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Pro balanced xlr vs hifi branded?

Well they’re here and have made quite a difference. The plugs for one thing are a much better fit than my previous cables, which would crackle a bit when wobbled. But the sound is a lot better too. Sounds more solid, cleaner and better resolved. Just played ‘Home at Last’ from Aja and subtle shifts In emphasis on hi hats etc are much more obvious. Everything seems better separated.

Made a much bigger improvement than I expected tbh.
 
Yes, likewise, ordered the van damme starquad with Neutrik golds. I won't know how they sound until my amp build is complete...

Cracking value though compared to RCA
 
I use Van Damme Pro Grade Classic XKE 1 pair install cable at £0.61 per M length, with Neutrik XX series silver plated plugs.
I think ATC use the Belden 8760 cables with Neutrik XX series plugs.
 
Alexh said:
I use Van Damme Pro Grade Classic XKE 1 pair install cable at £0.61 per M length, with Neutrik XX series silver plated plugs.
I think ATC use the Belden 8760 cables with Neutrik XX series plugs.
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If anyone is thinking making up their own, bear in mind that the standard Neutrik XLRs are designed for up to 8mm cables. If you use bigger cables you will need (IIRC) the -14-B version for larger cables.
 
Amber Audio said:
I have started a kit swap and will be using XLR rather than RCA moving forward,
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Found a very interesting paper from Benchmark last night regarding balanced/unbalanced.

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/balanced-vs-unbalanced-analog-interfaces

Interestingly Benchmark recommend a star quad loudspeaker cable for their ABH2 amp.
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/bi-w...aker-cable-copper-4x208mm-o107mm-p-11708.html

Amber Audio said:
These shops are often recommended for reasonably priced Hi-Fi cables:

Studio Spares
Mark Grant
Blue Jeans
Flashback
Click to expand...

And for sensibly priced made to measure cables - Designacable
 
Regarding the option of using single pair or starquad, I use the single pair as they have less capacitance than starquad and are fully shielded with foil so will be immune to interference.

The starquad cables are for stage use. They have braided outer shield for flexibility which is not as good as foil shielding, so to give better immunity to interference, they make the starquad, but the capacitance will go up.
So overall, the shielded foil pair will be the most transparent.
 
Canare have a technical paper evaluating the performance of various microphone cables - their own, Mogami, Belden etc which might interest some people.
http://www.canare.com/uploadeddocum...phone cable perfrmance and specifications.pdf

And here’s their explanation of the benefits of their own cable.
http://www.canare.com/UploadedDocuments/Cat11_p35.pdf

These types of cables are all designed to be used in cable runs of many dozens of metres, from the stage in a theatre to the control room for example, over lighting rigs, air conditioning, power and all sorts of noisy stuff. I’d be very surprised if any of them are less than perfect in a domestic context.
 
I bought the right lengths of Linn silver cable, and made my own with Neutrik connectors. Urika/KDS to passive preamp and preamp to ATCs balanced XLR throughout. It's about as OCD as I get.

For business use, I've been using these people - made to order. Recommended.
 
Thanks Mr.dog

The benchmark explanation is very clear and obvious. I think the effect of the two shielding methods will be negligible over my 3M pair.

It does make me think that a pair of balanced monoblocks connected by 1m of the best speaker cable I can afford and 4m of balanced cable makes way more sense. How come the world is not full of cheap monoblocks/pres using pro signal levels and omitting single ended rca?
 
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I use 10m Planetwaves custom XLR cables between pre and monos. Very inexpensive, flexible and robust. Then Kondo Spc from amps through to the drivers themselves. I think that is an appropriate division of cost. Old photo of amps and speakers.
194865433_eff60d7971.jpg
 
@Moppit, there is a small trend towards lower gain power amps that accept higher inputs; the 26db power amp gain ruled the roost for quite a while though.

The trouble is there's too much to mismatch, massively high output dacs, really need unity gain buffer /attenuation only pre amps running into circa 12-15db gain power amps. So your choice is whacky first watt stuff, ncores or the benchmark amps. (Neurochrome amps can be trimmed to 20db, which is why my gear sits but needs me leaving a pre to match digital to my phonostage output levels)
 
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