Ask the expert – advice on cables

Daniel S. Fick emails:

“I’ve downloaded Bob Kilpatrick’s “Church Soundbook“, and in there it talks about using a multi-channel headphone amp along with basic headphone cables and ear buds to make an affordable “in-ear monitoring system”. I’ve now purchased the parts, and my question is: what kind of cable I need to connect the headphone monitor (located on the stage) to the mixing board (in the back of the church)?”

Geoff Boswell, Sound Consultant, B&H Syscom Ltd replies:

Need more info here really.  Individual audio feeds to a small headphone amp and mixer need to be on discrete cables unless its data carried along a CAT5e Network cable [like Aviom or Roland M48 systems].  In my church I built a simple system giving each musician a small box with four volume controls. Each box has a 5 pin XLR and we use what’s called star quad mic cable to wire the 5 pin XLRS. So each feed taken from the mixer [aux 1/2/3&4 pre-fader] is boosted at the stage end through a four way line level amp  From there the line level feeds are all unbalanced so the 5 pin wiring is 1= aux 1. 2 = Aux two and so on and then pin 5 isi screen or earth or ground.  We feed worship leaders vox on 1 worship lead instrument  on 2 [normally guitar] a mix of the BVs on 3 and keys on 4. Works well for us with a normal band using spot monitors on stands for each musician [Voice Solos and some Yamaha MS100s].