Best XLR cable?

Sam Mallery said:
I bought a soldering iron and a bunch of other stuff to make my own cables around a year and a half ago. However, I've been too lazy to get around to actually doing it. But, I do plan on digging in and making some XLR's at some point.

I recently broke down and bought myself a second ready made Canare StarQuad XLR cable. I really like the colored ones. I have a green 25 footer and my new one is a 15 gray cable, which I'm using on my boompole now. I love 'em.
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I really like using the colored cables. When I built up my pro tools system, I was running lots of cables because I built an interface box to go from a Deva II (the new devas weren't out yet), into my Digi 002R. Using a different color for each channel made it SO easy to know what I was dealing with on the other end when things would get messy. Plus, if you use an unusual color like green or orange, which very few people do, then you know which cable is yours.

In regards to how long you can run an XLR cable, I've run XLR snakes at a couple of hundred feet and never had a problem.
 
In 1979 our first studios all were specd with Canare Starquad mic cable and a Star grounding system. All the earth cables on the AC had their own runs to an 8 foot copper rod under the building driven straight into the ground.

I remember lying under our building late on Saturday night when the staff was at the pub .. was a trial but well worth it over the years .. not a snap crackle or pop.

The owner of the competition on the third floor of an old building down the block nearly blew his brains out over the RF interference, he couldn't fix the building earth.

We've used Canare Starquad ever since so it's been around a long time.

Cheers.
 
I spent about an hour trying to find the max length of XLR as well, and the only thing I found quoted often was "250 feet is fine, but we've gone up to 1000 feet before"

I have probably 50+ XLR cables in my audio studio and I've bought from the cheapest to the best. I've even analyzed a lot of them to look at the quality. Honestly, the biggest thing I look for is a cable that will last being tugged around, and with connectors that aren't going to break. For studio situations, they don't have to be so rock solid, but when I am using them off my camera, or in live PA setups, I get something rugged. Knowing how XLR works, and how noise rejection works, this is why they can work for such long distances.

Recently I've been buying XLR premade from monoprice.com. The quality has been GREAT and I've NEVER had a cable fail from them yet, after 3 years. They are pretty inexpensive and are REALLY rugged. If you don't feel like making them (if you need a lot like I do at times) this is where I get them.
 
Rick, thanks for the site. I'll check it out if I need more cables and I don't want to make it myself.
 
I never buy pre-made cables.

All my mic. cables I either make myself, or go to a wireman to make for me.

All my new mic. cables I use BBC spec. star-quad cable terminated with Neutrik EMC XLRs.

There is too much RF flying about nowadays with everyone having mobile phones and loads of radiomics used - the EMC XLRs give the greatest safety as they have a ferrite bead on pin-1, a ring capacitor and the screen is connected to the shell via the capacitor - this gives the best screening and prevents hum if touched.
 
Thanks for the added suggestions. I meant to say "if I don't want to make it myself." At this stage I don't use that many XLR cables, but I can see the benefit of making my own if when I find my self buying more and more of them.
 
John Willett said:
I never buy pre-made cables.

All my mic. cables I either make myself, or go to a wireman to make for me.

All my new mic. cables I use BBC spec. star-quad cable terminated with Neutrik EMC XLRs.

There is too much RF flying about nowadays with everyone having mobile phones and loads of radiomics used - the EMC XLRs give the greatest safety as they have a ferrite bead on pin-1, a ring capacitor and the screen is connected to the shell via the capacitor - this gives the best screening and prevents hum if touched.
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I've NEVER had an issue with RF with an XLR cable. (That the connectors worked properly). The whole balanced design of the cable is specifically designed to prevent this. Non-balanced cables yes, they are VERY easy to get interjected noise, but not with XLR. The reason it can work for 250 feet and more is precisely because of how noise is cancelled out. I've been using these cables myself, some of them for 20 years and no issues. And the 20 year old cables aren't the prettiest :)

Just recently I've been using 135 foot to run a signal that is just barely 1V peak to peak max on cables from Monoprice, and I am getting no perceptible noise in the signal (beyond what is already there from the unit producing the sound) as I compared the amplified quality of the sound between a 3ft balanced cable and a 135ft balanced cable.

Even further, I bought a really nice XLR mic cable from Blue to go with my Blue Kiwi mic, and then tested it with a cheap cable I had laying around and once again, the sound quality was the same. I compared the noise floor in a recorded pink noise sweep through an FFT on multiple passes and did not see any perceptible difference in the results.

Making your own cables ensures you get good connections and quality control, but in all my tests of various cables, I've never seen a performance enhancement between cables so long as the cable was constructed properly and didn't suffer from something like a cold solder joint (which cheap cables have before).

My this is just my experience. :)
 
Rick Burnett said:
I've NEVER had an issue with RF with an XLR cable. (That the connectors worked properly). The whole balanced design of the cable is specifically designed to prevent this. Non-balanced cables yes, they are VERY easy to get interjected noise, but not with XLR. The reason it can work for 250 feet and more is precisely because of how noise is cancelled out. I've been using these cables myself, some of them for 20 years and no issues. And the 20 year old cables aren't the prettiest :)

Just recently I've been using 135 foot to run a signal that is just barely 1V peak to peak max on cables from Monoprice, and I am getting no perceptible noise in the signal (beyond what is already there from the unit producing the sound) as I compared the amplified quality of the sound between a 3ft balanced cable and a 135ft balanced cable.

Even further, I bought a really nice XLR mic cable from Blue to go with my Blue Kiwi mic, and then tested it with a cheap cable I had laying around and once again, the sound quality was the same. I compared the noise floor in a recorded pink noise sweep through an FFT on multiple passes and did not see any perceptible difference in the results.

Making your own cables ensures you get good connections and quality control, but in all my tests of various cables, I've never seen a performance enhancement between cables so long as the cable was constructed properly and didn't suffer from something like a cold solder joint (which cheap cables have before).

My this is just my experience. :)
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You are lucky.

I have certainly heard mobile phone interference getting through (not in my system, though).

The BBC and major broadcasters use star-quad as the double wire for each leg makes for much better RF rejection. If the XLR body is not connected to screen it leaves a hole where RF can get in (hence the EMC XLR).

The wavelength of upper frequency mobile phones, Bluetooth and WiFi are extremely short and can penetrate where longer wavelength can't.

And very low level RF interference may only be perceived as a small increase in noise rather than interference.

I am recoring music at 24-bit 96kHz and have to be as safe as possible.
 
John Willett said:
You are lucky.

I have certainly heard mobile phone interference getting through (not in my system, though).

The BBC and major broadcasters use star-quad as the double wire for each leg makes for much better RF rejection. If the XLR body is not connected to screen it leaves a hole where RF can get in (hence the EMC XLR).

The wavelength of upper frequency mobile phones, Bluetooth and WiFi are extremely short and can penetrate where longer wavelength can't.

And very low level RF interference may only be perceived as a small increase in noise rather than interference.

I am recoring music at 24-bit 96kHz and have to be as safe as possible.
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Hmmm, that brings in a different point, that the equipment receiving the XLR connections might not handle the noise rejection as well. I use XLR for a variety of applications, so each has their own concerns, but I guess I've been lucky :) I can say there is A LOT of synth equipment that is so noisy and so poorly designed, a halogen light can modulate them, or issues on the power line. I have a Roland synth that I finally switched to SPIDIF out because I couldn't take the noise floor anymore. Most of the time, the equipment SNR is really the limiting factor. ESPECIALLY single coil guitar pickups. I sold my telecaster because it picked up EVERY RF signal in the universe! :)
 
The worst place for RF is the canyons of big cities, you throw a piece of white bread up in the air and it comes down toast.

Cheers
 
most sound mixers who work in the bag (PETROL in my case) always have problems with the length of the XLR adaptor. the standard cable length is 3 ft. to reach from one side of the 442(SOUND DEVICES MIXER) snaked through the bag to the input side of the 744T (sound devices recorder). if someone made a cable 3 ft. long with a short right angle on the female side and either a short right angle or a short straight end ( preferred due to the right angle could also get bunched up on the input side) on the male side for around $20. i think you would sell them to hundreds of mixers all over america. no one makes this exact cable .
 
Resurrecting this rather than start a new thread on exactly the same topic.

of the brands sold at B&H, what would be the recommendation?


cheers
 
The category "best" is so subjective it's not very useful here. There are several different brands that B&H sells and most of them are probably OK. There are certainly "premium price" cables. But XLR cables are not worth premium prices IMHO. It is certainly possible to get quite decent quality at sensible prices. There are really only three factors in XLR (or any other) cables. The quality of the connectors, the quality of the wire, and the quality of the workmanship.

I would limit my choice to Neutrik or Switchcraft or Amphenol connectors. There may be other quality choices available, but it isn't worth the gamble IMHO. And I would favor cable from Belden Mogami Canare Rapco, Whirlwind, or Redco. Since XLR connectors are "reentrant" (you can open them whenever you want) you can inspect, repair or improve the workmanship of the termination.

But I have made my own cables now for 50 years, and the XLR cables that I haven't lost are still working fine. Even back 50 years ago I used Belden wire and Switchcraft connectors. If you are actually in OZ (Australia/New Zealand) it is not clear why you would be buying such commodity items all the way from New York. Don't you have vendors of sensible audio products down there?

First on my list of vendors for wire, connectors, cables is Redco. They have a complete selection of connectors and wire, and they make cables at very sensible prices. You can select from >50 different cables and >100 different connectors. Some recent supplies I have got from them are their house-brand Redco cable and Amphenol connectors which are quite sensibly prices "clones" of popular Neutrik models.

Ref: http://www.redco.com/
 
I'm partial to Canare L-4E6S star quad, w/ Neutrik connectors for mic cables. For cart and bag interconnects, I use Canare L-2E5 mini. Markertek.com is a large broadcast equip. supplier in upstate NY and a certified Canare assembler. They have a custom A/V cable shop as well. The common bulk cable stock can be purchased by-the-foot to build yo' own (which I prefer).
 
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