the sssnake Cat Snake 3FB

Did what I needed when I tried it out - clean stage, quicker setup. I drop one of these at the feet of each member of the band. Their vocal mic and instruments plug into that, all on very short leads. I then use the input matrix on the mixer to allocate them to channels as I want. Remember that you need screened CAT5 or CAT6. No screen, no phantom power.

It is much cheaper that rival boxes for a reason. The connectors are cheap quality, for live use I would be happy to pay more for reliable Neutrik connectors. As another review suggested, I may well change them.

The Ethercon is offset from the centre but the latch is on the narrower side quite close to he flange on the box with very limited space to get a finger in to press the latch. Someone with fat fingers is not going to get in here. There is no reason not to fit the connector the other way round making it much easier to release. I did turn the connector around but take care, the thread cutting screws holding the box together don't like being removed and reinserted and are easily over-tightened.

I don't even know where to start with this review. For about 2 years I've been using a 30 meter snake to get my mics to my preamps from my drumroom and I've always noticed how limiting that is.

For one, not the best quality and 30m is asking for trouble with losing a bit of treble. That and having all your inputs on one place in your drumroom can get messy and outright annoying.

With the cat6 system, it's very much simplified my workflow, cleaned up my floors and has allowed me do ditch 5+ meter cables dangling all over my room like a pit of snakes!

If you're looking to wire up your studio as cheaply and effectively as possible, this is it!