XLR Mic Cables - What Do You Use?

[live2496]

I use Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables in both a XLR pair and a 1/8" interconnect.

Do they sell this particular balanced cabling by the foot?

[jlykos]

I use Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables in both a XLR pair and a 1/8" interconnect.

Do they sell this particular balanced cabling by the foot?

Yes.  You can get any length that you want.  My XLR cables are 15' each and the interconnect is 2'.

[kirk97132]

All I can find on their website is silver plated copper wire, not solid silver for XLR mic cable in the bulk raw cable.  Do you have a link for bulk solid silver?

And fwiw, Zaolla solid silver cable just above cost here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=126561.0

[jlykos]

All I can find on their website is silver plated copper wire, not solid silver for XLR mic cable in the bulk raw cable.  Do you have a link for bulk solid silver?

And fwiw, Zaolla solid silver cable just above cost here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=126561.0

http://www.moon-audio.com/Moon_Audio_Interconnects.htm

They can terminate the cables in the XLR plug of your choice.  I have gold Neutriks; they can also do Switchcraft and I believe WBT and Furutech, although the cost for those was prohibitive.  If you don't want silver, you can also choose Black Dragon which are copper.  Blue Dragons are budget Silver Dragons; they have four wires instead of the eight found on the Silver Dragons.  I probably sound like a shill for these guys, but they are very nice cables.

From the website (Silver Dragon v2 description):

"We are still using an 8 wire braided geometry made up of solid core 99.999% pure silver 26AWG Teflon insulated wire, but we have modified the braiding and have added an external shield to the mix."

[kirk97132]

Right, I saw that you can order cables made, but I don't see any place to buy just the cable without ends...of course I may be overlooking it but it seems that you can only get solid silver if you order pre made cables?

[jlykos]

Right, I saw that you can order cables made, but I don't see any place to buy just the cable without ends...of course I may be overlooking it but it seems that you can only get solid silver if you order pre made cables?

I don't know.  You can always call Drew over there and ask.  He can terminate it in anything that you ask for.  If you insist on doing it yourself, you can give him a call and see if he can sell you some unterminated cable.

[JasonSobel]

what I find most interesting is how each of us has our own perspective on where you hit the point of diminishing returns.

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.

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.

Now, I don't doubt that the Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables are very nice cables that are well constructed.  but here you freely admit that a pair of Canare Starquad cables were very close, and that you would have been happy with them.  I don't have any direct experience with Audio Magic cables, and I don't know how much they cost, so I'll just leave those alone.  But I know you can easily get a 15' canare starquad for somewhere in the $50 range.  I know because that's what I use.  The raw starquad cable is inexpensive, and then the XLR connectors vary in cost, depending if you get right-angle or not.  and by soldering them myself, I know it's well constructed with solid connections.

Anyway, my point is that you yourself found this $50 cable to be almost the same sounding as your $400 Moon Audio cables.  Personally, I have a hard time justifying that additional expense.  Obviously, I reach the point of diminishing returns a lot quicker than you.  I'm not saying your decision is a bad one, just different from the one that I would have made.

[rastasean]

I like your input, Jason.

Another thing to consider is that when we are taping, alcohol is usually being consumed by the tapers and by at least 90% of the audience attending so you may get a little forgetful where you put things. What would be worse, losing a $30-50 1 foot 1/8" interconnect cable or a $400 cable? Sure an expensive cable may sound nice but not if you lose it and you wouldn't want to replace it with something less superior. Just because pros use high quality recorders, cables, memory cards, bags, boom poles, shockmounts, microphones, wind screens, headphones, etc, doesn't mean they know HOW to use it.

[live2496]

The main thing I got from this thread was a curiousity about whether or not the silver cables sound better. Silver being a better conductor. Does better signal transfer = better sound?

All of my mic cables are quad cable. So the conductors are fairly small and the wiring is twisted in pairs to help reduce noise. Shielding is also excellent. And I have a pair made that are 100 ft long.

I wonder whether or not the silver wire which I assume is thicker than quad cable is more susceptible to noise. And I also wonder about why a company like Mogami who has done lots of research in this area doesn't sell them.

If silver cables are the way to go I would like to make a pair or get some made. But if the quad cable is comparative in performance I might not bother.

[DigiGal]

"The Star Quad Story"

http://www.canare.com/UploadedDocuments/Cat11_p35.pdf

[kirk97132]

The Moon Audio and Audio Magic are two different cables.  He is saying that the Audio magic and Canare are almost the same not the Moon Audio which is an entirely different company.  Of course this all leads into the cable wars which go on and on with no one really winning.  Fwiw, I think I hear a difference in the solid silver Zaolla cables I own compared to the copper Canare cables.  I say "think" because I have never done a side by side comparison that could be directly compared to each other.  I do know that shielding is more important than ever in today's wireless world.  RFI is everywhere!  The theory is that the silver cables deliver a "better" signal.  Does silver plated VS solid silver matter?  I don't know.  Can yuo hear the difference?  I guess that depends on what shape your hearing is in, what you are recording with and what you are recording and your playback system.  And just to be clear, I run a bunch of different cable.  Canare, Zaolla, Belden, Gepco to name a few.   And as for being insistant on building my own, well yes for the most part.  It's cheaper than having someone else make them for me.  I can solder more than well enough to make cable so why pay someone else a lot of money to do it.  I was just wondering if they sold bulk because It is very hard to find solid silver quad mic cable.  The silver plated is easy to find IE: the Belden silvers that you see offered for sale. 

[JasonSobel]

The Moon Audio and Audio Magic are two different cables. 

yes, I am aware of that

He is saying that the Audio magic and Canare are almost the same not the Moon Audio which is an entirely different company.

Is that what Jamie (jlykos) is saying?  This is what he said:

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.

It is not entirely clear.  Is Jamie saying that the Canare and Audio Magic cables are close to each other?  Perhaps, but then he says that he'd be happy with either.  And he chose to go with the Moon Audio cables.  But because he'd be happy with either the Canare or the Audio Magic, I read into it that both the Canare and Audio Magic were close to the Moon Audio.  Perhaps I read into that too far, but I don't think so.  It would be nice if Jamie popped back into this thread and clarified his opinion.

Of course this all leads into the cable wars which go on and on with no one really winning.

yes and no.  I'm not interested in "winning".  Nor am I interested in getting into a debate about whether or not there is an audible difference between cables.

what I am interested in hearing is this: Jamie said that he'd be happy with either the Canare or Audio Magic.  But instead, he chose to spend significant more money on the Moon Audio cables.  I'd like to hear more about his reasoning.  It seems obvious (but perhaps it isn't) that Jamie thinks the difference in sound quality is worth the extra money.  In other words, even though he would be happy with the Canare or Audio Magic cables, he is more happy with the Moon Audio.  and willing to spend a lot more to get that incremental difference.  But again, I'd like to hear more from Jamie.  What specifically does he hear with the Moon Audio cables that is better than the others.  I'm genuinely curious.

I do know that shielding is more important than ever in today's wireless world.  RFI is everywhere!  The theory is that the silver cables deliver a "better" signal.  Does silver plated VS solid silver matter?  I don't know.  Can you hear the difference?  I guess that depends on what shape your hearing is in, what you are recording with and what you are recording and your playback system.

absolutely, the shield is very important.  I think the Canare braided shield does a wonderful job.  I've never heard any noise on any of my recordings.  and I've certainly been in lots of small clubs with lots of RFI...  is the Moon Audio shield better?  is it measurably better?  If the purpose is to block out noise, in order to be better, there would have to be a side-by-side, and you get noise in one recording, and not in the other.  do you agree?

[rastasean]

while we haven't brought up hdmi cables, I thought I would share this link:
http://reviews.cnet.com/hdmi-cable/

CNET doesn't think more than $10 should be paid on a single hdmi cable since they don't think any difference exists between a cable $10 or less and a $50 cable.

[jlykos]

The Moon Audio and Audio Magic are two different cables. 

yes, I am aware of that

He is saying that the Audio magic and Canare are almost the same not the Moon Audio which is an entirely different company.

Is that what Jamie (jlykos) is saying?  This is what he said:

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.

It is not entirely clear.  Is Jamie saying that the Canare and Audio Magic cables are close to each other?  Perhaps, but then he says that he'd be happy with either.  And he chose to go with the Moon Audio cables.  But because he'd be happy with either the Canare or the Audio Magic, I read into it that both the Canare and Audio Magic were close to the Moon Audio.  Perhaps I read into that too far, but I don't think so.  It would be nice if Jamie popped back into this thread and clarified his opinion.

I said that the Canare and the Audio Magic cables were comparable.  I did not mention Moon Audio or Monster as a point of comparison between those two.  I guess that I should have specified that I used the Audio Magic X-Stream cables, which are silver-plated copper, not pure silver.  The Moon Audio cables sound better than anything that I have used.  Whether I find the diminishing point of return to be $100 (used) for the Audio Magics or $400 (new) for the Moon Audios is all of my concern and none of anybody else's.

To make everything clear, here are my cable preferences in order from best to worst:

Moon Audio Silver Dragon v2


Audio Magic X-Stream
Canare StarQuad








Monster whatever the hell I used.

[jlykos]

while we haven't brought up hdmi cables, I thought I would share this link:
http://reviews.cnet.com/hdmi-cable/

CNET doesn't think more than $10 should be paid on a single hdmi cable since they don't think any difference exists between a cable $10 or less and a $50 cable.

I think that there is some truth to that.  From what I have read and understand, there are few differences between most digital cables.  I would think that most of the differences between HDMI cables (as well as optical and coaxial S/PDIF) are in the connectors and shielding used instead of in the cable itself.  I don't have too much experience with digital cables, however, so I really can't comment on whether this applies in the "real world" with different brands of cables.