it appears to be of reasonable quality from a connector standpoint but their website doesn't give any spec on the cable what sort of a price difference are we talking about?
short of spec's like pf/ft and crosstalk it's hard to say
what sort of school/institution are you attending? or is this an activity/extra curricular program?
short of spec's like pf/ft and crosstalk it's hard to say
what sort of school/institution are you attending? or is this an activity/extra curricular program?
Prolok snake for school activities
I am a teacher - with some audio studies and practice background - in a German school in Latin America and the responsible for audio during school events. We have decent YAMAHA 32x4x2 mixer, active dbTechnologies F315 speakers + dBTech sub + effect gear + SHURE/SENNHEISER/AKG mics.
For our choir, rockband or marimba its just fine. I really want good sound.
Our custom made 20x4 100ft. snake has seen better days; recently it started to fail- some channel completely, some fail transmitting phantom power -who knows why. I´m running out of channels, and for our settings it has become too short.
So we decided to buy a new one, and I ran into the hard-to-belive-offer on Prolok (780 USD instead of original 1000, i suspect the store will close). The Raptor in another store is USD 2200. The difference is huge. I googled on Prolok but only got very basic info. So I don´t know what to do.
I am looking forward to your evaluation.
Thanks in advance!
I am a teacher - with some audio studies and practice background - in a German school in Latin America and the responsible for audio during school events. We have decent YAMAHA 32x4x2 mixer, active dbTechnologies F315 speakers + dBTech sub + effect gear + SHURE/SENNHEISER/AKG mics.
For our choir, rockband or marimba its just fine. I really want good sound.
Our custom made 20x4 100ft. snake has seen better days; recently it started to fail- some channel completely, some fail transmitting phantom power -who knows why. I´m running out of channels, and for our settings it has become too short.
So we decided to buy a new one, and I ran into the hard-to-belive-offer on Prolok (780 USD instead of original 1000, i suspect the store will close). The Raptor in another store is USD 2200. The difference is huge. I googled on Prolok but only got very basic info. So I don´t know what to do.
I am looking forward to your evaluation.
Thanks in advance!
I found an pdf w specs here, page 18 gives info on snake cable, but my knowledge doesnt reach that far.
Whats your opinion?
http://www.prolok-usa.com/cables-web.pdf
Thanks!
Whats your opinion?
http://www.prolok-usa.com/cables-web.pdf
Thanks!
it's pretty close spec wise to a Belden 1932a so other than build quality/durability i can't say it would be a bad choice.
with snakes short of running over them with lift truck or heavy road case or an extreme pull most of the problems occur at the fan tail end (male connectors at the console/board end) which although tedious and time consuming simply require resoldering/re-terminating of broken conductors. unless your snake is very old and has seen 1000's of cycles of coiling/re-wrap which can cause midstream breaks to develop it may be worth the time to inspect both ends for broken conductors.
you did mention overall length to be an issue as well.
given the "steal deal" price on the Prolok my repair advise might be moot.
with snakes short of running over them with lift truck or heavy road case or an extreme pull most of the problems occur at the fan tail end (male connectors at the console/board end) which although tedious and time consuming simply require resoldering/re-terminating of broken conductors. unless your snake is very old and has seen 1000's of cycles of coiling/re-wrap which can cause midstream breaks to develop it may be worth the time to inspect both ends for broken conductors.
you did mention overall length to be an issue as well.
given the "steal deal" price on the Prolok my repair advise might be moot.
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Right, definitely u get what u paid for. But as I mentioned, its about 1-2 time a month we use it, mainly indoors, sometimes outdoor stage, no trucks there 
, so I guess its worth a try.
Right now I´ll head to the store to get a close look; they have to bring it from another location.
Thanks to all for your helpful opinions; in case additional thoughts come up I'll be more than happy to receive them!
, so I guess its worth a try. Right now I´ll head to the store to get a close look; they have to bring it from another location.
Thanks to all for your helpful opinions; in case additional thoughts come up I'll be more than happy to receive them!
I used to do a LOT of business with Rapco, they are a quality company. I don't know the other company, but they are using quality connectors. I am not aware of any cable wire that is plain unreliable. Some is heavier than others, but if this is in a school situation, I would think you will not be abusing it.
Before you spend a lot of money, has anyone looked inside the connectors on your existing snake? When I get a snake in for maintenance, the first thing I do is open the covers on each connector in the fan out end, and look for the inevitable wires broken off the solder pins. That covers 90% of channel failures in most cases.
Then I carefully inspect the long cable itself. I start at the fan end, and run my hands along the length of it looking for cuts in the jacket, other damage to the cable or any odd feeling lumps in the cable. If there is damage, many times it can be repaired.
Then I open the stage head box, I inspect every connector there for wires broken off or connectors loose in their mounts.
That takes care of the static tests. Then I do a function check. use a cable tester box, a little circuit that has lights to tell me if all the wires in a channel are intact. But if you don't have a cable tester box, then you can plug a microphone into one end and the other into the mixer, and use your ears. As you make noise into the mic, wiggle the connector in the box end, then flex the wires at the fan end. if the noise stays on, the channel is working, if the thing crackles or cuts in and out, we have a bad channel.
Aside from the mic working for sound, for phantom power the shield most also be intact. You can test that with a continuity tester. Or use a phantom powered mic for the testing, which will be testing the shield along with the audio.
The wires have little reason to break unless they flex a lot. The most common place for a wire to break is right where it leaves the connector body, and where it leaves the fan point.
The worst case is if the cable is cut in the middle somewhere. Even that can be sliced. If your school is like ours here, money is scarce, and a spliced cable with a bunch of tape wrapped around the repair is very much less costly than replacement.
And sometimes a connector has been stepped on too many times or the pins have been bent, and we have to replace a connector. This is simple electronic work.
If you yourself are not skilled in this sort of work, you ought to be able to find someone local who can.
Before you spend a lot of money, has anyone looked inside the connectors on your existing snake? When I get a snake in for maintenance, the first thing I do is open the covers on each connector in the fan out end, and look for the inevitable wires broken off the solder pins. That covers 90% of channel failures in most cases.
Then I carefully inspect the long cable itself. I start at the fan end, and run my hands along the length of it looking for cuts in the jacket, other damage to the cable or any odd feeling lumps in the cable. If there is damage, many times it can be repaired.
Then I open the stage head box, I inspect every connector there for wires broken off or connectors loose in their mounts.
That takes care of the static tests. Then I do a function check. use a cable tester box, a little circuit that has lights to tell me if all the wires in a channel are intact. But if you don't have a cable tester box, then you can plug a microphone into one end and the other into the mixer, and use your ears. As you make noise into the mic, wiggle the connector in the box end, then flex the wires at the fan end. if the noise stays on, the channel is working, if the thing crackles or cuts in and out, we have a bad channel.
Aside from the mic working for sound, for phantom power the shield most also be intact. You can test that with a continuity tester. Or use a phantom powered mic for the testing, which will be testing the shield along with the audio.
The wires have little reason to break unless they flex a lot. The most common place for a wire to break is right where it leaves the connector body, and where it leaves the fan point.
The worst case is if the cable is cut in the middle somewhere. Even that can be sliced. If your school is like ours here, money is scarce, and a spliced cable with a bunch of tape wrapped around the repair is very much less costly than replacement.
And sometimes a connector has been stepped on too many times or the pins have been bent, and we have to replace a connector. This is simple electronic work.
If you yourself are not skilled in this sort of work, you ought to be able to find someone local who can.
Hi Enzo, thanks for the advice. The problem is that in some settings (choir 6 mics, marimba 6 mics, drums 7 mics, guit, bass, keyboard, all playing at the same event) i am running out of channels w/ our 20x4 snake; the YAMAHA mixer provides more channels. And in fact its too short so I get in trouble w/ not proper cabling.
Anyway, I appreciate your comments.
Anyway, I appreciate your comments.
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