Battle Of Budget XLR Cables

[Jimbob54]

I use the (very cheap) nordell /no bull range. Never seen any measurements but never noticed any issues either. Very much targeted to bulk live music market, not audiophile but lots of positive reviews on amazon.

 

[alekksander]

Their plugs look to be the same as the fake Neutrik (without the fake logo) I got from AliExpress:
Their excuse as "Neutrik China Factory" doesn't stand IMHO. These plugs are nothing in common with ones made by Neutrik and I find this statement misleading at best...

Notice how the nylon sleeve is too short and barely reaches narrowed part of the connector…

I wish there were Amphenol connectors used in this test as well. Personally i consider them a bit better looking ones comparing to Neutriks. They were also shorter (not sure here, it's been some time) which makes them easier to fit behind devices and wall. Still cheaper if i recall. Would be nice to see all directly compared in quality and performance. Perhaps next time?
If i can add my two cents i've had rather good experience with german Cordial, and not so good with Klotz and english „hifi” brands names i cannot recall. CMK222 is so far the best cable i used as it's very elastic and sturdy. Their CMK209 is solid good, but doesn't have that magic feeling anymore. Klotz and mysterious UK brands were nothing special, rather stiff and not memorable . Wonder what sort of materials were used on japanese Canare…

 

[Matias]

Their plugs look to be the same as the fake Neutrik (without the fake logo) I got from AliExpress:
View attachment 189738
Their excuse as "Neutrik China Factory" doesn't stand IMHO. These plugs are nothing in common with ones made by Neutrik and I find this statement misleading at best...

There are different versions of the Neutrik plugs. Maybe the one above is based on the original X design (patents expired, often copied), while the one below their current XX design?

 

[Veri]

Their excuse as "Neutrik China Factory" doesn't stand IMHO. These plugs are nothing in common with ones made by Neutrik and I find this statement misleading at best...

I don't think this is an excuse. It is made by Yongsheng ("Neutrik" China-made). @Matias may be right about the X / XX version. The original made, current version is likely better, yes. But I've used 4-pin connections with Yongsheng plugs and they're perfectly suitable for that..

For professional 3-pin cables perhaps you'd better get the official real thing in a "buy once use for a lifetime" approach, yes. I've nothing but praise for World's Best Cables. But I've placed orders at Ghent and their work is really quite good, as is their customer service.

 

[alekksander]

I don't think this is an excuse. It is made by Yongsheng ("Neutrik" China-made). @Matias may be right about the X / XX version. The original made / current version is likely better, yes. But I've used 4-pin connections with Yongsheng plugs and they're perfectly suitabel for that.

Assuming this here is not a fake of a chinese licensed ones.

 

[Tangband]

I use only Cordial silver for acoustical recordings .
I would not buy cheaper cables. There IS a real difference where real Neutrik or REAN connectors ”clicks” in to the socket and fits in a better way .
Cheaper connectors may sound and function in the same good way, but you can never be sure.

 

[daftcombo]

Great article!

Isn't the capacitance of those cables important, if they are long? Measurements show a long cable with high capacitance can lead to a roll of the highs when used between some devices.

 

[192kbps]

The Importance of Star-Quad Microphone Cable

Star-Quad Microphone Cable can reduce magnetic interference by at least 20 to 30 dB when compared to standard 2-wire cable. The 4-wire star geometry is the key.

benchmarkmedia.com

Star Quad Cable Demonstration - Video

Star-Quad Cable - Video Demonstration Benchmark has recorded a lab demonstration that shows what happens when a standard two-wire cable is exposed to common sources of magnetic interference. You will be able to hear the interference, see it on an oscilloscope, and view its spectrum on an FFT. A...

benchmarkmedia.com

 

[ivity]

Actually, Neutrik has its own China-only brand, its called Yongsheng. I used those and the quality of connectors are more or less like REAN (which is also Neutrik brand). But here we see 100% fake Neutrik, since Yongsheng has different logo.

 

[Matias]

Most likely that Yongsheng is an OEM connector manufacturer in China, possibly even making the connectors for Neutrik with their official logo and design (XX series), but since the old design expired the patents (X series), they also build them with their own brand. Nothing wrong and nothing ilegal.

But this is my speculation, so take it with 2 grains of salt.

 

[VintageFlanker]

View attachment 189743

About that:

I see no real advantage for the Canare using Star Quad

Turns out, there finaly is (but very small). When looking back to my data of noise rejection test (and remove the Fake Canare for better readability) :

Test​	Canare L-4E6S Neutrik​	Monoprice Premier Series​	Cordial CCM​
Noise level, dB (A):	-123.1​	-120.7​	-120.7​

​

 

[Matias]

About that:

Turns out, there finaly is (but very small). When looking back to my data of noise rejection test (and remove the Fake Canare for better readability) :

Test​	Canare L-4E6S Neutrik​	Monoprice Premier Series​	Cordial CCM​
Noise level, dB (A):	-123.1​	-120.7​	-120.7​

View attachment 189745

​

The noise floor of any device connected to both cables would be a lot worse than the cables itself. Very interesting, thanks for the tests.

 

[Helicopter]

Most likely that Yongsheng is an OEM connector manufacturer in China, possibly even making the connectors for Neutrik with their official logo and design (XX series), but since the old design expired the patents (X series), they also build them with their own brand. Nothing wrong and nothing ilegal.

But this is my speculation, so take it with 2 grains of salt.

As my Chinese professor would say, fake real and real fake.

Real fake being an unauthorized overrun by OEM that gets sold on the side.

The ones in OP just look like bad fakes to me though.

 

[peng]

Very nice! Promoted to home page.

Hello Amir, sorry to bug you again, Have you bought a pair of the cheap Monprice RCA to XLR cables yet so you can test your next AVR with your XLR only power amp? I can order a pair from Amazon and ship to you if you haven't bought it yet. I think a lot of ASR members who want to use their AVRs with an external amp would be interested to know how the result compare with using the internal amps, not in terms of power output but in terms of THD+N and the effects of the lower combined parallel impedance in the case when the internal amps cannot be disconnected by amp assign or preamp mode. Until such conditions are measure on your bench, we can only assume..

Thank you.

 

[sarumbear]

​

AliExpress "Canare L-4E6S/Neutrik"
View attachment 189474
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...

I wonder if you can test a very cheap cable that most generic outlets sell, like this one from Amazon. It is less than a third of the fake one you tested. Thank you in advance.

 

[JayGilb]

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

You should have someone else switch some of your cables around and see if you can hear the difference.

 

[F1308]

6.10€/2m is cheaper than those for 0,5m

Then you will become extremely happy as soon as you get a 1.000.000 $ cable that reaches the Moon. Just 0.00333 $ per meter.

 

[audio_tony]

@VintageFlanker It would be really useful if you posted the loopback test results of your test gear, so that it's possible to see how much influence your hardware has.

Also - please specify your hardware, and test conditions, e.g. amplitude (in vRMS) - as otherwise a lot of the results are meaningless.

Thanks.

 

[VintageFlanker]

@VintageFlanker It would be really useful if you posted the loopback test results of your test gear, so that it's possible to see how much influence your hardware has.

I don't get it. The measurements you see are loopback of my test rig. The one and only thing changing between tests being the cables.

Also - please specify your hardware, and test conditions, e.g. amplitude (in vRMS)

As stated in the original post:

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.

If you want more details about voltage : The fixed balanced output of the Matrix is 4.1Vrms @0dBFS, according to either @MatrixAudio or @amirm review. The Cosmos ADC (Grade B) is set to 4.5Vrms input sensitivity. RMAA sees the 1Khz sine at "-3.8dB".

The rest is some decent PC: Windows 10, i7 9700K, 32Gb RAM, RTX 3080FE GPU, Nvme SDD... Not sure if that is any kind of relevant, since I got same results when using a much cheaper laptop, battery powered.

 

[Interference]

I usually recommend Cordial CPM series, nicer components than CCM but still affordable. Not star quad, through.

In Europe there is a German supplier, Enoaudio, building Canare-based XLR cables, IIRC.