I'm buying 50 feet of xlr, what's the best brand?

PM MattinSTL and see if he still has any Musilux - do a search in the audio forum for the old threads on this stuff. If he's not still making it PM me.
 
Mattinstl custom makes them with ends.

From past threads . . .
icon1.gif

Klotz MC5000
0.8 ounces per foot
12.2 Ohms per 1000’
Conductor capacitance 23 pf per foot
Shield capacitance 38 pf per foot
7.0 mm

Klotz MC2000
.54 ounces per foot
26 Ohms per 1000’
Conductor capacitance 18.3 pf per foot
Shield capacitance 33.5 pf per foot
6.5 mm

Klotz MY206
0.48 ounces per foot
26 Ohms per 1000’
Conductor capacitance 18.3 pf per foot
Shield capacitance 33.5 pf per foot
6.0 mm

Canare Star Quad
.59 ounces per foot
29.9 Ohms per 1000’
Conductor capacitance 46 pf per foot
Shield capacitance 57 pf per foot
6.0 mm

Musilux
.6 ounces per foot
16.75 Ohms per 1000’
Conductor capacitance 21 pf per foot
Shield capacitance 39 pf per foot
6.35 mm

So what does this mean?

Musilux is 25% LIGHTER WEIGHT then MC5000 although MC5000 is 25% LOWER resistance... but MC5000 is SIX TIMES the price!

Musilux is NEARLY EQUAL to MC5000 in both shield and conductor capacitance... and in fact it is actually SLIGHTLY BETTER in this spec!

LOWER IS BETTER:

Musilux has 45% LOWER resistance per foot then Canare Star Quad. (so nearly HALF)
Musilux has 55% LOWER conductor capacitance per foot then Star Quad. (OVER HALF)
Musilux has 32% LOWER shield capacitance per foot then Star Quad. (one third lower)
Musilux is within about 2% of the same weight as Star Quad.
Musilux is 100% FULLY shielded versus Star Quad's 95% braided shield.
Musilux is much softer and more flexible then Star Quad (perhaps twice as soft and flexible?)

So anyway... this is just some stuff for you guys to think about. I'm going to get some of this into the hands of various forum members and we'll see what everybody has to say about it... both upon receipt and also over the course of time. I was so impressed with this product that I actually sent a letter to the guy who designed this cable and told him that I would do my best to enlighten the video community about his cable. Maybe by this time next year a hundred of you guys will have at least one of these cables and you can tell everybody what you like about it... or don't like about it. When it comes to audio I'm really picky about my gear... and this stuff changed my mind about Star Quad.
Click to expand...

There's actually several rather lengthy cable discussions in the archives if you care.
 
Although Monster makes very high quality cable, they're products tend to be a bit overpriced IMHO.

I've switched to using Canare Starquad cable stock, with Neutrik XLR's on all my cables. The cable's nice and heavy, yet supple enough to coil and uncoil beautifully every time.

I still have a few cheap 25' mogami cables in my kit, but after six years of use they tend to tangle easily.
 
yeah, i agree with the above Canare Starquad cable with Neutrik. get a soldering pencil and make them yourself and save a bunch of money too. I can't justify buying already made cables for double the price of the parts.
 
yeah I'd take this as an oppurtunity to learn to solder. Matt is still selling the musilux cable. I picked up 100ft of it a few months ago. Matt ships fast and the cable is amazingly supple and easy to work with. Not sure if Matt is still actually assembling cables. Learn to solder, get some neutrik xlr's at markertek and have a go at it. It aint that hard and you'll know how to fix them should a dog gnaw through your cable. And its a whole lot cheaper to get some fantastic cables this way.
 
ZeroContent's suggestion of buying a solderring iron is right on the money, although I'd reccomend a few additional bits: a multimeter (for continuity testing), a vacuum desolderring tool (aka. solder-sucker), a bottle of isopropyl alcohol (for cleaning any desolderred components), and a few bits of heat-shrink tubing.

Learning to solder will save you a fortune on cabling, to say nothing of minor equipment repairs and built-to-purpose DIY gadgets. It'll take a couple of hours of practice to really get the hang of it, but it really is an invaluable skill.

This is doubly true if you're looking for more exotic cables than ballanced mic cables (eg. ENG snakes, 5-pin stereo lines, conbox jumpers, phase-inverted cables, etc.)
 
OK, maybe this is just me, but based on what my first soldering looked like (I started
in jr high), I'm not sure I would try to learn while making critical cables. Practice on something else, learn what a cold solder looks like, and when confident, then tackle your cables.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top