I would guess about 70 years ago? People just do not understand the "magic" that happens to all audio equipment! Remember it is not a mystery, it is magic. Take that to the bank.
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Battle Of Budget XLR Cables
- Thread starter VintageFlanker
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Wise words of wisdom. You just explained that you have to rely on the magic to make it all happen......
The magic of audio never stops.
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I've got quite a bit of the Monoprice Premier, and I think they went thru a period of poor QC which fortunately I've missed. I was asked to do recordings where I needed bunches of long microphone cables and the Monoprice Premier was the only affordable to me option for a cable I knew to be quiet and have good connectors. So they've actually been deployed and gathered up many times and no problem at all with any of them. But plenty of reports from people who did.
PoorishDecision
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I used to buy qed and kimber cables exclusively back in the day under the idea they must sound better, bought a full worlds best cable canare rca and xlr setup with 4s11 speaker cable off the reel for my pc setup. Thought may as well try it out on the main rig and yeah cables all sound the same was the conclusion
Multicore
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Ok. But that's less funny now. Anyway, thanks for the article. It's quite useful.Thanks.
@Multicore, interpret "sounds like" (thx for the typo, BTW) as "seems like" or "looks like".
I usually buy cables from B&H and they list Canare as a brand. I have been inclined to believe that B&H gets them made. When I've bought them in the past they came in completely unbranded/unmarked packaging.
I’m more of the opinion that cables can sound different, if designed with non-optimal impedance characteristics. Well-engineered cables should all sound the same. However, one can make cables with particularly high resistance, inductance or capacitance that color the sound of some connected equipment. I don’t like the use of cables as tone controls, but to each his own.
I do confess some affinity for aesthetics in cables, though. I recently discovered how much when I purchased a RCA cable made with off-the-shelf REAN and Belkin components. I found myself pining for BJC cables with shiny Taversoe plugs coupled with red and white “boots”. Of course, there was no performance difference between the two, I just liked the look of the BJC cables more. I was surprised.
Rock Rabbit
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Put the cable as input in some ADC line in (or amp at low volume), insert a paper clip or wire on pin 1 (touch the wire), if you hear hum (or rise in Vu meter) bad news. Or use a tester to verify correct wiring
Don't worry unless you are getting hum. If you are getting hum, then replace the cable with one from a well-regarded manufacturer. Life is too short to worry about easily replaceable cables.
Multicore
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I too prefer to pay a bit extra quality cables but Mogami is not a brand of finished interconnects that I trust implicitly. Maybe some are better than others but Mogami made the multicore cable that connected the Roland G-303 to the GR-300. It was unshielded and picked up RFI way better than a crystal set (especially terrible if playing with overdrive). And it was unreliable, needing repair at the connector end a couple of times.
I was going to salvage the connectors and make a new cable from a shielded Centronics printer cable but then I sold the whole kit on Reverb about 18 months ago. The new Boss SY-1000 does a fantastic job emulating the GR-300, smaller, lighter, and much more reliable, i.e. less terrifying to gig.
Multicore
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For home audio interconnects, I agree. For recording, production and gigs I'll pay a bit more to reduce the anxiety of faulty cables.
Great review! The miswired cable is a caution. Sure would like to trace down the extent of that production run and where it is.
Exhaustive testing like this produces essential data we freaks must have before spending like we were thousandaires. Keep up the good work.
Exhaustive testing like this produces essential data we freaks must have before spending like we were thousandaires. Keep up the good work.
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Those asking about the fake canare being re-soldered and tested, you would expect once done it would measure identical to the others. In the configuration Vintage Flanker received them you had a twisted pair with shield, but the balanced signal was between shield and one of the pair. So the signal carrying pair weren't twisted and the other wire was grounded offering minimal shielding. Even so, 50 hz hum was -110 db down, and when placed right next to a noise source it was -102 db down. Chances are you would hear no difference. It likely has performance much like an RCA cable does.
Now if you fix the connections you'll have a twisted pair carrying a balanced signal with a shield and it will be pretty much like all the others. You really don't need to test it to know this. It is just the physics of the construction.
As for testing for this without opening the connector, I don't know, but suspect if you check capacitance between the signal carrying pins it would be rather different than when properly wired. But without knowing what it should be that wouldn't help you any.
Now if you fix the connections you'll have a twisted pair carrying a balanced signal with a shield and it will be pretty much like all the others. You really don't need to test it to know this. It is just the physics of the construction.
As for testing for this without opening the connector, I don't know, but suspect if you check capacitance between the signal carrying pins it would be rather different than when properly wired. But without knowing what it should be that wouldn't help you any.
A friend of mine posted files at diyAudio a few years ago comparing copper with mud and a potato. Guess what?
Rock Rabbit
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To test shield in the wrong pin, put cable on an audio interface input and check for induced noise when handling cable jacket
Thanks for doing this! It is an important topic, and it gives us something to quibble about.
I have lots of XLR cables. I mean I have bins stacked in a room with labels like: XLR-XLR, RCA-XLRm, RCA-XLRf, TRS-XLRm, etc. Over the decades I have learned that the ones to trust are the ones that I soldered myself. Seriously, the quality of the solder joint outweighs everything else. Also it is important to connect the right wires to the right terminals, as it turns out.
I used to prefer Canare L-2T2S. Heavier conductors, and I never saw any advantage to Star-quad. Mogami was easier to prep due to the non-braided shield, but it was not as flexible or durable as the Canare.
Years ago, when Monoprice was getting started, I bought a whole truckload of cables. Meh, they work fine in most situations. The problem is that those damned screws will go missing out of the connector shells. Good luck finding one in gravel, sand, or carpet.
One funny thing about cables: when I need, say, a 25 ft XLRm-XLRf pair, they are all missing. Where the hell do they go? I have at least 4 pairs of those, but they have all become invisible! Groan, time to build more cables. I need a cablefinder.
OK, finally the question: where the hell did that mysterious 1khz cascade come from with the fake Canare? We test engineers have developed a blind spot to that very tone, but when it spontaneously generates itself in a cable, continuity is unhappy somewhere. Did I misread the data? The annoying part is that I have seen that exact signature somewhere, but I can't remember where!
I have lots of XLR cables. I mean I have bins stacked in a room with labels like: XLR-XLR, RCA-XLRm, RCA-XLRf, TRS-XLRm, etc. Over the decades I have learned that the ones to trust are the ones that I soldered myself. Seriously, the quality of the solder joint outweighs everything else. Also it is important to connect the right wires to the right terminals, as it turns out.
I used to prefer Canare L-2T2S. Heavier conductors, and I never saw any advantage to Star-quad. Mogami was easier to prep due to the non-braided shield, but it was not as flexible or durable as the Canare.
Years ago, when Monoprice was getting started, I bought a whole truckload of cables. Meh, they work fine in most situations. The problem is that those damned screws will go missing out of the connector shells. Good luck finding one in gravel, sand, or carpet.
One funny thing about cables: when I need, say, a 25 ft XLRm-XLRf pair, they are all missing. Where the hell do they go? I have at least 4 pairs of those, but they have all become invisible! Groan, time to build more cables. I need a cablefinder.
OK, finally the question: where the hell did that mysterious 1khz cascade come from with the fake Canare? We test engineers have developed a blind spot to that very tone, but when it spontaneously generates itself in a cable, continuity is unhappy somewhere. Did I misread the data? The annoying part is that I have seen that exact signature somewhere, but I can't remember where!
OP
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- #139
As I said, I do not know what it is, yet it happened in some very specific situation: when stuck to a running wireless charger...
Ah, that would be a signal source. I must have missed that part. A referee test with any sort of unshielded cable would pinpoint the frequency band. Still, my tired old brain is trying to remember that specifiec frequency domain signature. I was hoping that one of the locals could remind me.
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