suppliers of keystone jacks?

[wkearney99]

So I'm finally getting around to terminating some wires.  It'll be the death of a thousand cuts if I'm paying $5 each for these things.  Who's a reasonably priced supplier?  I'm guesstimating I'll start with 50 CAT5E and 30 CAT6, along with a handful of RJ11 for voice. 
 
I like the Leviton QuickPort jacks because they're slim enough to allow putting them 3x2 in a 6 port wall plate.  It's a bit tight but I do have a couple of places where they'll be set up that way.  Jacks from Monoprice are less expensive, of course, but they're not narrow enough to fit side-by-side in a wall plate.
 
And can I rant on the extreme annoyance of the differnet ways the jacks are set up on the back?  Leviton's the worst, splitting pairs across the sides.  Monoprice better in that at least the pairs are kept together, but would it have killed them to at least put A & B on the labels?  That and the post numbers are so eff'ing tiny...
 
That said, if I want close-fitting jacks at a decent price, who should I consider as a supplier?  I haven't signed up anywhere as a 'dealer' to finagle better pricing.  

 

[drvnbysound]

Dealer pricing on keystone RJ-45 jacks really isn't any better than what you will find at the big box stores. The last time I checked it was pretty much a wash... between paying for connector and tax at big box store vs. dealer + shipping from distributors.
 
That said, I'm generally referring to the 25-50 pack quantities. They are certainly more if you buy them individually.

 

[gatchel]

Pricing, good luck with that. I pretty much agree with drvnbysound. For that reason I chose the Leviton ones. They are available close by and on line and have 6 port wall plates, as you mentioned, that worked pretty well for me.
 
I used mostly 6 pin for phone lines and the CAT5e units for ethernet. I didn't have any problems terminating the pairs down the sides with a proper 110 cut bit on a real punch down tool, not the plastic pusher they give you.
Invest in the tools and you won't have an issue. Currently I have about 70 CAT5e units installed and they have never given me a problem.
 
I have used termination blocks for CAT55e, speaker wire, BNC, coax F connector and, HDMI pass thru with no problems in the 10 years they have been installed.

 

[az1324]

These don't fit? http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10513&cs_id=1051308&p_id=10046&seq=1&format=2

Or these: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10519&cs_id=1051902&p_id=7302&seq=1&format=2

 

[jlehnert]

Word of warning, don't mix-and-match stuff, at least withing a location.  Leviton white is not the same as Legrand white is not the same as Coopers, etc.  Per my specifications, my builder used all Leviton stuff, but they substituted Cooper GFIs.  I ended up having to replace most of them because of the difference in color (yeah, I didn't notice until after I'd signed off on the punch list).

 

[pete_c]

Here I have been using Monoprice for the last couple of years. 
 
Last use was for HDMI, RG-45, RG-6 and audio in one plate; no issues even though it was a bit tight.

 

[wkearney99]

I have some of the 2,3,4 & 6 port Decora plate inserts on the way.  But even without them I can tell just by looking that the monoprice units are a fair bit wider in the back.  Even monoprice's website indicates they're not for side-by-side placement.  But monoprice is great otherwise.  I'll do some comparisons once I get the plates (pix to follow).
 
Yeah, 25 & 50 packs are 'less worse'.  Bit disappointing to learn distributor pricing's not much better, yeesh, what a racket for an ounce of plastic and metal...
 
I hear ya on color mismatch.  That and faceplate depth are those little annoyances you don't think about until...ooops.

 

[pete_c]

The above mentioned concoction was a single plate for the office LCD TV doing a couple of things but mostly passing the HDMI from floor level to ceiling level mounted LCD.  At LCD level I do have one double mounted box / plate with additional rapidrun extended HDMI and more RG6 cables (downsized to thin at the last 12" of cable).
 
Historically preferences were having the inserts mounted first with just a regular cover.  Also I would always purchased a few at a time at the local big store and found the prices to be astronomical.  I have also done a couple of DIY's replacing the RG6 with a 12VDC power barrel connector; fits fine and way less expensive that purchasing one pre-made. 
 
Yup these are way easier to work with than the ones with the integrated keystone jack holes in the cover.  That said once mounted you never touch them anyways.
 

 
I have the two types in the house today.
 

 

[az1324]

Even monoprice's website indicates they're not for side-by-side placement.

The slim version I linked say "designed to fit comfortably side-by-side with other keystone modules"

 

[pete_c]

Some issues were really that the keystone back clips were just tad too large to fit nicely side by side when paired up two in a column.
 
The side by side pieces though do not make for a sturdier mount as its only the botton lip and the top clip which keeps it in place.
 
I am thinking that many of the newer ones; whether its Leviton or Monoprice are designed the same way these days; IE: like the HDMI ones. 
 
The oldest ones that I have just had the HDMI jack built in with a short little pigtail coming out the back. 
 
Then too many of the older keystone wall plates I have in place are single jack, double or triple in one column and the new ones are all double columns with two or three or four rows.
 
I did make those tiny clear labels with a label maker; print is so tiny though that I have to be very close to distinguish what is what.
 
I have noticed too that the newest HDMI cables are thinner gauge these days versus older ones.
 
Maybe the mixture of what is seen is new old stock versus new stock selling?

 

[wkearney99]

I don't plan on needing HDMI in-wall with the exception of the theater.  And that'll have enough room near the projector to put in whatever sort of wall plate best suits it.  I can only imagine the 'adventures' of trying to cram an HDMI cable along with everything else into anything more than a 3-port plate.  That and with the various HDMI-over-CAT5 schemes it's even less an issue.  
 
I do have mini-coax for component going out to several locations.  Now THAT was a bear to pull...  Their wall plate will go into 'old work' rings if/when I ever terminate them.

The user reviews on the 'slim' jacks seem to indicate they're not slim enough. Their picture does look slimmer than their other version, of which I have a couple of the CAT6 type.  Those definitely won't fit side-by-side in a keystone insert plate.  But in a 3-up plate they're fine.  That and there's also the color factor.  My plan is to make all the CAT5E jacks white and the CAT6 ones blue.  The locations are typically wired with 2 CAT5E, 1 CAT6 and 2 RG6 lines.  So I guess I could still get away with a 'wide' CAT6 if I put it at the bottom of a 6 hole plate (with a blank next to it).
 
I may just order up some from monoprice for the sake of comparison.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here redid what I did for the main LCD/MM stuff.  Started with the larger Arlington multi keystone plate/jack box for just LV. (4 duplex size).  These were more expensive wholesale than the Carlon ones below purchased at a local big box store on sale.
 

 
Then switched to two of these for more of a keystone wallplate footprint (only LV stuff and no HV stuff) - 3 plus 3 duplex size (for 6).  These were Carlon 3-Gang boxes purchased at a big box store (deal was some $5 each so purchased a few of these).
 

 
The rest of the house LCD TVs are just using two duplex sized wall inserts except for the ones with new HV power.  It really didn't matter on most of them as they were behind the LCD TVs.
 
I then went to two smaller 2 +1 inserts using the HV side for more LV jacks.  I also redid the electric changing a single duplex to a double duplex box.
 
From here separated out the MM speaker keystone jacks to one section for the 7.1 speaker configuration, another keystone wall plate for network (+ 1 RJ11), RG6 section, such that its (1+2) + (1+2) keystone jack wall plates in two separate boxes.  Just looked and I am using the angled for HV piece for one Keystone wall plate and the main piece is really a double duplex configuration for Keystone Jacks.
 
Thinking it gave me more keystone jacks than the single larger Arlington insert.  I have one component configuration from a few years ago still in place.  In Florida I needed to utilize component connectivity for the FIOS box to the LCD TV due to some wierd software/firmware thing on the Motorola STB (which sort of PO'd me).  I did utilze PVC chases ran through cement for this setup. (tight fight using component versus just HDMI).