Cables, anyone?

You said the red should be in this week correct? I'll wait to see what it looks like as red is my fav colour.

Those looks quite good!

That's brilliant mate I just followed you on Twitter as well, I'm @michaeldcullen on there if you need to get a hold of me in a hurry

Yep Nickel connectors with red/black stripe and a gold spit-pin center conductor (there's some bullshit audiophile reason why that's better, but personally I just like the fact you can slip an exacto knife in there 2 years from now and wiggle the two halves apart for a tighter fit if it starts to get loose).

Just need to lay out 4 pairs of cable in a cylinder and work out what size sleeving I need to order for the outside. Inner sleeving will probably need to be 3mm, but I can confirm that when my samples arrive from China next week. I like to go a couple of mm lower than the cable diameter because it means less of the cable itself shows through and it gives a snugger fit.

Ahhhh I see what you mean now

Right, what I would personally recommend is a setup like this:

4 paired cables, 1.5m long and sleeved AS PAIRS in 4 different colours (I'd recommend Orange, Yellow, Blue and Purple); I use orange for Deck A, yellow for Deck B, blue for Deck C and purple for Deck D, that way you're essentially following the rainbow on a per-deck basis, makes it easier to work out which cable is which channel etc).

The pairs would then be stacked on top of each other, because as the cables are figure-8, with the sleeving on they only bend EASLIY in one direction (when laid flat, they bend upwards/downwards, not side-to-side). So they'd be stacked along that axis which means the whole setup can roll up nicely into a circle to fit in your bag. Now, because they're all stacked together (and secured at both ends and the middle with heatshrink), the left and right channels of each pair line up and STAY in alignment, this way, you only have to look at one of the cables to make sure you're plugging them in the right way round. Same setup on the other side.

The rec cable, I personally would leave separate, because there might come a time when you have to hook into something else located away from your mixer, or you just flat-out might not want to/be able to use it on that occasion anyway.

The alternative, like the Hosa setup, is basically 8 individual cables individually sleeved and then fed into a much larger bore (probably black) sleeving. The downside to this, however, is that you have to check each deck's connectors to make sure you're putting left into left and right into right, rather than just checking it once at each end. It also makes the whole cable more unwieldy and less flexible. Ultimately, though, I'm offering a custom service so the decision either way is totally yours

EDIT: Scratch my suggestion, turns out that when stacked vertically the cables - when bent - become different lengths with regards to the inner cable and the outer one, so it's either a heatshrink at the ends deal, or heatshrink JUST in the middle. I reckon individually sleeved wires coming out of a central sleeve is going to be the best approach. We're back to a Hosa-style setup, but at least the connectors will be left/right coded and each deck colour-coded :P

Snakes are tricky because you're basically going from 8 into 1 into 8 again; just out of interest, what's your setup at the moment, gear-wise? Just wondering how much "tail" there'd need to be on the connectors; ie, if it's being split and going into 4 CDJs then you're going to need LONG tails on them and shorter at the mixer end; if they're going from an Audio 10 to a mixer it changes things somewhat.

Trying to work out the best way of putting something like that together... probably individually sleeved single RCA-to-RCAs heatshrunk in a couple of places to tie them all together; would you want them individually coloured, or the whole rig a single colour?

Cheers guys, tomorrow's going to be a fun day assembling cables

Incidentally, I plan on filling the RCA cavities with hot glue for added strength and to guard against shorting; if any of you are DIYers and DON'T want this done (in case you need to repair/resolder the cable at a later date), let me know.

$25/each so $100 total. Only problem is I don't have red sleeving I've got orange if that helps? Failing that, I can order some red stuff in but it'll take about a week to come through.

As for group US buys, the postage isn't actually THAT bad because we're dealing with such small/light items. Sent via Royal Mail it's between $10-20 depending on whether you want 2 or 4 cables. Basically, anything under a kilo is around $10 (

Is there enough interest in the US to do a group buy? Not entirely sure how it would work out for us in the US to save money, but if we can potentially save and support community members it might be worth a shot...?

This won't work for RCA cables, but it'll work for your headphones:
http://en.mdpc-x.com/mdpc-sleeve/sleeve.htm

My Sennheiser gaming headphones have a really nice braided cable that feels really soft to the touch. I have only used plastic braiding for my pc but can you get a fabric like braiding?

Shipping to the states is probably murderous isn't it?