I have wired loads of 19" studio panels in my time and have seen many variations combining different panel types and connectors.
Some have thin steel panels (probably 1.2mm thick) and some are about 1/8" aluminium (just under 3mm?). Ideally, all should have the standard 24 mm hole cut out these days as so many connectors exist to fit this sized hole, arguably devised by Neutrik many years ago after Switchcraft ruled the industry for ages before that with their different sized holes for XLR females and males (24 and 19mm from memory).
Anyway, to cut a very long story short,
I would recommend using thin steel panels with M3 tapped XLR's, which
only cost about GB£0.10p more. Most of the connectors on a studio panel are XLR's (mostly female mic inputs) and it would take a shed load of time to fix these into position using nuts and washers
or, even more time to to use locknuts which
you don't need (unless you are wiring for a mobile truck). Heck, studio panels don't vibrate unless the bass is turned up too ruddy loud surely?
Ordinary nuts (yet alone washers whether they are flat plain, shakeproofs or star versions ... there are differences) are fiddly to position and locknuts are even worse especially if the steel panel is not flat and shaped like a U in which case you have to use a 5.5mm open ended spanner (assuming M3 screws are used, otherwise 6BA in the US perhaps) as you can't use a 5.5mm nut runner near the XLR or bent piece of metalwork and you are in a hurry as you have left the whole damn thing too late and haven't got time for all this stuff so ...
... pay a tiny bit more for each connector,
save a massive amount of time and get the M3 tapped version of the Neutrik (or other makes if they exist) panel mount connectors. On a thin steel (ideally 16 wide 24mm hole) panel, mount the connector from the
rear and simply use a
countersunk M3 screw (6 or 8mm) to secure it to the panel
extremely quickly. Job done and although they cost a bit more, it really saves the time and frustration putting these panels together. I will insist on using this method in future with any clients that need panels made up as it will save them money.
However, if you use the thicker aluminium panel
you probably can't mount the FEMALE XLR's with the top releasing latch from
behind the panel as the panel maybe be
too thick to allow the latch to fully release the XLR once a male XLR lead is plugged in. In this case, mount them from the front and prepare to spend more time assembling the panel with XLR's!
Hope this helps a bit and more from me on my thoughts regarding studio panel wiring later.
Regards from Jim Lassen (
www.profcon.co.uk). Also on
FACEBOOKPS: Still have new 96 way DL connectors available if you need some. Hopefully the cheapest prices as I buy quite a few and sell them to distributors and studios throughout Europe.
