I need to add a patch bay to my home studio. Are they all the same or should
I look for a specific brand? I don't need anything that does digital right
now. My collection of rack gear is starting to get out of control and I hate
having to repatch everything constantly. Thanks!

Bob S.

Not all patchbays are created equal.
These days there are even cheap Chinese made Neutrik patchbays are not built
as well as older European and US or UK made patchbays.
Look for a sturdy casing and internal components that are not mostly cheap
plastic which can break easily.
RON CHARLES
"Bob S." wrote in message
. com...
I need to add a patch bay to my home studio. Are they all the same or
should
I look for a specific brand? I don't need anything that does digital right
now. My collection of rack gear is starting to get out of control and I
hate
having to repatch everything constantly. Thanks!

Bob S.

In article ,
"Ron Charles" wrote:

Not all patchbays are created equal.
These days there are even cheap Chinese made Neutrik patchbays are not built
as well as older European and US or UK made patchbays.
Look for a sturdy casing and internal components that are not mostly cheap
plastic which can break easily.
RON CHARLES
"Bob S." wrote in message
. com...
I need to add a patch bay to my home studio. Are they all the same or
should
I look for a specific brand? I don't need anything that does digital right
now. My collection of rack gear is starting to get out of control and I
hate
having to repatch everything constantly. Thanks!

Bob S.





I just bought a used conole that came with external TT patchbays, so had
to go that route. I found 2 extra TT bays. one on ebay for $50 a NEW
Neutrik. And an old Switchcraft TT pay also for $50. For these prices
I´d go for TT bays. Pain as you have to solder usually, but that´s a
solid connection and they are usually solid items.
Neutrik´s jack patchbays cost $50 and seem fine. They are balanced. For
these prices, if they wear out in 3 years, you just relace it.
Also, connecting new gear is just plugging them in. On a TT bay, you
need to get your gun out again.

Anyway, if you need balanced jacks, the Neutrik is the way to go. If you
fancy soldering, get them used of ebay or pay $500 a piece new ;-)

In article ,
says...
Anyway, if you need balanced jacks, the Neutrik is the way to go. If you
fancy soldering, get them used of ebay or pay $500 a piece new ;-)

$500??? I think I paid something like $209/ for my long-frame Audio
Accessories bays (http://www.patchbays.com) last year. Used, they'd be
even cheaper. They won't last forever, but they'll come closer than I
will.

I look at it this way: Pay a little more for the bays, then save on not
having to buy a slew of pre-made cables/connectors. (You do realize
that running through patch-bays doubles your quantity of cables, right?)
If you aren't buying pre-made cables, then you'll be soldering anyway,
and you might as well have the reliability that comes with real patch
bays.

Plus, putting patch bays together is a good chance to get some practice
with the iron. Just make sure you use quality solder for a happier
life.

-Pete Pollack

I am about to wire up punch block quarter inch. Any thoughts?

Rob R.

If you're interested, I've got 5 52 point Switchcraft patchbays that
are brand new. They are the wirewound types and very good quality.
I'd let them go for $150 for all of them. For that price, you can buy
the wirewound gun and still come out ahead. They're 1/4" on the
fronts. Lemme know if you or anyone else is interested. I can send
pics if you'd like. I forget the series number, but I can find them
on their website if I have to. I just know that the list price is
something crazy like $500ea.
later,
m

In article writes:

If you're interested, I've got 5 52 point Switchcraft patchbays that
are brand new. They are the wirewound types and very good quality.
I'd let them go for $150 for all of them.

That's "wire wrap". "Wirewound" describes a type of resistor
construction.

What's the normalling setup? Are all the normalling contacts brought
out to wire wrap terminals, or are they the half-useless
full-normalled type that have the normalling contacts tied together
with metal jumpers at the jack?




--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )

Mike,
I believe they are brought out to the back, but I could be wrong. I'm
a drummer...what are the odds that I'd be confused....
If you or anyone else is interested, lemme know and I can send ya a
pic.
Later,
m

In article writes:

I believe they are brought out to the back, but I could be wrong. I'm
a drummer...what are the odds that I'd be confused....

I'm not that interested myself. I have 3 or 4 1/4" long frame
patchbays around here. I really could use some more patch points, but
I'd have to remove something from the rack in order to make room for
another bay, so I'm making do by making lazy.

I only asked about the normalling because many long frame patchbays
are built so that they're permanently full-normalled. That's good for
the telephone company and if you're using them to patch microphone
lines (which I don't really recommend as a rule), but not very useful
for conventional control room setups. It would be difficult to show in
a photograph unless you knew what it was that you were looking at
because it's kind of dark back there where you need to see.

Typically the sleeve contact is common to both jacks in the pair, and
there are two terminals (tip and ring) for each jack so that's five
terminals per jack pair, not counting the normals. If that's all it
has, then either it's normalled with fixed jumpers (which almost
certainly means full normalled - I've enver seen one fixed-wired as
half normalled) or there are no normalling contacts.

If the normalling contacts are brought out to the back, then there
should be a total of nine tabs per jack pair.




--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )