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Post by Quint on Dec 28, 2022 10:14:39 GMT -6
The thing that bantam (TT) and 1/4" LONG FRAME (military style) patch cables have in common, and which both differ from that found on the more common and cheaper 1/4" patch cables being discussed here, is the less pronounced tip. This allows for easier insertion and removal from the patchbay and also doesn't cause the contacts inside the bay to have to flex so much. You may not want this in a guitar cable, but this is a good thing for a patch cable (and associated patch bays) being inserted and removed on a constant basis. Let’s not forget switching jacks designed for a high duty cycle of being plugged and unplugged, sadly most TRS bays use a switching jack designed for being occasionally plugged and unplugged like on the back of a Cheap mixer. Yeah. And I want long duty cycles out of my patchbays. If I'm going to spend all of that time setting one up, I don't want to have to be replacing it every three years. |
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Post by jmoose on Dec 29, 2022 17:09:33 GMT -6
There may well be good ones, but what I typically see in project studios are TRS bays that flex under stress when patching and poor quality jacks that are a bad mix with that kind of duress. This is probably because people who buy TRS bays may trend budget conscious, I can see a world in which there are more robust offerings and my friends and clients just aren’t buying them. Usually see the same when I go into a home/project space but its not really the bays, its almost always the installation & execution. That whole thing I wrote about using real snakes & proper lacing bars for strain relief? Yeah the $150 TRS bays aren't as robust as a legit TT bay but who would expect that? What I almost always see are people using them with standard "guitar cable" type patches on both sides and that style bay... they can't take that weight so over time the PCB traces between jacks will stress and fail. Remember digging around one where they had used "pig hog" brand cables which had this ridiculous rubber jacket that was about as thick as a sharpie. Dozens of 'em all jammed in there. Probably great at a gig for single patches but not a semi-permanent installation. Proof? I've been running a set of Neutrik brand TRS bays since probably 2008? I needed stuff for a new desk and while they weren't my first choice I have a friend who was the ProCo distributor and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Really, really cheap. I figured ok, at the least the stuff is new and if it doesn't last I'll just replace it. The plan would've been to get some real bays, chop all the connectors off one side of the snakes and fire up the Weller... but they just haven't been a source of headaches. No more then any other bay. Now it probably helps that I'm a closed shop and don't have guest engineers wailing on the stuff. If I did have a commercial space again? TT all the way. No hesitation. So that and yes indeed, I have proper 16 & 24 pair snakes on everything with good strain relief on the rear. But even TT or XLR bays need that. If I thought there was any real advantage to TT bays for me besides density I'd make a switch... and I might have to because of density (desk & lots of outboard!) but in terms of sonics? I can't see paying thousands to redo something that's working. Not right now anyway! |
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