John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I'm on the verge of designing a studio in a detached 40ft x 24ft garage over here in Denver Colorado and while doing preliminary research, I wondered if using DB-25 wall plates like this http://www.mpja.com/productview.asp?product=11290+MI for stuido to booth/room connections is a good idea. My assumptions for pros and cons are:

Pros:
1. Cheaper than standard XLR wall boxes
2. Easier to replace (not repair)
3. Non space consuming
4. 8 channels of balanced audio for each small connector.

Cons:
1. Big 'ol snake always sticking out of the wall (unless stored)
2. Trouble shooting and soldering DB-25 harnesses is way lame and much harder than fixing/replacing 1 XLR
3. Breakout snakes may break the cost effectiveness of the whole idea.
4. Getting a DB-25 from the local music store in a pinch isn't going to happen.

So! Is this one of those "Wow! Why diden't i think of that!" things or one of those "Wow! This guy is stupid!" things. Or a mix of both. Lemme Know.
Thanks,
Ryan

Not much time ATM, but I'd say probably a bit of both; Tascam and other mfg's use db25's for just that, and there's a "standard" pin-out (try googling tascam db25 audio or something similar, it should come up.

You can buy readymade db25 to TRS or XLR cables, but I've not seen any longer than about 15 feet, so you'd prob'ly have to make your own if you need longer than that.

Why not make it so your patch bay's db25s are fed thru the wall and both sides are the right sex so you do NOT have cables permanently attached to the wall? You'd also likely need to make some "straight thru" db-25 cables out of 8-channel snake cable (or sheilded multi-pair computer cable) for longer runs - kind of a PITA, but if you were to make a couple spares at the same time, it could also be pretty useful IMO... Steve

Greetings Ryan,

What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your connections?

Are your lines from the control room to the booth for mic connections or something else?

DB25's are good if you don't have to plug/unplug all the time. They don't withstand abuse as well as other multipin connectors (eg: Elco/Edac).

If you are doing DB 25's, what are you breaking the other end into? XLR's or a stage box maybe? At the end, you still need XLR's for mic cables. The few connections, the better. I would recommend just an XLR plate.

What is the other end in the control room going to?