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Post subject: Upgrade speaker cables?
Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:06 pm
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Location: dallas, PA
Has anyone updated their speaker cables for their Passport Pro 500? I'd like to get longer cables, and since they're so flimsy, I wondered if anyone's found a better replacement than the stock cable. thx


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Post subject: Re: Upgrade speaker cables?
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:27 am
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The cables that come with the Fender Passport can be that puny because they are short. In the plus column, they pack up very compactly and they work fine. Even if you get longer ones, keep the Fender ones stored in the unit. They make good backups if your longer cables fail, and for a gig where the speakers don't need to be far away, this gives you one less thing to have to carry.

In the minus column, they aren't long enough for many settings. I kept my Fender cables, and also got two 30' and two 50' cables, and a pair of female-to-female 1/4"TS adapters to combine them. They are fat, beefy and work great... but they fill the bottom of a 5-gallon plastic bucket I use to carry them around. They don't fit in the Passport storage compartment. The rest of the bucket is full of XLR cables, so I had to carry it anyway.

Go to any music supply store and ask for 1/4"TS speaker cables. Just make sure it's a speaker cable and not an instrument cable. The ends look identical. Good ones are labeled on the sheaths (Either "Instrument Instrument Instrument..." or "speaker speaker speaker...". Others? Well, unscrew the end and look to see if the cable has two fat wires (a speaker cable), or one skinny wire and one woven metal shield wrapped around the one skinny wire (instrument cable).

Instrument cables are too thin for speakers. The amperage from the Passport can heat these up, and possibly even short out and cause a fire. You want speaker cables. If the store doesn't know the difference, go to a different store.

Oh, and speaker cables don't make good instrument cables, either. The tiny, subtle signal from an electric guitar needs that metal shield that the instrument cable provides or it picks up noise from fluorescent lights and transformers, like the power supplies of your effects boxes. The 1/4"TS connectors are the same for instrument and speaker cables, but the cables themselves are NOT interchangeable.


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Post subject: Re: Upgrade speaker cables?
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 8:29 am
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Good info , I wasn't to sure on what all this balanced and unbalanced meant . I wanted to make sure I had a balanced cable from my Sub to the 500 , and followed what you said here and made and soldered one together - a XLR at the sub end and 1/4 " at the other. On the Taylor forum one of the guys asked basically the same question, so if it's ok with you I pasted your info cause you outlined it quite clearly .


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Post subject: Re: Upgrade speaker cables?
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 12:19 pm
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Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:59 pm
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Thanks - great info. Much appreciated! quick question,,,what's the "TS" stand for in TS Cable?


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Post subject: Re: Upgrade speaker cables?
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:18 am
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Aspiring Musician
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1/4" cables have either two or three wires in them, each connected to a surface on the plug. If it's just two wires, one is connected to the Tip (the T in TS) and the other is connected to the "Sleeve" (or some would say "Shaft"). Those two are "TS".

If there's a third wire and third connector, that's the "Ring" (the "R" in "TRS", or "Tip, Ring, Sleeve").

Meanwhile, I have no idea what XLR stands for. I suspect someone just made it up.


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