ZM Series Overview and Assembly

Time is money. You know it, I know it… your custom installer who just landed that contract wiring up that 6-figure whole home audio & video system knows it. And if you can save countless hours wiring up your audio and video cables, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of all that reclaimed labor? Planet Waves has designed and refined its system to reduce on-the-job labor costs and substitute an easy-to-use and reliable cabling system that makes soldering and crimping AV cables a thing of the past.

We were introduced to Planet Waves quite some time ago and were at once captivated by their line of quick-assembly cables and interconnects. At the time we were dazzled, but still wanted more - primarily a solution for more robust bundled cables. Fast forward to last winter and the company gave us a sneak peek at some of their latest and greatest products. This included some new cabling products as well as a revamped line of connectors (their ZM Series). When the kits were finally ready, we jumped at the chance to take a closer look at these cables and see if indeed "change is good".

The first thing I did after opening the box and arranging the contents, was set about making a 20 foot subwoofer cable (frankly, because one of our staff members could use one). I selected the 50 ft. roll of 3/16" diameter coaxial HD interconnect cable and also the Custom Installation Tool Kit. This tool kit comes with a Planet Waves Triple Cutter and a Screwdriver. The Triple Cutter is designed to cut single, dual and triple coax runs and is designed to fit comfortably in the hand. The first thing I noticed was that the Triple Cutter provides no way to insert your fingers into the razor knife cutting area of the tool - ensuring that no matter how casually you hold the tool, you're not likely to get cut unless your fingers are the size of a 3 year old (i.e. don't give this to your kids as a toy). The tool also has a sort of chain-tethered clip that will allow it to be secured to a belt or metal loop should you have something like that on your tool belt.

Using the Triple cutter I was actually pleasantly stunned when it simply clipped the single coax cable neatly with a very minimal amount of pressure. The tool is extremely easy to use and I couldn't believe that I didn't need to add more pressure in order to slice through the coax like butter. The effect was very much like an expensive cigar cutter. It also had the same satisfying "clip" sound that let you know the razor had hit home.

As for the actual RCA ends, we had an ample supply of the standard (ST Series) connectors, but instead grabbed Planet Waves' new top of the line ZM Series (ZM stands for "Zero Mistakes" in case you were wondering). Taking a look at the 10 pack's contents, we noted that the new ZM Series connectors are actually two-parts: a base which fastens to the coaxial cable and a "tip" which screws onto the base. If you're jumping ahead, you've probably figured out what took me only 10 short seconds to realize - the tips are interchangeable. This means that if you go from a device requiring an RCA input to one that can handle BNC connections, just change out the tip. It really is that simple. While we're certain people won't be changing out tips every week it's a nice added feature. The other advantage to the screw-on tips is that the amount of pressure needed to have the tip come in contact with the center wire of the coax cable is fixed. You can only screw it down so far. With the ST Series connectors you have to screw them in, manually making the tip connection by the sheer fact that you think you can't screw it down any further. The old system/connector is fine, it's just not as exacting.

To make the actual connection, we took our cut-to-length coaxial cable and secured the bottom half of the new ZM Series RCA by backing out the ground screw, slipping it over the cable and seating it all the way in. The connector is made so that the cable must be pushed all the way in. It won't pass through the connector, but instead hits an internal lip which keeps it flush to the top of the lower piece. Once seated, crank down the ground screw until it stops. After this you simply screw on the tip until it is completely seated. While this sounds like a lot of steps, the process was pretty much clip, screw, twist, done. It takes approximately 30 seconds for even a rookie to make a connection. So there you have it, 1 minute and 30 seconds to make a 20 foot long subwoofer cable. Not bad. But now I wanted to move onto component video.