What XLR cables are you useing???

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#22
DIY

Star quad will typically have higher capacitance, but better noise rejection. Single pair will normally have lower capacitance. You make the trade off depending on length and environment.

I found a pretty good deal on Belden star quad (in green) at Markertek. I had some samples of the belden cable and they seemed pretty nice, though only 6 inches... (from AES expo floor booth - since they were in my 'neighborhood' this year ;-)

The Belden 1800F also looked nice, and this is what Blue Jeans Cable uses for balanced, but I went with the star quad.

[BL-1192A GN] Belden 1192A Star Quad Audio Cable Green @ $0.34/ft
[NC3MX-B] Neutrik NC3MX-B Male XLR Black/Gold @ $2.89/ea
[NC3FX-B] Neutrik NC3FX-B Female XLR Black/Gold @ $2.89/ea
[L-4E6S BK] Canare L-4E6S Star-Quad Microphone Cable Black @ $0.47/ft
[L-2T2S BE] Canare L-2T2S Audio Cable Blue @ $0.47/ft
[2000-1] Markertek Catalog - Latest Edition @ $0.00

I only ordered these up recently and haven't had a chance to assemble them yet.
BTW, procablesnsound.com also sells parts and fuly assembled cables using the Canare star quad for pretty reasonable prices. Never bought any to try though...

I've assembled a couple of quick cables using cheap wire and the neutrik's before. the Neutrik's are great to work with easy to solder and easy to assemble - highly recommended. (they're pretty much industry standard for a reason. 🙂

-Chris
 
#26
Folks:

If you were going to make a no holds barred, state of the art XLR cable, what would you use? Which wire, connectors, solder, heatshrink and Techflex? I'd like to get a sense of what the best would probably be and then figure out how close I can get to it on my budget.

Regards,
Scott
 
#27
SRMcGee said:
Folks:

If you were going to make a no holds barred, state of the art XLR cable, what would you use? Which wire, connectors, solder, heatshrink and Techflex? I'd like to get a sense of what the best would probably be and then figure out how close I can get to it on my budget.

Regards,
Scott
Click to expand...
Mogami, Belden or Canare quad core and Neutrik connectors. Solder is less relevant than the quality of joint and I've been using Multicore brand for years. Heatshrink is anything I can get that works, and I don't bother with techflex as it's just aesthetics. I'd rather not see a cable.
 
#29
A few posts back, I asked the question as to whether using the centre core of a coax cable for the shield/ground was acceptable.

There has been no answer.

What makes a cable balanced?

Is it purely that there is some shielding that is grounded, or is it just any built in grounding that can be earthed?
 
#30
A balanced cable has at least 2 signal carrying wires (star quad has 4) carrying a differential signal and the ground / shield. It allows for much longer runs, less interference pickup and the ability to break earth loops as you can disconnect the shield (earth) at one end of the cable.

It does matter how the cable is constructed as only interference / distortion that appears identically on both signal carrying wires ends up being cancelled.
 
#31
dublin78 said:
A few posts back, I asked the question as to whether using the centre core of a coax cable for the shield/ground was acceptable.

There has been no answer.

What makes a cable balanced?

Is it purely that there is some shielding that is grounded, or is it just any built in grounding that can be earthed?
Click to expand...

All interconnects must have two signal carrying conductors. Signal and return. Else there is no circuit.

A balanced circuit carries a differential signal, and requires a conductor for the positive half, and one for the negative half. They act as each others signal return path.

As such, you really don't even need a "ground" connection to pass the audio signal. The ground in this case is not used for signal return as in single ended, but is (gasp!) used for *ground* which is to say, linking the grounds of the two devices and hopefully helping to keep them at a similar potential. Not to be confused with safety ground. It is also used in most cables to shield the conductors from outside interference. (your cables are not shielded by design though)

So for you answer - what you have done is fine. It isn't a very low impedance ground connection but that's about it. With that style of "open" cable, it is not shielding anything no matter what conductor you use, so it if it sounds alright - and you don't have any noise issues - then it's OK.

btw - the cat5 cables the "shoestrings" borrow from do indeed have no ground connection between ethernet devices. just 4 pairs of tightly twisted "balanced" differential lines.

-Chris
 
#32
SRMcGee said:
Folks:
If you were going to make a no holds barred, state of the art XLR cable, ....
Click to expand...

Brett said:
Mogami, Belden or Canare quad core and Neutrik connectors. ....
Click to expand...

This is precisely what I am doing. I pretty much have to agree with Brett.

I suppose if you are really talking "no holds barred" There are some that like the sound of silver (or partially silver?) cables. I've not had the chance to really compare so I can't say for sure. I have listened to a system with such silver (of some sort) balanced cables, but not sure where they came from or how different they might sound...

If belden and canare are good enough for the studios that record what I listen to, I'm sure they'll do OK for me. (at least until the economy picks up and I have money just piling up for lack of anything better to do with it ;-)

-Chris
 
#33
All interconnects must have two signal carrying conductors. Signal and return. Else there is no circuit.
Click to expand...

last two amps I have made I have not grounded the input, it can cause ground loops and I have found that its fine without the ground being common between the two devices. Is this approach not good?
 
#34
hello.
most cable with silver sound a little bit more bright in the high tunes,more transparency and fine details...........
ofc copper cable sometimes a little bit warmer..........
neutrik is used in studios,i use them too.........
for building a standard xlr cable i would use a quality(ofc) balanced microfone cable and neutrik connectors.small studios do that too.
greetings............
 
#37
SY said:
Shielded CAT5. I would like to use a shielded twisted pair of silver wire between my cartridge and phono stage, but money is in the way of that ambition.
Click to expand...
Hi,
if your arm is conductive then it provides a shield.
If the Riaa pre is located directly below the arm bearing then the cable is going to be very short.

The outputs from the cartridge can be made balanced. Then outside interference has almost no effect, without having to worry about the very short lengths that are unshielded.
 
#38
If the Riaa pre is located directly below the arm bearing then the cable is going to be very short.
Click to expand...

I think the heat from the tubes might have a deleterious effect on the records. 😀

I do run my cartridge balanced- there are far too many advantages to that mode at these signal levels to do anything else. Shieled CAT5 works well, but at a meter in length, twisted pair silver with an external shield grounded to the TT has some compelling advantages.
 
#40
That does not detract from the validity of your basic point- unless there's a good reason not to (like tubes), a phono preamp belongs in the turntable. No reason a phono source should be any different than any other source, i.e., it should be low impedance, equalized, and line level. This removes all need for fancy cables in the one spot where they actually can make a difference.
 
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