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Seismic Audio CABLES Thoughts?

Tunaman

Tunaman

Dec 26, 2004
6,812
775
46
Boston
#1
First a quick review on their XLRs & Snakes... then I have a question about their 12 gauge speaker cables

I ran PA in my old band. Ordered a bunch of their colored XLRs. Love em. They were made pretty well. VERY inexpensive if you buy in bulk. Not one problem. I also had 2 snakes from them as well. Built like tanks, MUCH less than anywhere else & highly recommended

That said... Anybody get the 12/2 Speaker Cable for long runs?

100' Speakon to Speakon $50 shipped

Its half anywhere else... the connectors look a bit weak so I'll probably lop em off & use some Neutrik connectors I have laying around. As long as the speaker wire itself isn't bad quality
 
#4
Zephrant said:
If you are going to cut off the ends, why not buy bulk cable from a cable supplier?
Click to expand...

Would love to... I've been searching & haven't found anything exciting... recommendations?

Monoprice keeps trying to sell me mic cable for their bulk. Seismic Audio doesn't sell 12/2 below 300'.

The problem with searching for it is that so much A\V, in wall, stereo system wire shows up. I actually had a thread on raw wire years ago & had no luck then either
 
#7
I ended up making cables from zip cord because that's all that was at my local Home Depot and lowsbut those were for short runsfor practice amp I'm going to use the connectors from those but I want better cable this time
 
#10
Thanks for the offer though. I ordered

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I like the bigger strands of copper just in case I nick a few stripping the casing they would be less likely to break.

I wasn't confident from the pictures of Seismic Audio they were high quality copper. The strands looked silver & they made no mention of copper anywhere in the description. Likely blended with aluminum.


ALSO I wasn't happy that Monoprice kept trying to sell me microphone cable for speaker cable despite asking multiple online agents. They also DO NOT ALLOW YOU TO PHONE CALL! So thats all I had to go on :spit:

I'm in a pro band that places pro gigs & weddings. Can't cheap out...
 
#12
Sorry, no better ideas for you. I buy 10ga black/red zip cord for work from McMaster Carr, but I could not say if that would make good speaker cord. I use it for 48v DC power in a Data center.

Nice flexible cable though. I prefer the smaller strand cable, and often buy welding cable to get it. I like the flexibility of it for my uses.

Found this one: http://www.mcmaster.com/#8260T15
About a buck a foot if you but 100'.

Quote:
Keep power flowing to speakers, intercoms, public address systems, and other low-current circuits and communication systems. Also known as zip cord, this cable has parallel wires that can be separated for easy installation. Wires are stranded and one is marked for polarity. ETL listed and C-ETL listed.

16 ga., 14 ga., and 12 ga. cable have clear insulation. They meet NEC Article 725, Type CL2.
 
#15
Stay away from seismic anything, crap quality all around. By the time you put connectors on you're about where an ewi would be at.

Fwiw I buy in bulk from ewi and make my own with genuine NL4 and NL2s. It's cheap but more time consuming but I can make what I need when I need it.

For the guy using "yard master" orange cords. Jesus, no. Stop. And zip cable is horrid stuff too.
 
#16
Tunaman said:
Choices I've found

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Click to expand...

I ended up with this

Its quality cable from what I can tell. Definitely 12 gauge surrounded by a thick rubber. Looks to be quality copper

For the same price as EWIs 13 gauge I got 12 gauge & EWIs 11 gauge was priced pretty high... not sure I could have even gotten that 11 gauge in the Neutrik 4 I used... I struggled getting this cable in
 
#18
theStink said:
Stay away from seismic anything, crap quality all around. By the time you put connectors on you're about where an ewi would be at.

Fwiw I buy in bulk from ewi and make my own with genuine NL4 and NL2s. It's cheap but more time consuming but I can make what I need when I need it.

For the guy using "yard master" orange cords. Jesus, no. Stop. And zip cable is horrid stuff too.
Click to expand...
Years ago I read the account of a double blind study hosted by Stereo Review where they compared several different brands of audiophile speaker cable along with some zip cord from a hardware store. The demo equipment was very high end gear.

They invited a bunch of Golden Ear guys from audiophile mags to participate, some of whom had written glowing reviews of some of the very same (oxygen free, exotically braided, hideously expensive, yadda yadda...) cables for their respective publications. Not a single one of them could tell the difference between any of them, not even the zip cord.

Caveat Emptor.
 

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