Someone source me to cheaper patches than this..!

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rob Flinn

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2004
Messages
5,207
Location
Between Sussex, UK & Aude, France.
If you`re not worried about how much space they take up, buy some Mosses & Mitchell `B` gauge bays from ebay. They are really cheap & good quality.

I was up at the the BBC the other month & their tv studios still have racks of B gauge jackfields. If their good enough for the BBC I am happy to use them in my studio set up.
 
I've wired up a LOT of patchbays in the last 3 years. Recently we used the Neutrik for the first time. I have some strong opinions on the matter.

If you're wiring up an OB truck where you cannot afford a patch point to go noisy on you, or where rear access for maintenance is limited or essentially impossible, there is simply NO substitute for the Neutrik. The patchpoints are removable from the front and they normal with pre-measured gold-plated snap links which are configurable as full normal, half-normal, parallel or no normal. They are rock-solid reliable, they are serviceable and repairable without a soldering iron. They are quiet and excellent. There is no patchbay that I've ever seen which measures up.

However, if you have rear access, if you don't mind soldering, if you can take your time over re-working, then get the Switchcrafts. They have a strain relief bar (unlike the ADCs) they have double-thick labelling strips and they are reliable, and only about $220 US, which is probably about 200 Euros by the time import duties are figured in.

THe Mosses & Mitchells aren't bad, nor are Audioline, RE-AN are acceptable, but for the price you can't beat the Switchcraft. wired this with them a while ago:
Patchrear1.jpg

(that's a rear view of HALF of the whole patchbay. AS you can see, the strain relief bars are nice and wide, allowing for neat work.)

Keith
 
We had 2 studios that used Neutrik TT patchbays & I have to say that they were not what we expected. :?

They lasted about 4 years before they were replaced. We have since replced them with Signex 1/4" patchbays & I - Flame suit on - much prefer these.

The Neutriks seemed to have a really weak springing action & after a while we had problems with normalisation not making good contact & leaving something running one-legged or just plain noisy. They have put me off TT patchbays.

The version we used had an IDC non-soldering contact on the back but I'm assuming the contact assembly was the same.

Peter
 
Agreed about the Nigella avatar. :thumb:

I've noticed all the talk of patchbays and patchcords around here centers on TT/Bantam. Am I the only guy who still uses longframes? I installed a couple of TT bays at work in racks where space was at a premium, but I still buy longframe bays for the majority of the systems I build. It probably comes down to the simple issue of surface area, but I've never had the kind of intermittent signal problems I've had with TT bays when using longframes.

PS: I sometimes refer to longframe jacks as "WECOs", usually to the bemusement of those around me. I guess that term has passed out of fashion.
 
I got a 144 TT adc patchbay(the kind that swings out on hinges) on ebay WITH 20 TT patch cables for 70$usd. practically brand new. not even a hint of rackrash.

try there before you waste 5x the money!

:thumb:
 
I would have loved to have done my studio with longframe bays but just didnt have the space AT ALL. I actually removed the long frame jacks that came in my console and replaced all six bays on two TT bays and used the rest of the remaining space for outboard and Im on the verge of adding another bay as I cant seem to stop accumulating shit to plug in. I think for most, the choice for TT is about space, the connectors are certainly laughable in comparision to longframe and I'll swear my console sounded a bit better with the longframe bays. Call me crazy, whatever...

dave
 
I don't know what they're called in the UK, but...

http://www.switchcraft.com/products/pdf_files/jack-70_schematic.pdf

The plugs are also known as telephone plugs or WECo 310 plugs (Western Electric Co.)...

http://www.switchcraft.com/products/jack-123.html

As for TT/Bantam jacks, one thing I do like about them is that it's impossible to plug guitar cords into them. A couple of jacks on our longframe bays at work have been screwed up by bozos who tried to plug "regular" 1/4" TR or TRS into them. The plugs are dimensionally similar, but the larger tip on the "regular" 1/4" plugs deforms the tip contact on the longframe jack.

As an aside: our facility is so old that in one of the racks in our master control, there's a number of old-style dual-jack patchbays still in service. We've been meaning to replace them for some time, but they still do the job and we never seem to find the time to change them out. The plugs are similar to Fig. 2 on this page:
http://www.switchcraft.com/products/jack-125.html

These dual plugs were actually the standard for a long time. They take up a lot of space, but possess one cool advantage: you can readily flip the polarity of a signal just by flipping the plug!
 
I think they're also known as type 318 or type 316

Neutrik used to make some lamentable patchbays, particularly the PCB mounting type with thin springy wires. Peavey used them in their D-sub pre-wired patchbays. They were indeed not long-lasting or hardwearing. These newer ones were a different breed. I just put another 48 of them in over Christmas, after a few years with the first ones in place.

The old Neutrik ones were crap though, I agree!

Keith
 
Yup, they`re `B` gauge jacks. That`s what I use. Who cares if they take a bit more space, at least theres room to write something on the legend. With my fat old conga players fingers the bantam get a bit fiddly anyway.

Anyhow here`s my offering in the "this is my patchbay naked" photograph competition.

Dscf0044.jpg
 
Back
Top