Combo XLR/ mains cable for active PA speakers?

shufflebeat

midlifecrisis said:

another great solution for a problem that doesnt exist.

Yup.

10m XLR has many uses and folds down small, likewise 10m 1:1 mains extension (plus short IEC).

This one has one use and when it goes down (it will) you will need the cables above anyway.

My subs don't have IEC out and my crossover is at the desk. Do I need 2? Now I'm not saving any space at all.

This makes no sense.

Danny1969

shufflebeat said:

midlifecrisis said:

another great solution for a problem that doesnt exist.

Yup.

10m XLR has many uses and folds down small, likewise 10m 1:1 mains extension (plus short IEC).

This one has one use and when it goes down (it will) you will need the cables above anyway.

My subs don't have IEC out and my crossover is at the desk. Do I need 2? Now I'm not saving any space at all.

This makes no sense.

These cables are designed for modern active speakers where the crossover processor is built internally into the speaker cabinet along with the low and hi amplifiers 

To address the potential hum issue raised above  I doubt you would get any because the 50hz is so uniform across both conductors the CRM will cancel it out completely. When I built 2020 Studios we had the mains in the same conduit as the signal and it was never a problem even when recording softly spoken audio books when I had to have the gain right up on the mic pre to get a decent level. Your be surprised how good balanced audio is at cancelling noise when it's uniform across both phases. 

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

To address the potential hum issue raised above  I doubt you would get any because the 50hz is so uniform across both conductors the CRM will cancel it out completely. When I built 2020 Studios we had the mains in the same conduit as the signal and it was never a problem even when recording softly spoken audio books when I had to have the gain right up on the mic pre to get a decent level. Your be surprised how good balanced audio is at cancelling noise when it's uniform across both phases. 

Exactly - the mains cable itself is essentially balanced, since the live and neutral are also a push-pull pair, so actually the radiated 50Hz field is extremely minimal anyway. Mains hum mostly comes from transformers, not cables.

My reservations about combined XLR/mains cables are purely to do with safety and making things more complex/specific than they need to be, but at least they still use the standard connectors - if one part breaks you could bypass the failed half with a standard cable if you need to. What's worse is if you use a special single connector for multi-function cables - then you need at least one full spare set.

shufflebeat

Danny1969 said:

shufflebeat said:

midlifecrisis said:

another great solution for a problem that doesnt exist.

Yup.

10m XLR has many uses and folds down small, likewise 10m 1:1 mains extension (plus short IEC).

This one has one use and when it goes down (it will) you will need the cables above anyway.

My subs don't have IEC out and my crossover is at the desk. Do I need 2? Now I'm not saving any space at all.

This makes no sense.

These cables are designed for modern active speakers where the crossover processor is built internally into the speaker cabinet along with the low and hi amplifiers 

That's fine so long as you're using a single active box but I still find it much better to use a system processor at the desk and send hi/lo along separate cables to subs and mid/tops. It's much more flexible and easier to replace when things go wrong.

Mains is 1:1 extension to a 4 or 6 gang as required at the other end. If I need 10m I use that, if I need 20m I can use a reel. Every venue is different.