You can buy a lot of the same brands from Parts Express and other distributors. Nothing against Kurt, but he's not the only place and he doesn't sell @ wholesale prices, AFAIK.

+5
Have been using them pretty much exclusively for years now.
Planet Waves all the things!

+5

Since you mentioned Snap's cables you can buy Planetwaves from Snap.

But that is not the link I was given:

www.planetwavesci.com

Notice the CI before the .COM

Without the CI it seems to about the music industry.

Frederick

Correct. There is our stuff then there is the musician stuff. Same company different divisions.

It is, but a few other CI distributors sell PW products, too. PW is part of D'Addario, one of, if not the largest, instrument string manufacturers.

So illuminate me on PW. I order the dual HD cable. Do they have gold RCAs or just nickel? Which do you use?

How about which tools to use?

Do you use the little cable tester for shorts and continuity?

They have both gold and nickel.
Get the cutter guillotine thing with the built in tester, it's basically a razor blade with a continuity tester built in but it works great. Other than that you need a flat head screw driver. No stripping, no compression...it's the easiest termination you'll ever do. Chop off end, slide connector on wire, turn set screw, done.

This is the tool you want:

[Link: planetwavesci.com]

And if you really want to be part of the club, this is the magnetic screw driver:

[Link: planetwavesci.com]

I started with gold, went to nickel and really, it doesn't matter- they won't fall off, they hold well, they work great. I have used the cutter/tester, they often ship with a small cutter and have also used a stripper/crimper, data cable cutter and a razor knife to cut the cable. As long as the end is cut cleanly and the center conductor & shield don't touch, it doesn't really matter what is used.

You can use the double or the single if you want.

I use the nickel. Get the cutter & tester as stated as well as the screwdriver.

We keep a box of dual hd PW cable and plenty of RCA ends on each van and stock zero premade RCA-to-RCA cables. I love it.

I prefer the single for racks.
Easier to manage when you want it perfect!

Either way,it sure beats having boxes of cables that are always the wrong size taking up space in the work truck.
Not to mention the time you spend digging through them to find out you don't have what you need.

I read a complaint somewhere that the nickel plated RCA's don't install as easily as the gold plated. Was that just random, or do you find a difference between the two?

We make all of our own audio (unbalanced) cables using mini RG59 and compression RCA fittings. We get the exact length we want and the quality is great.

Holland Electronics is a great source for the cable, strippers, ends and compression tools.

I made a few cables last week and it was no easier or more difficult than the old ones. They're very smooth and if someone gas oil or grease on their fingers, it's gonna suck, but that's something they need to deal with.