Patchbays!

[clineaudio]

Anyone here use one/assemble one for your own space?

If so, thoughts, opinions? 1/4" vs TT? Different brands that last longer/sound better?

How did you go about it? Did you buy bulk balanced cable and then just clipand solder as needed? A neutrik bay that I've been looking at appears to have 1/4" plugs on both front and rear (no solder, but probably more expensive)

I'd really like to have one, but am curious to how I might go about it. Final cost once completed?

[smopo24]

god, if i had a dollar for every patch bay i helped assemble (tt, not 1/4).....well, that's about how much i was paid for each job, so many bad memories!

[dagosto]

It's definitely cheaper to make them. The best ones I have used had 1/4 plugs that were a bit different from the noral ones. The tips of the plg were more rounded and somehow this cause a more solid contact. I think this is the type of patchbay they used to use in the military.

On the other hand TT's are great because you can get a lot more routing possibilities in less space. The quarter inch pre-made ones can also be useful since it is a breeze to change your setup and you can also switch the mode (normaled, half normalled, not normalled) in a flash.

I'm not sure about cost. I use premade ones at my studio. They were not overly expensive I think.

[smopo24]

yea, parting it out for materials isn't the cost, the labor is where the money is.

[clineaudio]

Thanks for the responses.
The question noone seemed to answer is not 1/4 vs TT, etc, but more importantly, what did you do for cabling on the rear terminals of the bay into the respective units. Did you buy bulk cabling, solder to patch terminals and then solder connectors exactly to lengths needed to reach your racks? The bays that I wired/unwired were usually like this.
Or, Did your bay come w/ standard 1/4" terminals on rear, so all you had to buy w/ standard cabling at the lengths needed?
Thanks.

[dagosto]

My bay came with 1/4" terminals front and back. Sorry if this was not clear.

[Nubus]

Yeah, the patch bays I wired were 1/4" on the back. I have dissassembled some nasty old ones attached with telephone style wires.

[bwethera]

but remember TT's require a bunch of soldering Generally.