Audio Cables, Questions

[hppants]

One or more of my audio cables for my ampli-rider setup (4 total) is crapping out. I can't figure out which one because I wiggle all of the connections and everything sounds great. Then I take off and between 5 seconds and 15 minutes later, I start hearing crackling and cutting out and holy **** is this pissing me off. Of course, the way I've installed it makes the system very weather proof, but I have to dissassemble 1/2 the bike to work on it. So I'm going to replace all 4 cables:

The questions:

1. What I think I'm dealing with is what we used to call 1/8" DIN - is what they now call 3.5 mm the same stuff?

2. When a cable is sold as "3 feet long", is that measurement "tip to tip" or cable lenght without connectors, or what? My current cables don't measure up either way.

3. Can somebody reccomend a ULTRA high QUALITY cable manufacturer for this? I'd rather pay a little more and get something that has the best shot to last.

Tx.

 

[Geezer]

I can't answer your questions, but I can say that the cables might not be the problem. I used to use an AmpliRider with cables for audio and had similar problems. Switching and swapping cables didn't help. I believe that the jacks on the AmpliRider box were part of the problem, but I never fixed it. I switched to a Senna system and never looked back.

 

[Bounce]

If you're looking for standard cables, then the best pricing around is at Monoprice.com

 

[HotRodZilla]

Pants, I would agree with Geezer and bet your jacks are FUBAR. The constant rubbing together wears their surfaces and pretty soon, it's a **** connection. I guess depending on how much new cables are, it may be worth an attempted fix, but if they're expensive you should really probably think about going to a wireless system. At least when that craps out, you know it's just glitchy blue tooth.

 

[Twigg]

From what I've heard, the guy who builds the Ampli-Rider is easy to communicate and work with.

Pretty sure he would take a look at your unit and fix it. If you go that route, when you re-fit it to the bike arrange the cables and fix them so they do not move the plugs in the sockets. It's not just audio sockets that suffer from vibrations and strain, USB sockets do too. Fixing the wires with cable ties, velcro ... whatever, can alleviate this problem.

Yes, 1/8 is the same as 3.5 mm for audio cables, and any decent cable will pretty much be as good as the next. Amazon sell a series called "Basics", and they are just fine.

 

[SouthernCruizer]

First thing I'd do is shoot some contact cleaner into the jack...you'd be surprised how often that fixes flaky connections.

 

[Pete Bansen]

A bunch of good suggestions here. Yes, 1/8" is 3.5mm. The contact cleaner idea is a good one - if you get crud built up inside a jack, it will produce the sort of symptoms that you're experiencing. Securing the cables so that movement between the jack and plug should help keep the plug and jack from wearing out or wearing through the plating on the mating surfaces.

You asked about high quality cables. I wouldn't call Monoprice cables any better than just OK, though Bounce is totally correct that they're a good buy. Amazon Basics are a little better. If you want a quality cable built to the exact length needed, I use a company called Redco Audio when I'm too lazy to build the cable I need (I do sound reinforcement): www.redco.com - look for the "custom cables" page. On a bike, it's a good idea to have a quality cable with really good shielding to isloate your audio signal from the electronic noise generated by the bike.

Oh, and +1 on Bluetooth wireless (Sena in my case). Pricing isn't bad and it's the most plug and play system I've come across and I've pretty much had everything but Baehr.

 

[Bounce]

Agreed, Pete, but "good audio" (and the money that takes) is wasted in the noisy environment of a bike.

 

[hppants]

Great feedback on this thread, many thanks for your help. Based on what you have written, my thoughts are:

1. Run a little contact cleaner on all jacks and see if that helps.

2. Buy 1 cable that I can use as a good tester and systematically test all four cables one by one to see if I can determine the culprit. I'll have to pull the amplirider up to the glove box, but I can rig that up safe for testing purposes on a good weather day. I'll just take the lot of cables with me on a day trip and swap testers out at stops.

3. Try switching to one of the other inputs on the ampli-rider to see if that helps. I'm only using one input (for my MP3 player) - maybe if the jack on that input is bad, I can buy myself some time.

4. Relay my findings to the ampli-rider dude (Twigg is right , that guy is very helpful) and if necessary wait for advise.

5. As an absolute last resort, pitch it and look at blue tooth. I have a buddy with the sena system - he's had it for a while so I guess its more reliable. But quite frankly, the sound quality is crap. I'm spoiled with my ampli-rider running through my shure 215s. Great sound, very little noise.

Much thanks, again.

 

[Twigg]

. I'm spoiled with my ampli-rider running through my shure 215s. Great sound, very little noise.

wrt this ^^^

The sound quality of the Sena is excellent if you spoil yourself with the Shure 215s

 

[AVGeek]

. I'm spoiled with my ampli-rider running through my shure 215s. Great sound, very little noise.

wrt this ^^^

The sound quality of the Sena is excellent if you spoil yourself with the Shure 215s

Especially since the Sena offers a helmet mount for use with your Shures...

 

[Pete Bansen]

I agree - using quality custom earmold speakers or in-ear monitors with the Sena setup is the way to go. Tried the helmet-mounted speakers, but they really didn't get it.

 

[hppants]

I think I've isolated it to a wire. For 10 bucks, I'll give it another go. I'll have to look into the Sena setup with my 215s for the future.

 

[dudeckp]

Educational stuff here:

DIN connectors are multiple pins inside a keyed circular connector:

1/8" (aka 3.5mm) is one of four common sizes in the TRS ("Tip", "Ring", "Sleeve") phone connectors

# of connectors that are common:

2 - Single speaker OR mic

3 - Single Speaker PLUS min - OR - Stereo (L+R) speakers

4 - Stereo (L+R) Speakers PLUS mic

 

[DesignFlaw06]

With my J&M, I had to convert male to female for my Bluetooth adapter. I had an issue with the female coupler. Had to try a couple of those before I could get one that was snug. Also reinforce connections that you can with electrical tape.

If you're comfortable with a soldering iron, you can tack on a small coating of solder on the male ends. I've done it a couple of times, but you need skill. Too much heat for too long will melt the rubber sheath. Also the coat of solder has to be as uniform as possible. If you are planning on replacing the cable, might be worth a shot with the old one first.