel under it and route the XLRs to the front of the rack. This means connecting 15 channels.
For context, the rack is a 12U rack with X32, DI, IEMs, Power Conditioner, rack mounted PC and WIFI.

2 Options:

A) XLR to XLR Individual Patch Cables (3ft)- Example: Any good XLR cable
B) XLR to XLR Snake (3ft)- Example: Hosa XLR-802

The patch cables are shielded better. I assume this is not too relevant at this short length, but then again, there are a lot of power cords and electronic doodads in the back that may cause interference.

The short snake takes up way less space and therefore allows for more airflow in the rack (which could be a benefit), but maybe not as shielded?

I would like to go the snake route as it will probably be cleaner with less clutter, but am a little concerned about the possible loss of audio quality.

Anything I am missing or any good advice on this?

Thank you!

Oliver

[Hugh Robjohns]

There's no reason why a snake should be less well screened, but obviously there are good quality and bad quality snakes, just as there good and bad individual cables.

But a three foot snake is going to be a tricky find...

Personally, I'd buy a suitable length of muliticore and wire it up myself to optimise the individual cable lengths to each socket and make the rack as neat as possible.

[Drew Stephenson]

I guess the advantage of using individual cables is that if a cable does go off for any reason you can replace it individually. But if this is to be a semi-permanent set-up then it's unlikely that you'll have that kind of failure, and you can always carry a couple of 1m XLR cables spare as emergency patches.

[James Perrett]

I'm not sure that you'll find a 3ft loom but here's a 6ft loom

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg0 ... xlr%20loom

It appears to use the same cable as the D-Sub looms that I use which are foil screened so there should be no problem with interference. I'd better add that I've not used those connectors though.

[Wonks]

As you’ll have at least one foot of unloomed cable at each end of a 3’ loom, I really don’t think a 3’ loom would be practical or beneficial. And a longer loom means you have to find space for the extra length of cables.

Personally I’d go individual cables, tied in bunches of say 4 cables to keep things neat so that the length of the loose ends can be kept to a minimum.

I’m quite taken with wiring harness loom tape as it’s gentler on the cable than plastic cable ties and cheaper than velcro.

Don’t forget to mark up each end of the cable so you can remove and replace if necessary with ease.

[Arpangel]

I’ve got some 3mm foil screened, it’s so small, you can bunch them up and hardly know they are there, strap them to the sides of your rack.
As Wonks said, a three foot loom just isn’t worth it, but the above isn’t a ready made solution, you’d have to make the leads yourself.

[OliverATX]

I'm not sure that you'll find a 3ft loom but here's a 6ft loom

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg0 ... xlr%20loom

It appears to use the same cable as the D-Sub looms that I use which are foil screened so there should be no problem with interference. I'd better add that I've not used those connectors though.

Those look nice, but are not available in the US as far as I can tell....

[OliverATX]

I guess the advantage of using individual cables is that if a cable does go off for any reason you can replace it individually. But if this is to be a semi-permanent set-up then it's unlikely that you'll have that kind of failure, and you can always carry a couple of 1m XLR cables spare as emergency patches.

Yes, I weighed that against space savings. The Monoprice 4-channel loom is inexpensive enough that I can buy one extra- just in case and still have less clutter..

[OliverATX]

As you’ll have at least one foot of unloomed cable at each end of a 3’ loom, I really don’t think a 3’ loom would be practical or beneficial. And a longer loom means you have to find space for the extra length of cables.

Personally I’d go individual cables, tied in bunches of say 4 cables to keep things neat so that the length of the loose ends can be kept to a minimum.

I’m quite taken with wiring harness loom tape as it’s gentler on the cable than plastic cable ties and cheaper than velcro.

Don’t forget to mark up each end of the cable so you can remove and replace if necessary with ease.

Good points! Thank you

[OliverATX]

At the risk of talking to myself here , this was my final decision (maybe it helps someone down the road):

I returned the Monoprice 3ft snake I was originally set on. I am sure they are fine cables, but there were two reasons:

First, having individual cables will allow me to more easily swap a single cable, should one fail (thank you @blinddrew).

Second, the 3ft snake has inherently 1ft of unloomed strands on both sides. The distance that I am dealing with is only 2ft (if that much) to begin with, so it was indeed kind of pointless to use a snake (thank you @Wonks).

I will share pictures once I finish wrapping/organizing the 24 cables in the back of the rack

Best,

Oliver

[OliverATX]

All done and as promised!

https://imgur.com/a/aHVjClN

[Wonks]

All very neat! Well done.

[OliverATX]

All very neat! Well done.

Thank you!

[Drew Stephenson]

The colour coding is a good approach as well.

[Music Wolf]

Yes, very neat.

There's no way that I'm going to be posting pics of the rat's nest of cables behind my rack any time soon.

[OliverATX]

Yes, very neat.

There's no way that I'm going to be posting pics of the rat's nest of cables behind my rack any time soon.

Yea, we will see how long this is going to last.....

Its like cleaning up the garage......Looks great for about a week...

[Sam Spoons]

You can keep it tidy for a whole week! I'm lucky if it lasts a day. I'm just off to start moving stuff around again so I can return the PA back to it's corner after last weekend's gig (I don't know when the next one will be but I am, technically, retired...).

WRT wiring, your's does look very neat maybe I'll be inspired to tidy my studio desk wiring while the X32 is still in it's gigbag.

[Rene Asologuitar]

I guess the advantage of using individual cables is that if a cable does go off for any reason you can replace it individually. But if this is to be a semi-permanent set-up then it's unlikely that you'll have that kind of failure, and you can always carry a couple of 1m XLR cables spare as emergency patches.

********************
I like this solution.
Makes sense.
Rene

[Arpangel]

That’s a great job, a work of art!

[OliverATX]

That’s a great job, a work of art!

Ha, Thank you!