I've never seen a $500 1/4" TRS patch bay ... who makes them? They must be very nice.

I have had good luck with Re An PBs ... I hate the way the cards fasten to the frames but other than that they hold up ok ..

The Pro Co PBs are pretty cool ... all the configuring is done via switches ..

Ive been using a DBX 48 for about 4yrs now,I use it exstensively,its not a 500$ unit,but it gets the job done.
I havent had any problems with the jacks as of yet,nice and quite,I use it so much,Im suprised I havent had to replace any jacks :lol: .
It sells for about 100 to 150$.
I also have a Berenger,very simple unit,not a high end unit,but it gets the job done.

I think the highest balanced 1/4'' patchbays I have seen are about $200(mr.patchbay). My budget is allowing for cabling, too. I was searching the archived posts, and is it true that bantam TT patch bays aren't of better sound quality than 1/4'' patchbays? Then why would pro studios use them? Takes up less area? They really enjoy soldering and buying expensive TT cables?

This is probably one of my most frustrating recording problems I've encountered. I have about 10 pieces of analog outboard gear that I want to use with my digidesign002. Because the 002 is is a limited piece of gear, I can only use four pieces of outboard gear at one time.

How do pro studios route their outboard gear and micsDo they use stage snakes, wall plates, XLR patchbays?

Now, am I correct to assume that the more breaks you have in your signal chain, the more the quality will get "watered down?" This is how I plan on routing everything:
Digidesign Ins and Outs to a balanced 1/4'' patchbay
Ins and Outs of compressors to patchbay
Ins of pre's to gold neutrik XLR patchbay(going to have to custom build it myself)
Outs of pre's to patchbay
Set patchbay de-normalled and patch gear according to need

I guess what concerns me is all the different break points in my chain, and whether or not they are deteriorating the sound. If I have gold mogami cable to XLR patchbay, gold mogami to mic pre, gold 1/4'' TRS to patchbay....but a cheap patchbay like a DBX, using Hosa cables to patch, it will effect my sound. Sorry for such a long post and for so many questions.

I've got a 1/4" Neutrik NYS-SPP-L and it works great. It's only 24 ports but I've only got 22 ins and outs. Although it's a bit scary how much force I need to use to plug in and "plug out?" the cables, when they are in, you know they are in and it feels real heavy duty.

I've heard people say that TT sounds worse than 1/4" but I've never heard it myself. To me there was never a real difference. Guess it all depends on the equipment and the listener.

Pro studios generally wire all outboard gear's ins and outs to the patchbay. Mic inputs from the studio are usually wired into the console and inserts from the console are wired to the patchbay. For the most part I would guess that studios use wall plates but I've been in studios that have snakes, but they were wired to wall plates. :)

The "more breaks" theory can be true but doesn't necessarily have to be true. It is common to have a something like a signal coming in to the console, out of the console via an insert, into the patchbay, out to a compressor, back to the patchbay, out to an EQ, back to the patchbay, out to a reverb, back to the patchbay and then back to the console. And that can sound lovely. Then again, it can sound like crap if the equipment is no good or connections are poor.

I don't really want to get in to the whole "do cheap cables sound crappy" thing, but if you use the cables you plan to use I don't forsee any problems...other than $500 may not be enough money.