Behringer CABLE TESTER CT100 Professional 6-in-1 Cable Tester, Silver

So pleased I bought this tester. Has many uses in addition to testing cables (which it does really well), eg the tone output is great for quickly testing mic circiuts back to the mixer, and a new use I discovered today was that it can act as a universal cable adapter, to connect odd cables together, like an XLR to a jack or phono etc.The only issues I had was the on/off switch is too prominent - A number of times I found it had switched itself on in my bag. Easily solved by filng down the switch until almost flush.And I occasionally need to test Speakon leads - so I just made a couple of jack-speakon adapters.

Although I only buy stuff I have on a wish list and stuff I will definitely use, I do tend to find my Prime membership fuels a lot of "impulse" purchases. And this was one of them. As a big user of cables (music in various locations) I've wanted a cable tester for some time, but always found them too expensive, either to buy or for postal delivery. But when Amazon started selling this at it's usual street price of £15 and delivered it with my prime membership, I couldn't ignore it.And what a great buy it is. OK, it doesn't have everything. eg It can't measure the voltage of a phantom power circuit, it only tests 3pins (MIDI) of a standard 5pin DIN plug. Tho' surprisingly it can test tini-tel (TT/4.4mm TRS jack) plugs used for patching in some audio boards. It has a solid rugged construction. And all the sockets and switches feel like they'll take frequent use, but it's obviously not intended to be a heavy duty industrial model at this price. But it's excellent quality for what it is.So what's good about it's functions? 1: It's got a good variety of sockets for cable testing, and you can easily test cables with different connectors at each end, say an XLR out and a 1/4" jack in, or an RCA out and a 3.5mm jack in. 2: It will test the presence of phantom power (tho' it can't give you value), but it's useful to know if its "on" or "off" before you start other testing. 3: Ever get browned off because you think there's a cable fault but can't find it. There's are really useful "intermittent" test feature. Plug in your connectors, press the reset button and then jiggle your cable around, if there's a fault it will identify the wire giving the problem. 4: You can test a cable that's installed in the system by connecting just one plug to the tester, and 5: if you use a shorting-jack you can test for signal continuity. 6: Then there's a really useful test tone generator. eg check that the test-tone-level is set to MIC -50dB, then plug one end of the XLR cable into the mic input of an amp (turn the gain right down) then plug the other into the out of the CT100 and switch on the test tone. Then slowly turn up your amp volume. Beware... it's really loud. You could for example test a long cable run that was passing through various DI or other boxes. And finally, it's worth noting there are some useful "reminder" instructions printed on the side.So great little tool saves you time and effort in cable testing. For example my pictures shows that the y-cable connected to the 3.5mm out and the RCA in has the red and white plugs wired the wrong way around. (white RCA to 3.5mm ring/red RCA to 3.5mm tip). Brilliant, quick easy test....oh I should add that you quickly learn to read all those LED's this is not a difficult tool to use.

Versatile and easy enough to use, and a vast improvement on messing about with a multi-meter - why did I not get one of these sooner? Usual Behringer robust construction with no frills.

This is a shameless ripoff of the Ebtech Swizz-CT Swizz Army Cable Tester, down to the placement of every label and switch.. However, that is not available for purchase any more and - even if it was - is getting close to 10x the price of the Behringer CT100.For the price, this is truly excellent for a musician wanting to test the most common cables. If you know the wiring of the various cables, the LED reading will be simple enough to understand. Otherwise, try with "known good" cables and remember the pattern. In case it helps anyone, for the cables I use the most, that's like this:- Mic/XLR cable - diagonal from bottom left to top right- Instrument/guitar cable - X shape- Audio cable (e.g. 3.5mm) - diagonal from bottom left to top rightMy favourite feature by far is testing for dodgy cables/intermittent connections. Plug the cable in and press "reset". Then, give the connectors and cable a good old shake around/wiggle. If there are any issues, one of the three lights under the reset button will light up - and stay lit until you reset again. I've diagnosed both faulty cables and adapters using this, which saves a lot of headaches!The construction of the unit is excellent - solid metal chassis/inputs and outputs are nice and sturdy. No sharp edges on my unit.There are a couple of bad points. The screw for the battery cover is extremely tight, and you risk stripping it when you try to stick some batteries in. Pro-tip - the screws for the belt clip fit if you have this problem.The belt clip is a hopeless idea, since it is long enough to cover the battery compartment screw, meaning you either have to bend it out of the way or unscrew it to change batteries. This doesn't really matter to me since I just throw this in a gig bag.If you shake the CT100, you'll hear a rattle, but don't worry, it's just the sliding switches - it doesn't indicate a problem with the device.I bought this more or less on a whim as it was about the £15 mark. I would say I now consider it an almost essential device and highly recommend it.