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Building XLR cable...


iMix

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Theres no stupid questions, only stupid answers...but when I read the input from Mike Michaels it annoys me to have started the thread for a silly question, It was lack of sleep or something as pin 1 got switched around in my clogged head with pin 3.

 

 

" Pin 1 - black, Pin 2 - red, pin 3- ground. " :(

 

perhaps some reading ?  www.dplay.com

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I must agree with Eric, leave your question up, as someone else might be curious as to the same answer.

 

When using CANARE star quad cable, the SHIELD goes to PIN ONE, the WHITE CABLE to PIN 2, and the BLUE CABLE to PIN 3, this is CANARE's specification for OPTIMUM RF rejection.  Don't ask why, just wire it this way, as the manufacturer has told you to do so!

 

Good Luck,

Every single Canare cable I have made is wired blue to 2 cause it was easy to remember. I was taught that it didn't matter which wire went to pins 2 or 3 as long as it was the same on both ends. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but at some point people in England or Europe were wiring Pin 3 Hot while the US was wiring Pin 2 Hot. Obviously, a connector can be wired Pin 2 or 3 Hot and use the white cable to do so. I've just stuck with blue to 2 cause I thought it didn't matter and it's easy to remember. I hope my cables aren't cursed.

 

Josh

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Every single Canare cable I have made is wired blue to 2 cause it was easy to remember. I was taught that it didn't matter which wire went to pins 2 or 3 as long as it was the same on both ends. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but at some point people in England or Europe were wiring Pin 3 Hot while the US was wiring Pin 2 Hot. Obviously, a connector can be wired Pin 2 or 3 Hot and use the white cable to do so. I've just stuck with blue to 2 cause I thought it didn't matter and it's easy to remember. I hope my cables aren't cursed.

 

Josh

 

Every single Canare cable I have made is wired blue to 2 cause it was easy to remember. I was taught that it didn't matter which wire went to pins 2 or 3 as long as it was the same on both ends. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but at some point people in England or Europe were wiring Pin 3 Hot while the US was wiring Pin 2 Hot. Obviously, a connector can be wired Pin 2 or 3 Hot and use the white cable to do so. I've just stuck with blue to 2 cause I thought it didn't matter and it's easy to remember. I hope my cables aren't cursed.

 

Josh

Long time ago some equipment manufacturers had pin 3 hot and some pin 2 hot. Caused a lot of problems. Then the AES (Audio Engineering Society) came out with an edict that said "henseforth pin 2 shall be hot and pin 3 shall not." Personally I would have preferred the hot pin to be at the apex of the XLR triangle and easy to find. TA3 connectors are set up with pin 2 at the apex so keep that confusing issue in mind when wiring them.  

 

Eric

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If everyone who got a stupid answer from the Senator removed their post this forum would be blank.

QOTD.

I don't see how using either white or blue as hot would make a difference as long as you are combining opposing leads of a star quad cable, you will reap the rf rejection benefits of star quad. I am guessing they put that forth to build a convention so people know what to expect, however I am not a cable manufacturer, maybe Canare is doing something I don't know about .

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<but when I read the input from Mike Michaels it annoys me to have started the thread for a silly question>

 

hey - all he said was to ask you to read up and gave you the way as well - dplay.com is Mr. Jay Rose's excellent site for many resources we all need. 

 

you could have posted a simple 'errata' post and not deleted the original post that started the thread... 

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Long time ago some equipment manufacturers had pin 3 hot and some pin 2 hot. Caused a lot of problems.

 

It was Ampex's fault, wiring pin3 hot. The UK standard was pin2, and of course now it is the standard everywhere. Of course, it doesn't REALLY matter what pin you consider "hot" as long as whatever piece of gear we're talking about puts signal out on the same pin it received the signal on. It just gets complicated when you start throwing unbalanced connections into the mix.

 

 

X : 1 : ground

L : 2 : Live

R : 3 : Return

..That's the mnemonic tricks I got and apply (think it was Ray M Owen who gave me these tricks)

 

I can see how that might be a useful devide for you to remember it, although it has no basis in how audio signals work or even why XLR connectors are named XLR

 

Here's an interesting page about this history of the XLR http://www.soundfirst.com/xlr.html)

 

 

 

QOTD.

I don't see how using either white or blue as hot would make a difference as long as you are combining opposing leads of a star quad cable, you will reap the rf rejection benefits of star quad. I am guessing they put that forth to build a convention so people know what to expect, however I am not a cable manufacturer, maybe Canare is doing something I don't know about .

 

It makes no difference whether white or blue is positive/negative. The significance of this is that if you establish a standard, you can (hopefully) avoid mistakes when building cables, and in the event of a problem you can troubleshoot more quickly.

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What happens when one of the conductors is red and one is clear? ???

 

With two conductors it's not star quad. I would use the Red for the hot or pin 2 & clear for the negative or pin 3. I use a lot of Canare L-2E5 for cable building which is one pair shielded. The conductors are white & blue and white is always wired to the hot connection. 

 

Eric

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" & clear for ground. "

:wacko:

 

clearly a typo...?

 

" The conductors are white & blue and white is always wired to the hot connection."

I've been doing "blue is too" for years, maybe that is why mu sound comes out inverted..?

 

I'd like to get Canare Starquad with colors that aren't white and blue. Is this possible? Maybe they will make a special run for me. :wacko:

 

Not in this lifetime. Try other manufacturers. There's Belden, Gepco, Gotham, West Penn, Mogami, etc, etc.

 

Eric

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" & clear for ground. "

:wacko:

 

clearly a typo...?

 

" The conductors are white & blue and white is always wired to the hot connection."

I've been doing "blue is too" for years, maybe that is why mu sound comes out inverted..?

No a brain hiccup. Now corrected. Blue to two causes the color to run and everything sounds sad because it has the Blues.

 

Eric

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''I can see how that might be a useful devide for you to remember it, although it has no basis in how audio signals work or even why XLR connectors are named XLR''

 

''That's the mnemonic tricks I got and apply''

 

 

I probably did 90% of my cables, that's my way of having a kind of continuity.  ^_^

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