Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?

"Buster Mudd" wrote ...
Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?

I've never encountered either of them, but the Bocchino web page
has several "snake-oil" indicators IMHO.

OTOH, The Furutech just looks like a more "industrial strength"
version. No subjective claims about "better dynamic range,
quieter background noise", "very fast and crisp transients", etc.
Didn't see any pricing, though. If they want $500 each for them,
that would be one of my snake-oil indicators.

The Bocctech site seems to be down right now. What's wrong with regular
old Neutrik connectors? I haven't used Neutriks in high moisture or
outdoor situations, so maybe you can find a less corrosive-prone metal
than the Neutrik stuff, but Neutrik may resist corrosion just fine
AFAIK; I've only used them in relatively climate controlled conditions.

What are the prices on these connectors? Are the solderless or anything
fancy?

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq

Buster Mudd wrote:
Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?

Trevor de Clercq wrote:
The Bocctech site seems to be down right now. What's wrong with regular
old Neutrik connectors? I haven't used Neutriks in high moisture or
outdoor situations, so maybe you can find a less corrosive-prone metal
than the Neutrik stuff, but Neutrik may resist corrosion just fine
AFAIK; I've only used them in relatively climate controlled conditions.

What are the prices on these connectors? Are the solderless or anything
fancy?

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq

Buster Mudd wrote:

Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?


I've been using Switchcraft and Neutrik connectors for a very long time in many environments. Both
hold up well to the elements when treated well to begin with; by that I mean, not letting them stay
wet, not allowing dirt to build up and get inside the connector, stuff like that. I take care of my
cables because they can (and have) last(ed) for decades of use when treated well. I've built cables
to that effect, some reaching back nearly twenty years with Switchcraft connectors. A regular
cleaning of oxidation is also recommended on the pins if they aren't gold plated (which would still
require occasional cleaning as well).

Tried and true is how I work. Exotic isn't always and "new and improved" is hardly ever the case
where connectors are concerned.

--fletch

Buster Mudd wrote:
Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?

The whole point of the XLR connector is that it has such an enormously
large surface are that you don't NEED stuff like this.

Many of the expensive RCA connectors aren't snake oil, because the RCA
is such a crappy design that it actually takes some engineering to get
a reasonable contact area with them. This is made worse by the cheesy
high-Z unbalanced interfaces consumer audio systems use.

In the pro audio world, all of that stuff is severely minimized.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

More brag and hype!!
Any old XLR connector, as long as its pins or receptacles are not badly
tarnished or coated, will conduct a milliwatt or so. And Phantom current
rarely exceeds 3mA. All this fuss and inflated sales talk for a utility
thing to join A to B.
Stay with Cannon, S/Craft, Cliff or Neutrik or similar: they have been going
donkeys' years.

Have you *ever* considered that the most perfect concentric or
radial-positioned three- or four-pole connector, using untapered pins with a
pre-requisite air gap to prevent collision and to ease mating, should
actually fail to connect when on target, or should arc at least!!!
Best 100% reliability connectors for me are the lockable multipole
Varicon/Edac type with slotted blades where each cross-mate is done
positively from 8 touching gold-plated interleaves. I have used thousands on
pro jobs. Pity there is not AFAIK an XLR-sized format using such integrity.

"Buster Mudd" wrote in message
ups.com

Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the
Bocchino Audio BAXLR
(http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the Furutech
FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593)
?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft
connector? Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil
thread?

It's obviously snake oil.

The XLR basic design is so good and bullet-proof that the more interesting
question is how much it can be cheaped-down from the standard products
(Switchcraft, Neutrik) before further cheapening causes problems. The answer
seems to be: It can be cheapened quite a bit, not an infinite amount.

Given the competitive pricing of the standard XLR products, the idea of
cheapening them down further is really pretty strange.

In article writes:

The XLR basic design is so good and bullet-proof that the more interesting
question is how much it can be cheaped-down from the standard products
(Switchcraft, Neutrik) before further cheapening causes problems. The answer
seems to be: It can be cheapened quite a bit, not an infinite amount.

It seems that the difference between cheap and more expensive XLRs is
in ease of soldering, assembly, and method of strain relief. A lot of
folks around here seem to be in love with the Neutrik but I'm sticking
with Switchcraft, at least until I encounter one that I don't like more
than I don't like the Neutrik.

I've had problems resulting from leads broken inside an XLR shell.
male cable connectors whose shell has been stepped on too hard and is
no longer round enough to go into a socket, and an occasional chassis
mounted connector that's been abused to the point where the insert is
loose in the shell. But I've never had a problem with an XLR that
didn't make good contact, and that's really all it has to do.

Given the competitive pricing of the standard XLR products, the idea of
cheapening them down further is really pretty strange.

Pricing of quality connectors is competitive if you buy them in the
right place. But a guitar store prefers to stock lower quality XLRs,
blister packed, for about the same price as you can buy a Neutrik or
Switchcraft from Markertek if you buy then ten at a time. And to
cable assembly manufacturers, it makes a big difference. Saving a
couple of dollars retail cost is attractive to people who figure a
cable is a cable and they'll never have to fix it (or when it goes
bad, they'll eventually throw it away after being in denial for a
while).

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Trevor de Clercq wrote:
The Bocctech site seems to be down right now. What's wrong with
regular
old Neutrik connectors? I haven't used Neutriks in high moisture or
outdoor situations, so maybe you can find a less corrosive-prone
metal
than the Neutrik stuff, but Neutrik may resist corrosion just fine
AFAIK; I've only used them in relatively climate controlled
conditions.

What are the prices on these connectors? Are the solderless or
anything
fancy?



Sweet jesus, the Furutech is $55 each for gold, or $75 each for
Rhodium. The BAXLR is $100 each!

BTW, for high moisture environments I've been real happy w/ the Neutrik
NC3*XHD-B. $6 each.

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1110552711k@trad
In article
writes:

The XLR basic design is so good and bullet-proof that the more
interesting question is how much it can be cheaped-down from the
standard products (Switchcraft, Neutrik) before further cheapening
causes problems. The answer seems to be: It can be cheapened quite a
bit, not an infinite amount.

It seems that the difference between cheap and more expensive XLRs is
in ease of soldering, assembly, and method of strain relief.

Yeah Neutrik!

However there are some pretty fair clones of Neutrik designs that are
around.

A lot of folks around here seem to be in love with the Neutrik but I'm
sticking
with Switchcraft, at least until I encounter one that I don't like
more than I don't like the Neutrik.

I've had problems resulting from leads broken inside an XLR shell.

I generally blame myself for that - proper stress relief is still up to the
user, to some degree.

male cable connectors whose shell has been stepped on too hard and is
no longer round enough to go into a socket,

Not having to deal with roadie-proofing, I've never had the problem.

and an occasional chassis mounted connector that's been abused to the
point where the insert is
loose in the shell.

Seen that happen to the "good" ones. Nothing is totally abuse-proof, and
chassis mounting seems to facilitate it.

But I've never had a problem with an XLR that
didn't make good contact, and that's really all it has to do.

I have. Mate a good but connector with a loose-fitting too-cheap mate, and
you're there. Part of what you get for the money is a tighter fit, but still
no sticking.

Given the competitive pricing of the standard XLR products, the idea
of cheapening them down further is really pretty strange.

Pricing of quality connectors is competitive if you buy them in the
right place.

Yes. Radio Shack wants more for cheap (admittedly usually fair-enough)
clones than Markertek wants for the real thing.

But a guitar store prefers to stock lower quality XLRs,
blister packed, for about the same price as you can buy a Neutrik or
Switchcraft from Markertek if you buy then ten at a time.

Never saw it but I'll take your word for it.

And to cable assembly manufacturers, it makes a big difference.

I've used some cheap cables and they are all over the map. Musician's Friend
outright gave me some Nady cables that seemed to want to break their inner
conductors at the solder joints. The hassle they caused more than offset the
low, low price. However once fixed they stayed fixed. Strange. OTOH, after
about 9 months on stage, some cheapies from Orange County Speaker seem to be
holding together pretty well.

Saving a couple of dollars retail cost is attractive to people who figure
a
cable is a cable and they'll never have to fix it (or when it goes
bad, they'll eventually throw it away after being in denial for a while).

If you've got a complex setup, or do live sound, the cost of a broken cable
in terms of lost work, hassle and potential embarassment can offset any
possible cost savings.

On 3/11/05 12:07 PM, in article znr1110552711k@trad, "Mike Rivers"
wrote:

It seems that the difference between cheap and more expensive XLRs is
in ease of soldering, assembly, and method of strain relief. A lot of
folks around here seem to be in love with the Neutrik but I'm sticking
with Switchcraft, at least until I encounter one that I don't like more
than I don't like the Neutrik.

I was very dissapointed when I ordered a set of right-angle A3F connectors
from CONQUEST and specifically asked for the same-price Switchcrafts over
their default Neutriks. My eyebrows ht the ceiling when I realised (AFTER a
phone call to Conquest and one to S'craft, assuming parts had been left out)
that the S'craft model HAS NO STRAIN RELIF beyond the solder-pole cable
crimp. The SHELL extension is there but there's NOTHING IN IT.
They were happy to take them back and send me the Neutriks which indeed have
the additional pressure-ring compression grip around the tail of the
connector shell.
Stunned...

"Buster Mudd" wrote in message
ups.com...
Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the Bocchino
Audio BAXLR (http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the
Furutech FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593) ?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft connector?
Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil thread?

How much is $745 Australian? If this the price of 4 connectors, I would
have to assume we're in snake oil territory.

Arny Krueger wrote:

The XLR basic design is so good and bullet-proof that the more interesting
question is how much it can be cheaped-down from the standard products
(Switchcraft, Neutrik) before further cheapening causes problems. The answer
seems to be: It can be cheapened quite a bit, not an infinite amount.

Given the competitive pricing of the standard XLR products, the idea of
cheapening them down further is really pretty strange.

Well...I bought some cheap generics that were Switchcraft style---seemed to
be solidly made and all---but the barrels were too thick. I had trouble
getting the males into females on the back of rackmount gear where you
have an outside lip going over the barrel.

Rob R.

wrote in message

"Buster Mudd" wrote in message
ups.com...
Anyone have any experience with exotic XLR connectors like the
Bocchino Audio BAXLR
(http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/baxlr.htm) or the Furutech
FP-602
(http://www.furutech.com/new1/produ_2...Cache=9007.593)
?

I'm specifically curious about professional engineers using these in
pro audio applications. Are there *any* merits to these designs that
would make them superior to a typical Neutrik or Switchcraft
connector? Or is this just more fodder for the recent Snake-Oil
thread?

How much is $745 Australian?

Exchange is 1 $Au = $0.79 USD

If this the price of 4 connectors, I would have to assume we're in snake
oil territory.

Roger!

In article writes:

Well...I bought some cheap generics that were Switchcraft style---seemed to
be solidly made and all---but the barrels were too thick. I had trouble
getting the males into females on the back of rackmount gear where you
have an outside lip going over the barrel.

I often have to force Neutric female cable XLRs into any males, even
Neutrik-Neutrik mates. Maybe it's me, but I just have never met a
Neutrik XLR that I liked thoroughly. They have their good points, but
there always seems to be something that makes me want the good ol'
Switchcraft.

I've never used the right angle plugs so I haven't experienced how
they (respectively) botch those up.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Arny Krueger wrote:

Radio Shack wants more for cheap (admittedly usually fair-enough)
clones than Markertek wants for the real thing.

Last year in Austin TX I had need for a few banana plugs and bought some
ITT-Pomona lookalikes from RS. The metalurgy is not up to the originals.
The steel in the plug tips is too stiff and will obviously fail if
applied in a pro setting where daily plug/unplug cycles occur.

And yes, they weren't inexpensive, either, even if they were cheaply
made.

--
ha

hank alrich wrote:

Last year in Austin TX I had need for a few banana plugs and bought some
ITT-Pomona lookalikes from RS. The metalurgy is not up to the originals.
The steel in the plug tips is too stiff and will obviously fail if
applied in a pro setting where daily plug/unplug cycles occur.

And if you want industrial-strength bananas, take a nod from Kimber and
try this:

Rip the plastic completely off a Pomona plug, leaving just the metal
innards. Remove the setscrew. Tin your 12 ga. or 10 ga. wire, insert
into the back of the plug instead of the side. Heat the whole thing
with a 40-50W iron and solder it up like a giant solder cup. Heatshrink
over the body and cable end with 3:1 glue-lined heatshrink. IME these
outlast any other solution, certainly at the price.

In article , Kurt Albershardt
wrote:

hank alrich wrote:

Last year in Austin TX I had need for a few banana plugs and bought some
ITT-Pomona lookalikes from RS. The metalurgy is not up to the originals.
The steel in the plug tips is too stiff and will obviously fail if
applied in a pro setting where daily plug/unplug cycles occur.

And if you want industrial-strength bananas, take a nod from Kimber and
try this:

Rip the plastic completely off a Pomona plug, leaving just the metal
innards. Remove the setscrew. Tin your 12 ga. or 10 ga. wire, insert
into the back of the plug instead of the side. Heat the whole thing
with a 40-50W iron and solder it up like a giant solder cup. Heatshrink
over the body and cable end with 3:1 glue-lined heatshrink. IME these
outlast any other solution, certainly at the price.



Do be sure to heat the plug very well and be sure the solder flows. I've had a
couple of these develop cold joints, but generally they are pretty reliable. I
use the ones without a set screw, where the plastic shell clamps down on the
wire through the side of the plug.

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x

"Jay Kadis" wrote in message news:jay-

Do be sure to heat the plug very well and be sure the solder flows. I've
had a
couple of these develop cold joints, but generally they are pretty
reliable. I
use the ones without a set screw, where the plastic shell clamps down on
the
wire through the side of the plug.

At work we distribute the Tasker range. At first I didn't like these, as
it seemed the solder-cup contacts were 'solder-proof'. Then I discovered
that if you crank the iron temp a bit, like really hot , 450` or whatever,
they solder just fine. And the plastic body-filler seems impervious to the
etra heat.


geoff