Review on 🔌 Enhance Sound Performance with SoundTools XLR Sniffer/Sender Microphone Cable Remote End Cable Tester by Sean Fabacher

I've been in show business for over 20 years. I've seen gadgets and tools come and go that aim to make the life of a sound technician or engineer "easier" or try to improve a stagehand's performance. Most of them are completely useless, they are developed by people who don't make a living from what we do. Not this one. As a stand-in for people who might not know: Rat Sound is a production company founded by the legendary Dave Rat, who knew that audio engineers and audio engineers had the daunting task of making technology runnable for artists with zero time and even fewer resources bring. The company not only provides audio and FOH solutions for the world's biggest shows, but also the team to run them. He gets what the stagehands, technicians and engineers need. The Rat Sniffer is arguably the smartest tool I've had since the Gerber 600 multi-tool (yes, I'm a tanner, not a leather person). It does one thing: it checks whether XLR cables are okay and what's wrong with them when they fail. Has 4 headlights. One on the back to let you know when one end of the device is supplying 48VDC power (aka "phantom power"). At the other end there are 3 LEDs that change color from green to red depending on the connection status. A handy guide (now the perfect size to write directly on your device) explains what the combination of red and green light means. This will show you which contacts are active and which are not. It might not seem like a big deal, but knowing how much current flows through each pin of an XLR cable can mean the difference between a payday refund and a ticket refund. And it can do it. All. Day. Long. The concept is simple: connect one end to the connector (endpoint) of the cable. Then either turn on the phantom power on the console or connect the other end with a single LED if checking the connections manually. Twist the bottom and you'll instantly know what's wrong with the cable! Without measuring probes. You don't know if there is electricity. And if you need to test a large analog snake (aka a large harness with multiple XLR channels), you can use Phantom to turn it on or off on the console and diagnose the entire 16-channel snake in under a minute. There are no characters to decode. Unsurprisingly, the screen speaks backstage in super-bright or pitch-black areas. And the nice thing is that he does it immediately. It's made entirely of metal components, and batteries are easy to find (though not as common as AA). However, you don't even need the other end if you have phantom power on the console you're using for testing. It's one of those tools that's so simple it's genius, yet works almost flawlessly. And it's about the size of a thick sharpie pen, which EVERY stagehand has (or should have). Got it. Use it. Love it. It pays for itself at the first gig. Serious. There he is.