Planet Waves ZM Series Cables & Custom Installation Kit Review

Planet Waves ZM Introduction

Time is money. You know it, I know it… your custom installer who just landed that contract wiring up that 6-figure whole home audio & video system knows it. And if you can save countless hours wiring up your audio and video cables, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of all that reclaimed labor? Planet Waves has designed and refined its system to reduce on-the-job labor costs and substitute an easy-to-use and reliable cabling system that makes soldering and crimping AV cables a thing of the past.

We were introduced to Planet Waves quite some time ago and were at once captivated by their line of quick-assembly cables and interconnects. At the time we were dazzled, but still wanted more - primarily a solution for more robust bundled cables. Fast forward to last winter and the company gave us a sneak peek at some of their latest and greatest products. This included some new cabling products as well as a revamped line of connectors (their ZM Series). When the kits were finally ready, we jumped at the chance to take a closer look at these cables and see if indeed "change is good".

Planet Waves ZM Series Overview and Assembly

The first thing I did after opening the box and arranging the contents, was set about making a 20 foot subwoofer cable (frankly, because one of our staff members could use one). I selected the 50 ft. roll of 3/16" diameter coaxial HD interconnect cable and also the Custom Installation Tool Kit. This tool kit comes with a Planet Waves Triple Cutter and a Screwdriver. The Triple Cutter is designed to cut single, dual and triple coax runs and is designed to fit comfortably in the hand. The first thing I noticed was that the Triple Cutter provides no way to insert your fingers into the razor knife cutting area of the tool - ensuring that no matter how casually you hold the tool, you're not likely to get cut unless your fingers are the size of a 3 year old (i.e. don't give this to your kids as a toy). The tool also has a sort of chain-tethered clip that will allow it to be secured to a belt or metal loop should you have something like that on your tool belt.

Using the Triple cutter I was actually pleasantly stunned when it simply clipped the single coax cable neatly with a very minimal amount of pressure. The tool is extremely easy to use and I couldn't believe that I didn't need to add more pressure in order to slice through the coax like butter. The effect was very much like an expensive cigar cutter. It also had the same satisfying "clip" sound that let you know the razor had hit home.

As for the actual RCA ends, we had an ample supply of the standard (ST Series) connectors, but instead grabbed Planet Waves' new top of the line ZM Series (ZM stands for "Zero Mistakes" in case you were wondering). Taking a look at the 10 pack's contents, we noted that the new ZM Series connectors are actually two-parts: a base which fastens to the coaxial cable and a "tip" which screws onto the base. If you're jumping ahead, you've probably figured out what took me only 10 short seconds to realize - the tips are interchangeable. This means that if you go from a device requiring an RCA input to one that can handle BNC connections, just change out the tip. It really is that simple. While we're certain people won't be changing out tips every week it's a nice added feature. The other advantage to the screw-on tips is that the amount of pressure needed to have the tip come in contact with the center wire of the coax cable is fixed. You can only screw it down so far. With the ST Series connectors you have to screw them in, manually making the tip connection by the sheer fact that you think you can't screw it down any further. The old system/connector is fine, it's just not as exacting.

To make the actual connection, we took our cut-to-length coaxial cable and secured the bottom half of the new ZM Series RCA by backing out the ground screw, slipping it over the cable and seating it all the way in. The connector is made so that the cable must be pushed all the way in. It won't pass through the connector, but instead hits an internal lip which keeps it flush to the top of the lower piece. Once seated, crank down the ground screw until it stops. After this you simply screw on the tip until it is completely seated. While this sounds like a lot of steps, the process was pretty much clip, screw, twist, done. It takes approximately 30 seconds for even a rookie to make a connection. So there you have it, 1 minute and 30 seconds to make a 20 foot long subwoofer cable. Not bad. But now I wanted to move onto component video.

Planet Waves ZM Series RGB3HD Bundles

For this next cable I was itching to try out Planet Waves' new 24AWG RGB3HD bundled component video cable. This is a larger diameter cable that houses three individual coaxial cables (one for each of the red (Pr), green (Y) and blue (Pb) cables). Taking a closer look I found that the cable felt well-built. It is very flexible and each of the dual shielded coax cables was wrapped in a non-metallic insulation. I also realized I'd get to try out a new tool, Planet Waves' RC01 Radial Cutter.

The Radial Cutter is a new tool that allows you to set a specific depth with which to cut through the shield of a bundled cable (incidentally it will work with any bundled cable, not just those from Planet Waves). The way the tool works is that a small, curved-edge razor blade sits inside the tool atop an adjustable depth gauge (called a "knurled head" in the instructions). A spring-loaded upper jaw frame (cable guide) presses the cable bundle to the knife's edge. Setting the depth gauge is as simple as twisting the knurled head until the razor sticks up just high enough to slice the jacket without damaging the cables underneath. My recommendation is to test the depth on the last inch of wire or a scrap piece if you have it. After you have the depth correct you can simply insert the wire and spin the tool around the cable. It slices neatly and accurately. But there's more. The head rotates 90 degrees, so after you have made your initial cut through the jacket all the way around the bundled cable you can rotate the upper jaw frame with your thumb and then pull the blade lengthwise to split the jacket all the way down the length you are removing. In all my cuts I opted for a conservative depth, so that the blade never had a chance to penetrate any of the cables below. This gave me some additional prying to get the outer sheath removed, but was a good compromise overall. This tool fits well with the Planet Waves line - it allowed me to strip both sides of a 3 foot long component cable in less than 2 minutes.

Before I moved on to actually attaching the finishing pieces and connectors I did want to point out that Planet Waves missed sending me one important tool: something that could cleanly slice through the 3-cable jacketed RGB3HD bundle. To use standard wire cutters would potentially crush the ends of the coaxial cables inside, so instead I took a cue form their other tool and grabbed a razor knife and a fresh blade and cut through the bundle cleanly and quickly. In fact, given the rough-cut state of the bundle ends, you'll want to be certain to use a razor knife on the end to make sure you have a clean starting point. Once I had my cable ready and the stray insulation cleaned up I placed two RGB3 end caps on the cable (do this first) and prepared to attach my Red, Green and Blue ZM series RCA connectors. It took all of 4 minutes and 10 seconds to get all six connectors onto the cable, including verifying my work with the Planet Waves Cable Tester. Not bad at all, and I finally made myself that 30-inch component video "jumper" cable I'd always wanted.

I duplicated this same cable, but with the addition of two more lines with the new bundled RGB5HD cable which includes 5 coaxial cables in a single bundle (Planet Waves also offers the same cable with a CAT5e cable nestled within). This would be excellent for any number of things, from legacy RGBHV lines, to component-plus-analogue audio, to analogue 5.1 audio jumper cables. In either case we made one simply to tie together component video and stereo audio for a kids room system that didn't have surround or an advanced A/V receiver.

Planet Waves ZM Series Wall Plate Connectors and Conclusion

So what do you do when you have a ton of cable left over in bundled, dual, single and triple wire configurations? Why you go to town, that's what you do. I completely rewired my living room system. Then I called some friends and made some cables for them. And my in-laws. By the time I was done I had made over a dozen AV cables and hadn't even broken a sweat. One of the things included with this package was a Premium Cable-Making Kit. That alone had the necessary supplies and tools to make 10-12 cables depending upon your required lengths. At last year's Superbowl Party I found that I had given away one of my long length component video cables and had to cobble several, together in order to get HDTV to our outdoor projector. With the Planet Waves cables staring me in the face I decided to manufacture a long component cable to eliminate the problem for next year (by the way, try running ~100 feet of HDMI cable outdoors and see how far you get without an EQ or other active solution!)

The last thing we tested were the new wall-plate connectors that Planet Waves had given us as part of this evaluation package. What they've done is take their 3-step cable-making process and applied it to wall plate connectors. This means that you can get the same solder-less, crimp-less connections at your wall that you do behind your home theater equipment. It works really well and the connectors come in many variations - each based on the ZM Series and made by securing the bottom section and then screwing the connector on top, with the wall plate sandwiched between. We were able to play with female RCA, BNC, and F connectors - which make up the majority of what you'd want in a system like this. For more sophisticated installations, what you'll want to do is simply group your connectors into two Decora-style plates. One can be the Planet Waves-compatible connections (CableTV, component video, audio, etc) and the other can be for such things as HDMI, IR emitters and triggers.

Speaking of IR and triggers, Planet Waves also now has mono 3.5mm connectors which can be used to make trigger cables or as jumpers for IR emitters in conjunction with RF remote controls. Their musician's line includes 1/4" connectors and can facilitate instrument cables and custom solutions to link up multiple guitar pedal boxes. The system is very complete and Planet Waves even offers various length HDMI cables for those looking to get a "one-stop-shop" complete solution for all of their analogue and digital audio & video needs.

Conclusion

The Planet Waves Custom Installation Tool Kit and new line of ZM Series connectors is an excellent solution for anyone wanting to clear up the clutter in the back of their AV systems. But it's also a great way to save on installation labor and simplify the way you do your AV cable runs. For pros, the expanded lineup really offers just about anything you could ask for and makes fashioning custom cable runs and interconnects a quick, easy and reliable process. Planet Waves' new line of ZM Series high-end connectors and their interchangeable tips are more than revolutionary - they're simply going to make you money if you do this for a living. This system isn't cheap, but for those who place a dollar value on their time and want testable reliability, this is a one-two punch that is revolutionizing the way both consumers and custom installers handle crafting custom interconnects. Highly recommended.

About Planet Waves
D’Addario & Company, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets complete lines of strings for fretted and bowed musical instruments, drumheads, drum practice pads, and guitar and woodwind accessories under the proprietary brand names D’Addario, Evans Drumheads, Planet Waves, Rico, HQ Percussion and PureSound Percussion. The company also runs the popular Gbase.com online gear source. D’Addario products are marketed in approximately 120 countries.

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