Foil shielded twisted pair install cable in UK/EU

I am looking for some foil shielded cable (with a drain wire) for wiring up the insides of a mixer. Foil shielding because it is the best and a drain wire because it makes it simple to crimp the screen wire without making a pig tail. I am also looking for a small diameter cable 3mm (1/8th inch). I have a long list of USA made cables (Canare, Gepco, Lake, Gotham, West Penn) most of which are not available on this side of the pond. The exception is Gotham but they don't have a UK distributor and I found it extremely difficult to send them a message.

So  I am looking for suggestions for (preferably) UK makers/distributors of suitable cable.

Cheers

Ian

draka
http://www.drakauc.com/ac10-ss-267-x-pairs/

I use the fst from Bryant Broadcast.    See here

https://www.bryant-unlimited.co.uk/analogue_audio.html

The Van Damme fst is also pretty good.  I'm not a big fan of some of their products but the fst is ok.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have used Van damme install cable before and I have found it to be very good apart from not have a regular braided shield.

Cheers

Ian

Edit: Just checked the Van Damme fst. It is a little thicker than I would wish at 3,7mm. At present I am using some Mogami with a regular braided shield that is only 3mm diameter and otherwise ideal for mixer wiring.

Edit, Edit: THe 4000 series looks interesting. Have you tried it?

Cheers

Ian

Not with a foil shield but inside gear / patchpannels I use:
https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cables/Bulk-Cables-Audio/Patch-Mikrofonkabel-SC-Cicada-SO-D14-200-0451.html

This comes in at 3.3mm OD. + 'Memory Effect' - useful for internal wiring ?

https://www.studiospares.com/Cables-Leads/Cable-Miniature/Sommer-200-0406-IsoPod-SO-F22-Memory-Balanced-Mic-Cable_546700.htmhttps://www.studiospares.com/Cables-Leads/Cable-Miniature/Sommer-200-0406-IsoPod-SO-F22-Memory-Balanced-Mic-Cable_546700.htm

Also this comes in at a tiny 2.6mm OD.
It has Copper Helical Mesh screen but it does have a drain wire.

https://www.studiospares.com/Cables-Leads/Cable-Miniature/Sommer-Cicada-SO-D14-Miniature-Balanced-Mic-Cable_546810.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvezZBRDkARIsADKQyPnD9S7x5K8d_t8ZEqV_lwP6Se_sW9rX5VJgLq1qOl9pACX1muZEKnsaAgtYEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cables/Bulk-Cables-Audio/Patch-Mikrofonkabel-SC-Cicada-SO-D14-200-0451.html

The Van Damme Blue Series studio grade has the foil and drain???

I could send you a bunch if you wanted to try it

Canford has a pretty extensive range of twisted pair cable with foil screens.

https://www.canford.co.uk/Twin-screened-and-specialist-microphone-cables

The only problem with Canford is £35 minimum order and high postage rates (£8 iirc) if you're ordering less than £100 (excluding VAT) worth of stuff.

[silent:arts] said:

Not with a foil shield but inside gear / patchpannels I use:
https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cables/Bulk-Cables-Audio/Patch-Mikrofonkabel-SC-Cicada-SO-D14-200-0451.html

Click to expand...

There is also the the isopod SO-F22 from Sommer, which have foil and drain !
https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cables/Bulk-Cables-Audio/Patchkabel-SC-Isopod-SO-F22-200-0401.html

I use both

Best
Zam

ruffrecords said:

Edit, Edit: THe 4000 series looks interesting. Have you tried it?

Cheers

Ian

Click to expand...

It's good & competitively priced.    I have used a lot of Bryant 4000 & 8000 (digital)  series of cables on some very big commercial installs.  Both fst & multicore versions.  It's good quality, reliable & competitively priced.

The flexibility of the insulating materials might be of consideration for putting less stress on the bare wire near header pins or through holes, stiff cable sucks in my experience.

I frequently use Belden cables. They can be ordered from elfa.se and I can see that it is hard to read about them in swedish but it may be possible to order from other websites?

https://www.elfa.se/sv/manufacturer/belden/man_bel?q=*&filter_Manufacturer=Belden&filter_Buyable=1&filter_Manufacturer=Belden&filter_categoryCodePathROOT/cat-L2D_379529=cat-L3D_525384&filter_categoryCodePathROOT=cat-L2D_379529&filter_categoryCodePathROOT/cat-L2D_379529/cat-L3D_525384=cat-DNAV_PL_09110101

Best regards

/John

Thank you everyone.Now I am spoilt for choice. I had completely forgotten about Studiospares (doh!) and the Van Damme blue series looks very capable. I will probably order a few meters of several types to compare. Always handy to have an alternative.

Cheers

Ian

I have worked with the Van Damme blue series, and I liked it very much.
Easy to handle, and fast to work with.

[silent:arts] said:

I have worked with the Van Damme blue series, and I liked it very much.
Easy to handle, and fast to work with.

Click to expand...

As far as I can find out it appears to be a multipair cable only. The minimum number of pairs is two.

Cheers

Ian

Van Damme Blue is multicore, rather than multipair.  All of the pairs have their own individual insulation, so I guess you could remove all of the outer insulation and turn 1m of 8-pair into 8x 1m pieces of single pair...But I'm not convinced it's worth the effort. It's fairly similar to the Van Damme install cable, except the multicore is more expensive per metre/pair.

Van Damme "reduced OD Console cable" looks like it might be a good choice for what you're doing.

https://www.vdctrading.com/shop/van-damme-cable/audio/Single-Channel-Analogue-Audio-Cable/van-damme-reduced-od-console/

Lee_M said:

... I guess you could remove all of the outer insulation and turn 1m of 8-pair into 8x 1m pieces of single pair...

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I have done.

Morning Ian,
I have bags and bags of twin screened with drain wire stripped from an Amek console, more than I'll ever use , The lenghts involved wouldnt be huge maybe a meter or two at best , If you let me know what kind of lenghts you need ,and how much you need in total ,Ill send you some FOC, by way of thanks for all your great contributions here .

Lee_M said:

Van Damme "reduced OD Console cable" looks like it might be a good choice for what you're doing.

https://www.vdctrading.com/shop/van-damme-cable/audio/Single-Channel-Analogue-Audio-Cable/van-damme-reduced-od-console/

Click to expand...

That looks ideal. I just ordered 10 metres.

Cheers

Ian