Planet Waves DIY Custom Cable Making Kits Preview

Spaghetti – we love to eat it but hate it in wires. The culprit? Wrong length wires. As reviewers, we are constantly installing, changing, and relocating gear. It’s a pain. So we end up with wires that are either way too long or... well, they are mostly just too long. But even before we got into reviewing gear, we had to deal with wires that weren’t exactly the right length. Speaker cables are easy to adjust but what do you do with all those coaxial cables? What to do with all those preterminated cables? You’re pretty much at the mercy of the manufacturer who, at best, will offer lengths in one meter increments right? Unless you want to buy a bunch of expensive tools and learn how to solder and...

Wrong.

Planet Waves had introduced kits that not only provide you with the cable and the connectors, but with a solder-less “screw” solution! Basically all you need to do is cut the cable, twist on the connector, and fasten the set screw. Wow, that sounds easy right? Too easy. You’ll end up with a bunch of cables that won’t work and you’ll have no way of knowing which right? Wrong again. With each of the new Planet Waves kits you’ll be provided with a tester so that you’ll know before you ever plug anything in that the cable works.

Coaxial cable is easily the most commonly used cable in the AV world. It is used for RCA connections, composite video, component video, coaxial digital audio, and subwoofer cables. In fact, many people spend extra on a “subwoofer” cable not knowing that it is essentially the same as the other types. Each of the Planet Waves kits has a selection of wires (all 75 ohm and shielded) and black chrome finished connectors with gold-plated contacts and color coding rings so that you can label them as you wish. Heck, they even include a screwdriver so you don’t have to provide a thing besides your hands!

The priciest of the kits (the “Home Theater Installation Kit” at $399.99) includes a 25 foot run of a single cable (for your coaxial and subwoofer runs), dual cable (for your red/white RCA audio runs), and triple cable (for your component video runs). Of course you also get 38 RCA connectors, 4 F connectors, and 20 elastic ties (for cable management). The other two sets cost $249.99 and come with either simply a 25 foot run of triple cable or a 25 foot run of single and a 25 foot run of double cable (works out to be the same amount of cable) and 20 connectors.

The thing to remember is that these cables can be mixed and matched. If you need a short run of analogue cables for your SACD player (or HD-DVD player), you can either cut a bunch of single cables or some combination of single, dual, and triple cables. It doesn’t matter. It is also important to note that the connectors are completely reusable. So if you make a bunch of cables and connect everything up and then decide to move that piece of gear, you can back off the fastening screw, twist off the connector, trim the cable, and reattach the connector. This gives you a level of flexibility that should put a smile on your face. It did on ours.

With the advent of HDMI and the widespread inclusion of more TOSLink connections than coaxial connections on receivers, this may not be the timeliest of products but it can make a big difference in the rat’s nest behind your component cabinet. We look forward to taking a closer look at this product in the near future.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.