Poor quality cable, connectors tend to snap off. Search "OSP snake" on google and you'll find a few forums of people talking about their bad quality.

Ok, that was my suspicion, thank you!

Now that I have that answered, what is the "budget" snake? I just need an 8 input/out deal. A box at the end isn't necessary, wouldn't hurt I guess but I don't need to pay the extra for it (you get what I mean).

There's an adage that I've learned to live by;

Good Stuff Ain't Cheap, and Cheap Stuff Ain't Always Good.

If you see gear/cables/etc everywhere else costing $1000, and then you see the "same" thing priced at $100... chances are that said $100 item ISN'T the "same".

While Monster is generally OK stuff, I think for the most part, it's seriously over priced, and I just hate paying for their marketing and advertising.

IMHO, you can't go wrong with Whirlwind, Canare or Mogami. However, it's probably going to be some big bucks, unless you can find some that are used.

Hosa, Rapco and the GC/Muso's Friend type house brands are OK as well... just don't buy the ones that don't come with the lifetime warranty.

It never hurts to buy a soldering iron and learn to roll your own. You probably won't save skads of money, but there are some savings to be had... and as such, I would say that making your own is the "budget" cable route.

I got a 100' ProCo 12x4 snake on ebay for $150 shipped. That's the direction I would head. I'm sure you can find cheaper used snakes on there that fit your needs more.

OK, I know most snakes are gonna be balanced but some low end crap might not be, in some cases.
Might have balanced connectors but not cables...
Just a thought.

Codemonkey wrote: OK, I know most snakes are gonna be balanced but some low end crap might not be, in some cases.
Might have balanced connectors but not cables...
Just a thought.

Now I think you are getting close to the deep end. If you manufacture snake cable with eight single conductor wires, you know you are going to get busted eventually. Better to use crappy shielding and low quality materials on a product that at is at least visually of the right kind.

This snake is simply disposable. There are a few situations where cables are nearly certain to be abused or stolen. (Anyone ever run an open mic night in a blues bar? Free outdoor festival?) I those situations it is appropriate to use cheap ones. But if you are using a snake in your studio, something like this is a false economy.

I had Jeremy make me a couple of snakes (a four channel and an eight) that are great quality and have really helped clean up the cable mess in the studio. I'm happy to give him a plug, but there are lots of good options out there between gold plated silliness and disposable crap.

Who is this "Jeremy" you speak of? ;-)

RO Tannoy System: *crackle* Mr Jeremy Cucco to the forum, Mr Jeremy Cucco to the forum for questioning please *squeal*

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/274808.html

Hey guys -

A couple things -
Codemonkey- there shouldn't be any snakes that I'm aware of on the market using TRS or XLR ends that are in fact unbalanced. At least I haven't seen them.

The snake referenced by the OP uses what I call "freebie" terminators. They're the ones that, when I buy a spool of cable, I get 10-20 of them for free. I never use these connectors (or if I do, I use it on the cables that I train my interns with that they can take home with them and play around with).

As for the cable itself - no idea. It could suck, it could work just fine. In fact, you may be able to buy the snake, snip the ends and add Neutriks to it for about $32 and make a great cable.

FWIW, I find that the 500 series Monsters (which are priced the same or less than the Mogami Golds) are fine as are Mogami, Canare (my personal favorite) and Belden. While I find ProCo's cable to be fine, their use of questionable connectors/terminators bugs me.

The biggest thing that pisses me off about Monster is that they sue anyone who uses the name Monster or actually poses any level of threat to them whatsoever. This is what has turned me off as a user of their products and why I won't buy their stuff ever again. (That and the fact that I can make anything that they offer as well and don't have to pay their high premiums...;-) )

Cheers-
J.

"Codemonkey- there shouldn't be any snakes that I'm aware of on the market using TRS or XLR ends that are in fact unbalanced. At least I haven't seen them."

Well, I'd hope there isn't. And there won't be, at least until Behr**r start making snakes.

'Behringer don't make snakes, but if they did, they'd be the worst goddamn snakes in the world'

Note -
I see in the link Zemlin posted that the ProCo uses Neutrik connectors. The two ProCo snakes/stage boxes I have do not use Neutriks and for some reason, they use a connector with pins that wiggle making plugging it in a real PITA sometimes.

I got them for the purpose of having the stage box, but I just startted getting into making snakes with stage boxes, so I'll be replacing these with my own creations soon.

I'm actually working on a 100' 12+4 XLR/TRS snake that is built into a Pelican 1510 case. It should be cool when finished!

My ProCo has Neutrik connectors as well. I really like the build quality of mine.

Cucco, do you sell snakes/cables?