Connectors for Live Music

When you experience live music, it can be the most exciting, life fulfilling and emotional experience you can have there is nothing that compares to it. 

In this blog we are going to explore some of the best connectors for live music on the market, and why some of the best connectors are the simplest and have been around for years because, as we all know good designs don’t need to change.

For Audio, the most popular connectors in the music industry are 3-pole male XLR connectors (developed by Cannon in the 1950s) are gendered such that male outputs connect to female inputs.

In this way, a male XLR microphone output connects to a female XLR cable end. On the other end of the cable, a male XLR cable connector plugs into the female XLR input of either a mixing console or an intermediary stage box.

This male-to-female signal flow allows cables to be chained directly together if necessary to extend cable lengths, though doing so loses some of the noise-cancelling benefit of the shielded twisted-pair cabling inside the microphone cables.

6.3mm or ¼ Jack connectors we are all probably familiar with, most people will have seen these.   The original 1⁄4 inch (6.35 mm) version descends from as early as 1877, when the first-ever telephone switchboard was installed at 109 Court Street in the USA.

Pop fact, this makes this one of the earliest ever designed electrical connectors still in use today.

For lighting and electrical connections, on Broadway and in other fixed-installation theatres, Stagepin connectors (also called “2P&G” or “Bates” connectors) have been a staple for traditional, fixed-position lighting fixtures for over 100 years.

Newer lights, lasers, confetti cannons, and other visual effect devices that rotate on one or more axes require connectors that lock in place to withstand the motion and vibration.

PowerCON connectors, in both powerCON 20 A (blue and grey) and powerCON TRUE1 TOP varieties (also developed by Neutrik), provide AC power to these “smart” theatrical devices.

We hope you found this useful and if you are designing new equipment or just want some assistance with your cable assemblies contact us today.

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