Ghielmetti balanced high-end audio patchbays explained - why 4 pins?

In this video I'm showcasing the Ghielmetti ASF 1x32 AV 3-1 SA G and the CSF 1x48 AV 3-1 SA G balanced audio patchbays. GHIELMETTI is a Swiss manufacturer for very high-quality audio patchbays. The patchbays are extremely thin and light-weight and are known for their very unconventional design. Their reliability is unsurpassed so that they are in use even in nuclear power plants.
The unique design and build of these patchbays ensure maximum signal fidelity and reliability and internal contacts even self-clean with each operation.
The special discrete pin design of Ghielmetti patch cables and normalling plugs overcomes the fundamental design flaw of all jack-based patchbay designs where every patching process creates a brief short-circuit due to the contacts being arranged sequentially in a row.
Note: In this video, I occasionally used the term "normalized" instead of the correct notion "normalled". In the context of audio patchbays, "normalled" means that a connection between a signal transmitter and a signal receiver is established without using a patch cable. In traditional jack-based patchbays this is accomplished mechanically by using a little switch or by rotating a patch channel module 180°. In the case of Ghielmetti patchbays, normalling is accomplished by plugging a normalling plug into the bottom row. It will establish a connection between the outputting device connected to the upper rear of the patchbay to the input of the device connected to the bottom row on the rear face of the patchbay. Patching using normalling plugs is considerably cheaper and also less cluttering than using Ghielmetti patch cables.

[@helmanfrow]

Thanks for the video. I wish the music was about 10 dB lower but I'll survive.

[@SonicAxiom]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you survived :-)

[@makeperceive]

Thanks for making this video, it's difficult to find info on this system online so I was very glad to see your video. Did you consider a TT patchbay, and why did you go with Ghielmetti instead?

[@SonicAxiom]

Thanks for your comment! Glad you enjoyed the video and hope it explains all relevant features and aspects you need to know to take an informed decision on what type of patchbay to get.
I'd say that Ghielmetti is the ultimate patchbay. There's nothing like it. I never considered TT when I was looking to replace the phone jack patchbays since they suffers from the same conceptual flaws as 6.5 mm jack patchbays (short circuits during patching). But that's just me. I've now been using the Ghielmettis for 1.5 years and I couldn't be happier. No glitches whatsoever, no wiggling, just pristine-sounding connections all the time and also extremely robust in day-to-day work considering the delicate-looking pins.

[@makeperceive]

@@SonicAxiom Thank you, and enjoy making music with your system!

[@SonicAxiom]

Thank you! All the best!

[@bartconinckx]

do I see CAT5 cables there being used as Jack cables?

[@SonicAxiom]

No CAT 5 cables are being used in my entire studio, only Cat 6A exclusively and those are being used for data networking and Dante audio-over-IP. Could you specify the time location you are referring to?

[@bartconinckx]

@@SonicAxiom I think they just looked like CAT5 cables. but really weren't. Would have been an interesting idea though...

[@bartconinckx]

@@SonicAxiom cheers! do you have info on where you purchased the audio cable? I'm planning to fabricate my own jack cables. thanks!

[@SonicAxiom]

Hey Bart, most important thing is to use balanced audio cabling wherever possible! Balanced cabling reduces or even completely avoids picking up hum and other electromagnetic parasite signals. If you must interface unbalanced gear, feed the signals into a decent passive DI box (which will turn them into balanced signals) with the shortest possible unbalanced cables and then use decent balanced cables from there. Once the signals are balanced, they are virtually immune against noise/statics, etc.
I purchased lots of inexpensive cables at Music Store Cologne and Thomann here in Germany. I neither went for the most expensive nor the cheapest ones and I never had an issue with audio quality or noise. Make sure the connectors are sturdy and gold-plated (like Neutrik), the wires/leads are of at least a reasonable gauge and you should never get issues. Try to avoid cables with shrunk plastic connectors instead of soldered ones since they are not serviceable.
25 years ago, I bought a second hand, 30-metre analog 24 by 8 (returns) multi-core cable with a stage box on one end and separate XLR connectors on the other. I used the stage box end as a wall-box in one of my live rooms and cut the rest of it into pieces to build my own custom-lengths balanced patch cables connecting gear under the hood inside my studio racks. This huge cable is still covering virtually all of the analog and digital cabling to this day as far as RCA, jack and XLR cabling was concerned. IIRC, it was from Monacor but don't quote me on that. I'm using it for analog and digital balanced/unbalanced cabling, just not for custom CAT category network cabling. For this, I'm using SSFTP (shielded, foiled, twisted pairs) CAT 6A cabling and it works perfectly, as opposed to UTP (unshielded) CAT 5(e) which gave me quite a lot of issues.
No need to buy into fancy expensive boutique high-end woodoo :-)
Here's a quite revealing audio cable testing video by HOFA (you can set captions to english): czcams.com/video/w0b7RwBgGd4/video.html
Good luck!

[@bartconinckx]

@@SonicAxiom I'm currently using rack mixers that don't have balanced outputs and I don't have any hum or other issues. I might be just lucky I suppose. I never really bought into the gold plated stuff, do you really think that makes a difference? I will look into balanced audio cables, I suppose they are basically stereo cables on a mono signal. I watched the video and the differences seem negligible.