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Making short cables for Sound Devices 668 - pin connection help (newbie)


ARSilva

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Hi,

I have a basic question of a newbie.

I got my first Sound Devices 668 (upgrade from zoom) and i want to make some short cables to easily connect and disconnect cables without having to search for inputs or outputs inside the audio bag and to protect and not to wear out the inputs and outputs of the recorder.

 

My question is, to make a short XLR male to female (for BOOM) and XLR male to XLR female (for LAVs Sennheiser G4 RX) i just have to solder pin 1 2 3 from one end to pin 1 2 3 on the other end right (pin 1 being ground)?

If i make a longer cable (75feet) for the boom or LAV i connect the same way? Are they balanced or have to link shield to one of the connectors?

What about Outputs? TA3 female to stereo mini jack (for Sennheiser G4 IEM TX- sound for director) and XLR female to XLR male for L+R Out (speaker is needed)

 

What cable do you advice for this short cables? (Already have neutrik XLR and Rean TA3)

Thanks for any help.

 

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Hi

 

In this case the short XLRF-XLRM cables will be wired  1->1, 2->2, 3->3 as you suggested above, 1 is ground, 2 is +,3 is - . Senneheiser G4's are not balanced. The correct pin connections will be here on page 138 . Follow the guide for Line level connections.

 

https://assets.sennheiser.com/global-downloads/file/10318/ew_500P_G4_Manual_v2-3_07_2020_EN.pdf

 
Outputs are the same for the XLR -->XLR (1-1, 2-2, 3-3) for the speaker. The output to G4 TX would be tip and sleeve to shield, positive to ring, wire the XLR as normal.
 
For short cables in the bag any small 2 core microphone cable will probably do, Mogami, Canare etc all do good stuff, For the longer connections and the Boom in particular try and use star quad cable.
 
Good luck
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a) There are no easy answers -- many times pin assignments can be a gear-to-gear situation.

 

b) For the G4, (and assuming you are using the EK100 G4): as long as you are still going to use the Sennheiser TRS-to-XLR cable to come out of the receiver, then yes, just wire 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 for the XLR extension.

 

c) Sennheiser pin-outs for their bodyworn/beltpack transmitters and receivers can be VERY tricky. I can't speak to the G4 series, but I know on the G3 gear, these are not balanced connectors -- it's something like the tip is mic level and the ring is line (don't trust my memory on this...) -- always consult documentation for that particular model (which, in Sennheiser's case is usually pretty poor).

 

d) I don't think there's one right answer regarding whether a straight XLR mic cable should have the shield connected to ground. Many high-quality cables do not connect shield to ground, but some mics (for example, my Neumann TLM 103s) perform very poorly if it's not connected.

 

 

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