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Author Topic: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?  (Read 20581 times)

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Offline edtyre

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XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« on: July 23, 2010, 05:25:38 PM »
For my open rig   cmc6>v3>ad2k+
i have been using 2 short pairs of canare starquad with Neutrik connectors
and also some of our TS.com cablers milspec silver cables. I like the copper better.
I think my rig sounds great.

I was at a show last month and saw that a taper was using $2,000 cables for both short
runs like i have in my setup. Thats 4 fucking grand for two sets of cables!! He claims the sonic difference
is 40% better quality than what i'm using. Geez his cables cost more than his V-3, Mytek and 722.

Anybody here use extremely high end mic cables? How much better does it really sound?

I tryed $1,000 speaker wires and could not tell the difference from my $150.00 set.
music>mics>pre>recorder

Offline 12milluz

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2010, 05:51:08 PM »
That's madness. I would never buy cables that expensive. I can see buying nice handmade ones for their build quality, but seriously? I mean yes, there will be differences in the makeup of the metal that MAY affect the sound, but come on. Buy some nice mics or something instead. And how does he measure this "40% better quality than what you are using?"
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Offline DigiGal

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2010, 06:06:58 PM »
I use Canare starquad cable with Neutrik XLR connectors too. 

IMHO $2,000 mic cables are snake oil much like this laugh quoted from the burning in silver cables thread.

I like this one, guys...

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm
« Last Edit: July 23, 2010, 06:48:39 PM by DigiGal »
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Offline sparkey

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2010, 11:58:19 PM »
$4K on cables is all relative...if you've got a $100K+ playback system, then getting the expensive stuff may be more in line.  It just sounds like that guy wanted something to crow about, honestly.

I use actives into some custom shorty xlr's that I plug into the 722, Canare cable and Neutrik connectors.  I've also got some Audio Magic cables that were pretty spendy (I picked them up as a package deal) which I never use; they're only 10'.
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Offline yug du nord

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2010, 12:52:08 AM »
Well I know there is no such thing as a $100K pair of microphones!

I'll sell ya a pair for $100K......   with wind screens........  let me know.  ;) ;)
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Offline rastasean

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2010, 10:04:21 PM »
$4K on cables is all relative...if you've got a $100K+ playback system, then getting the expensive stuff may be more in line.  It just sounds like that guy wanted something to crow about, honestly.

I use actives into some custom shorty xlr's that I plug into the 722, Canare cable and Neutrik connectors.  I've also got some Audio Magic cables that were pretty spendy (I picked them up as a package deal) which I never use; they're only 10'.

of course this is all relative. its relative to where the mics were when he records AUDIENCE sound from a PA system. so I don't think the playback is the only thing that makes a difference. the mics, the pre-amp, the recorder, the mic position, the mic height, the wind screens, and of course the music--if its crappy with the best speaker wire in the world (ones going to and from your ears), it will be crappy on any playback.
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Offline Walstib62

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2010, 10:35:50 AM »
For my open rig   cmc6>v3>ad2k+
i have been using 2 short pairs of canare starquad with Neutrik connectors
and also some of our TS.com cablers milspec silver cables. I like the copper better.
I think my rig sounds great.

I was at a show last month and saw that a taper was using $2,000 cables for both short
runs like i have in my setup. Thats 4 fucking grand for two sets of cables!! He claims the sonic difference
is 40% better quality than what i'm using. Geez his cables cost more than his V-3, Mytek and 722.

Anybody here use extremely high end mic cables? How much better does it really sound?

I tryed $1,000 speaker wires and could not tell the difference from my $150.00 set.
I know the guy that sold him the cables is happy!
Did you get his name, maybe he's ready to buy more stuff? :laugh:

Offline macdaddy

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2010, 02:26:52 PM »
2x pair of Short, stubby, right angle (~1 ft) runs of darktrain xlrs (s42 > aerco) and (aerco > ad2k+). I had Jerry mod the aerco so it has xlr out as well as xlr in.
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Offline yug du nord

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2010, 11:01:50 PM »
I had Jerry mod the aerco so it has xlr out as well as xlr in.

Are the outs balanced?  I think that I read on his site that he could do both XLR ins and outs...  but the XLR outs would still be unbalanced.  Just curious.
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Offline Shadow_7

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2010, 11:58:10 PM »
Heh.   Modern day pet rocks.  $129 per pebble.  I'm in the wrong business.  If you're at that level, perhaps plating your studio in copper and putting your rack in a bomb shelter several feet underground is the way the go.  Plus the souvenir tin foil hat.

I use mogami quad cores.  And two short live wire (hosa?) ones because you can't buy 1' shorties at GC for mogami.  and I don't need 3' ones to make the 6" loop between preamps and field recorder.  Not at $10 a foot anyway.  If cables are that important, you're probably better off going with shorter, than pricier cables.  The only real difference I notice in cables in shielding.  They either protect you from interference, or they don't.

Offline bugg100

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2010, 03:26:11 PM »
Next time you bump into this taper in the field, ask him who remade the internal wiring/circuit boards on all his gear.   Weakest link in the chain, right? >:D

Offline live2496

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2010, 09:50:52 PM »
Remember that balanced lines reduce any equal amount of induced noise in both sets of wires.  I'm not sure what paying $2K is going to get you that a well made set with well shielded, quality wire won't. All wire is going to have some level of induced noise. But common mode rejection is used to eliminate the noise.

I run Rapco wire and solder my own. I think good shielding helps and also twisted pair wiring for the pins two and three helps keep noise at a minimum too.




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Offline Dkrogh

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2010, 07:43:38 AM »
I personally use cables that I made myself.  No issues whatsoever.

2K in cables is nonsense. 
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Offline jlykos

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2010, 06:15:55 AM »
I use Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables in both a XLR pair and a 1/8" interconnect.  XLR cables were $400 for the pair and the interconnect was around $100.  These are eight-wire solid silver conductor shielded cables with gold Neutrik XLR connectors.  The interconnect is the same, but with right-angle gold Switchcraft connectors.  Everything is handmade.  Expensive?  Yes.  But they are also the most revealing cables with the highest build quality of any that I have ever used.

Experts say that a good rule of thumb is to spend around 10% of the value of your playback system on cables.  Extending this to my recording system, I am around that figure, maybe closer to 15%.  I don't have a problem with this.  Even I think that a $2000 pair of cables would be overkill in my system.  But if I had $20,000 of recording equipment, I may change my tune after auditioning various cables.

As a point of comparison, I have used Canare StarQuad, Audio Magic X-Stream, and Monster Cables in my system.  The Moon Audios beat them hands, down.  Monster Cables were pure garbage; so muddy that I thought that something was wrong with my system.  The Canare and the Audio Magic were so close that I would have been happy with either.  But to say that "all cables sound the same" is just wrong, IMHO, as my Monster Cable experience shows.
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Offline Patrick

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Re: XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2010, 09:29:02 AM »
I don't think you should ever cheap on cables but spending half the value of your rig on cabling is ludicrous.  There differences ARE there, I've defintiely heard them, but it's not good enough to really make it worth it for me.  Not with the recordings I make or my playback system at the moments.

My cables just need to be reliable and not be noisy.  Two things that a cheap cable will not provide, but is a little overkill to buy >$1,000 mic cables.
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