Battle Of Budget XLR Cables

[VintageFlanker]

Battle Of Budget XLR Cables​

Hey folks,

I planned to post this for a while, but been a bit busy elsewhere these last few weeks... Here is a quick comparison between entry-level XLR cables, along with basic measurements to find out if some of them may bring any influence in the audible (or at least measurable) domain. Yeah, I know: that is common knowledge that each of the XLR cables should perform the same, right?... Yes, they should. Let's start with the four contenders:​

Canare L-4E6S/Neutrik

This is the classic Canare L-4E6S (Star-quad) assembled with Neutrik NC3-XX plugs by World Best Cables. It is an extremely widespread combination around the audio world, and sounds almost like the textbook XLR cable to me, for either performance or reliability. The pair costs 38$ at Amazon.com for ≈1M/3ft. Unfortunately, I had to import these for much more, since it is not available at Amazon EU anymore.​

Cordial CCM 1 FM

Second is the Cordial CCM 1FM (for 1 meter). It uses standard dual conductor configuration (2 X 0.22mm2) and Rean connectors. It is very well-built, solid and flexible, while having an unexciting and very professional look. It retails for 16.80€/pair.​

Monoprice Premier Series

Next is another very popular budget XLR cable, the Monoprice Premier Series. It is recently available in EU (since Monoprice now has it own store here) for 23.98€/pair (1.8M). You see Monoprice put a lot of effort with their plugs design, making this cable looking much pricer than it really is. This one is also built with two conductors configuration, wrapped in a (very) thick sleeve. Too thick, actually. I found it overall lacks the flexibility you get from the Canare or Cordial, and the quite long connectors don't arrange things on this matter.​

AliExpress "Canare L-4E6S/Neutrik"

Last cable is somehow quite popular offering from AliExpress. This costed me only 11.24€ for the pair (0.5M). It is claimed to be "Canare L-4E6S" with "Neutrik plugs", which obviously isn't... The first time I touched it, I was stuck by how cheap the plugs felt. Well, there's actually no way Neutrik is making this thing. Surprisingly, the holding was OK. Since I was 100% sure the Neutrik plugs were fake, I could not resist to check if there was a "real" Canare cable under this sleeve and these (useless) ferrite cores...

"Canare L-4E6S"... Yeah. Sure. From now, I gonna call this one for what it is: "Fake Canare". I expected this considering the very low price and provenance. What I did not was to discover improper wiring with both cables. Pin 1 and 3 are inverted, with shield on Pin 3. We will see how this impacts measured performance...​

Measurements​

Measurements you are about to see are performed with each pair of cables measured (8 runs each) from my Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 DAC to my E1DA Cosmos ADC. Software used are RMAA PRO and Multitone Analyzer from @pkane. All tests are running in 24bits / 44.1kHz.

​

RMAA Summary
​

Test	Canare L-4E6S Neutrik XLR​	Fake Canare XLR​	Cordial CCM XLR​	Monoprice Premier Series XLR​
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB​	+0.01, -0.03​	+0.01, -0.02​	+0.01, -0.03​	+0.01, -0.03​
Noise level, dB (A)​	-123.2​	-121.7​	-123.1​	-122.9​
Dynamic range, dB (A)​	123.0​	121.4​	122.8​	122.7​
THD, %​	0.00028​	0.00028​	0.00029​	0.00029​
IMD + Noise, %​	0.00046​	0.00060​	0.00046​	0.00046​
Stereo crosstalk, dB​	-123.2​	-114.3​	-123.2​	-122.7​

As you can see, there is little to no difference between all cables, apart from the Fake Canare. Let's see in details what is going on:

Frequency Response​

No difference whatsoever...

Noise level​

The Fake Canare showed constant and repeatable 50Hz hum and overall more noise at almost all frequencies. No doubt this is related to improper wiring, since just every other cables measure the same each others. I removed the ferrite cores in case they could have any influence here. They did not. Needless to say, this noise behaviour does also appear in graphs below:​

THD + Noise (-3dBFS)​

Dynamic Range​

Intermodulation distortion (swept tones)​

Intermodulation distortion + Noise​

Swept frequency test showed no difference, while IMD+N revealed some unexpected peak at 15kHz.
​

Crosstalk​

Unsurprisingly, every cable performed the same but the Fake Canare, again...​

Multitone Analyzer (100 tones, 5 averages)
​

Canare L-4E6S

​

Cordial CCM

Monoprice Premier Series

Fake Canare

Not much else to say. You get basically the same performance from either cable. Despite its issues with noise, the Fake Canare did not fail to produce some decent multitone score, when this is related to distortion.​

Noise immunity

​

Last bunch of tests I ran was done in intend to demonstrate the efficiency of XLR shielding and noise rejection abilities. To do so, I imagined some extreme case scenario where each pair of cables was stuck together to a (running) wireless charger. Let see what happens when measuring noise under these circumstances :​

Noise level

Same story. I see no real advantage for the Canare using Star Quad, by the way (edit). Every cable do have a properly working shield... except for the one being wrongly wired. Note that noise is significantly worse by several dB than in the regular test above. Please also consider that was the best case scenario measured for the Fake Canare. Could it be worse than this? Yes it can:​

I hesitated to post this, since I cannot figure out what the heck is going on here. I have no clue if my measurements rig captured either a ground loop or what seems to be some 1kHz tone (?)... Yet, this phenomenon appeared in three test results over a run of 8 tests... and only with the Fake Canare.
​

Conclusions
​

In a nutshell: As expected, in theory and in practice, yes, all XLR cables measure (then sound) the same. But that only stands when considering they should all be properly wired and assembled. In (hopefully) very rare cases, some are not. Whatever the Canare, the Cordial or the Monoprice showed essentially (+-0.5dB) the same measured performance in all tests. They also proved to have a very efficient shield and noise rejection, with some of the worst situation I could imagine under domestic usage.

I give my easy recommendation for each, and will keep the Canare L-4E6S as a reference for measurements, as I already use a 8ft pair for my main active system. About the Fake Canare, that is an easy case : you should not buy something that is not what it is advertised to begin with. In addition, while I cannot guaranty its noise issues to be any kind of "audible", it dramatically failed the noise immunity test anyway. Spend a few more €/$ and simply get the much better Cordial CCM.​

 

[amirm]

Very nice! Promoted to home page.

 

[Madjalapeno]

Did you notice any difference in the different connectors? Just wondering if some of the fakes felt too tight or loose.

I'm guessing all the cables were the same length.

Is the Fake Canare being so bad just down to being wired wrong?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Very nice! Promoted to home page.

Did you notice any difference in the different connectors? Just wondering if some of the fakes felt too tight or loose.

Despite the very cheap paint and poor imitation of the Neutrik logo, the fake connectors were actually OK with decent handling.

I'm guessing all the cables were the same length.

They are not, see the description on each. Both Cordial and (real) Canare are about 3ft-1 meter long. The Monoprice is 1.8M and the Fake Canare is 0.5M. Nor that I could find any measured difference between my 3ft and 8 ft Canare for that matter...

Is the Fake Canare being so bad just down to being wired wrong?

I guess so. I also suspected the ferrite cores to have any influence, but did not find anything with or without.

 

[diddley]

Thanks for your testing, i was wondering between the difference between cables and this clarified a bit to me.

 

[H-713]

Main thing with cables is getting something of good enough quality that it doesn't become a PITA later. In any case, the gold standard in this regard (Mogami / Canare with Neutrik / Switchcraft connectors) isn't overly expensive.

With all of that said, if there is a difference, I wouldn't expect to see it on a 10 foot cable. Maybe with 100 feet of cable (being used for very small signals) run in parallel with some high-current cables you might see an advantage with the starquad. Maybe.

 

[Russ_L]

I use the Monoprice XLRs on all my surround channels and are fine with them. But being an audiophile, I use (much) more expensive Triode Wire Labs XLRs on front left and right channels.

Russ

 

[lostwind]

Why the fake canare plug has four pin in three pin plug

 

[pseudoid]

...Here is a quick comparison between entry-level XLR cables,...

Thank you.
Not that it matters based on your results, but...
Were all cables constructed with ~24AWG (0.22mm2) conductors as with Cordial CCM 1FM?

 

[Music1969]

Last bunch of tests I ran was done in intend to demonstrate the efficiency of XLR shielding and noise rejection abilities.

Could you do all the same measurements with a set of unshielded and properly wired XLR?

Just to see if shielding is even necessary for interconnects.

 

[VintageFlanker]

@Fafnar, the question was about conductors, not length.

Were all cables constructed with ~24AWG (0.22mm2) conductors as with Cordial CCM 1FM?

Nope. The L-4E6S is really 21AWG/0.41mm2 (2 X 24WG when wired in Star Quad).

The Fake Canare, no way to know for sure, but the few specs I found about the "Preffair" cable say 2 X 0.2mm2 per conductor, so about the same...

About the Monoprice, there's nothing written on the sleeve. I remember the manufacturer claiming 16AWG conductors (which is way too thick for interconnects). In fact, it is still advertised as such on their Amazon.com page... Based on users reviews, it is more likely 24AWG:

But being an audiophile, I use (much) more expensive Triode Wire Labs XLRs on front left and right channels.

I bet 100€ these won't measure any better than others.

Could you do all the same measurements with a set of unshielded and properly wired XLR?

I could... Still, I don't want to touch the Canare, nor to re-solder the Fake ones. I could just cut the shield from both sides of the Monoprice and see what happens.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Thanks for the measurements! I have been buying some World Best cables recently and nice to know the cables are OK.

 

[alex-z]

Thanks for this. That sort of 50/60Hz peak can become a major pain when using 10ft+ cables for subwoofers.

 

[milosz]

Two things to remember about cables:

1. There is such a thing as TOO CHEAP
2. There is also such a thing as POINTLESSLY EXPENSIVE

Good quality and performance can be had for moderate prices.

Beyond the advantage of "decent" cables over "cheap & wired wrong" cables, there are considerations of appearance, cable flexibility, connector ruggedness and "will the connector fit my setup or will it stick out too far." But all of these can be accommodated at moderate prices.

For a home audio setup, ruggedness seems less important than for live performance sound systems. My DAC to power amp XLR cable gets flexed about once a year when I move things around, the strain relief used at the connectors will handle this perfectly. But the mic cable connecting a gyrating lead singer in a rock band to the stage end of the snake or mixer is being asked to handle a lot more strain and metal fatigue. Of course such life testing is beyond our scope here.

 

[milosz]

I would also be curious if any XLR cables show handling microphonics when feeding phantom power to condenser mics. Seems like the DC in such cables might be able to capacitively induce some amount of artifact when present. Maybe this doesn't actually happen, I just don't know but would be curious if anyone knows of such.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I would also be curious if any XLR cables show handling microphonics when feeding phantom power to condenser mics. Seems like the DC in such cables might be able to capacitively induce some amount of artifact when present. Maybe this doesn't actually happen, I just don't know but would be curious if anyone knows of such.

The Monoprice will have some handling noise. I've one of the WBC and several other Canare or Starquad none of which have any handling noise. The Monoprice noise is from a triboelectric effect. Somewhere here I've posted the sound of these effects with several cables.

Lets talk cables

But what we all want to see, of course, is tests of the Nordosts, Transparents, and MITs. I have a few Transparent cables: XLR, RCA and speaker wires. I tested one of them and like the MIT above, it rolls off high frequencies if the source impedance is high: With 20 ohm source impedance, it...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[voodooless]

Would be fun to swap the pins on the fake cable and retest. I’m pretty sure it would do just as good as the others.

Great little test! Thanks!

 

[half_dog]

Would be fun to swap the pins on te fake cable and retest. I’m pretty sure it would do just as good as the others.

Great little test! Thanks!

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[ShiZo]

I wish I would have known about this review. I have some nice pangea xlr and power cables I can send in some time if you want. I would hope at the very least it won't decrease performance like the fake canare

 

[MCH]

Thanks for this, and let me ask a silly question: i have bought recently balanced interconnects for the first time and noticed that most of them in amazon.de are described as "microphone cables" or nothing. I assumed that there is no difference between cables intended to use with microphones and as line level interconnects, but in any case, wanted to ask to make sure. Thanks!