Sonnect SoundWire USB-C to XLR Cable Review

[respice finem]

From Amir:
Compared to our generic adapter cable, the price is much higher but in the context of professional applications. If you were on strict budget, you could use a headphone dongle with XLR adapter but that would be less robust physically.

From the product description on its website:
The SoundWire is the go-to USB-C DAC to dual ISO-XLR™ cable interface, reliably streaming 192 kHz, 32-bit audio from your playback directly to the mixing console, bypassing DI boxes and protecting against 48V.

"in the context" =/= "clearly labeled". And, if indeed intended for pros, while fit for the less demanding job, underwhelming performance IMHO.

 

[Nutul]

directly to the mixing console, bypassing DI boxes and protecting against 48V."

This statement makes almost no sense to me... the whole concept of phantom-power is lost here, out of context.
Maybe it's me after 2 beers... but I strongly doubt it.

 

[SMJ]

@Nutil
A reasonable (i.e. expensive) sound desk will have multiple inputs, all designed to accept Line and Mic level balanced audio on XLR or ¼" TRS sockets. You expect there will be switches to turn phantom power on/off as required on each of the XLR sockets individually.

A cheaper desk will often have phantom power switched in 'banked' pairs, fours or eights to save cost. If you need phantom for your mics or to power DI boxes, phantom power will be on the other spare XLR inputs too, whether you want it or not. Hence the need for a device to be able to be isolated from the 48v DC of phantom power. Easiest way, use an audio transformer in the signal path as the DAC chip output is probably single ended anyway. A useful solution for ad hoc playback of audio.

Old F**t comment ... when I started live sound in the 1980s, a simple audio transformer to get from phono/XLR to a desk was usually the size of a house brick, if you wanted to keep a good frequency response.

 

[capslock]

I love the panther in the nest of wire!

I wonder if the formidable E1DA 9039S could be made to work. Solder a 2.5 mm TRRS to XLR adapter, get the ground connection from the USB plug, throw in four capacitors and secure everything with a blob of epoxy. Wouldn't be cheaper but a lot higher performance. I am not sure, though, that the caps provide sufficient protection to the output opamps, though.

 

[daniboun]

This statement makes almost no sense to me... the whole concept of phantom-power is lost here, out of context.
Maybe it's me after 2 beers... but I strongly doubt it.

I just quote it from the site ) It might be a DAC for Irish people --))

 

[Bob101]

I imagine a device like this is a good bit less clunky than doing it the traditional way, i.e. dongle DAC --> 3.5 mm to 2x TS cable --> Behringer HD400 --> 2 pcs. short TRS to XLR cables. Due to the required transformer integration and niche character of the product, that extra neatness is coming at quite a price premium thoug

Fosi DS1 (85$), 4.4mm to dual XLR cable (Aliexpress, 30$). Voila: complete 125$ solution with 4V balanced out and 100+ SINAD. Cheaper and better. I trust Aliexpress cables. If you don't you'll pay triple for an equivalent cable from ifi. Which still makes the total cost around the same as this product.

 

[Bob101]

I love the panther in the nest of wire!

I wonder if the formidable E1DA 9039S could be made to work. Solder a 2.5 mm TRRS to XLR adapter, get the ground connection from the USB plug, throw in four capacitors and secure everything with a blob of epoxy. Wouldn't be cheaper but a lot higher performance. I am not sure, though, that the caps provide sufficient protection to the output opamps, though.

This is for people who know how to source connectors, know how to solder and own a decent soldering station. Anybody fulfilling these criteria would never consider this product, IMO.
A Fosi DS1 and a DIY 4.4mm to dual XLR adaptor cable would be my go-to setup as a better and cheaper alternative.
A 30$ 4.4mm to dual xlr cable from Aliexpress is good quality too. Not for professional use, but fro someone who doesn't know what solder is

 

[Miley_B]

In the situations where I would use a device such as this the SINAD is a distant secondary concern to rock solid reliability.

A CEO of a company is about to give a presentation from the stage and they insist on running the PowerPoint presentation on their laptop from the stage. 5 minutes into the 15 minute coffee break before their slot they mention that the presentation has embedded sound. The audience are making their way back into the auditorium. The stage guy hurriedly plugs in the digital audio to stereo analogue XLR solution, which in this case is a Fosi DS1, to the first two available channels on the stage io rack and calls over comms to the sound engineer on the desk the channel input numbers. It happens they’ve been plugged into the first two channels which were previously used for a pair of podium microphones requiring phantom power. The DS1 doesn’t handle the 48v and no longer works. The CEO is very angry that the sound in his presentation didn’t work and complains to the production company. They apologise profusely and promise they’ll never use this sound engineer again. The sound engineer has to wait 5 years until everyone involved has forgotten what happened before they can work for that company again.
It turns out the embedded sound was a talking head video recorded on a phone at a train station and the speech was barely audible over the station noise.

*this was a fictional story I just made up. In the real story the stage guy plugged a 3.5mm to twin XLR cable directly into the CEO laptop and blew the headphone out instead.

 

[Miley_B]

Would a USB to XLR cable with isolation on the USB side achieve the same device protection but without the signal degradation?
Seems like this might be a better way to do it.

 

[SMJ]

You can do what ever you want within reason. The P48 on the mic sockets on the mixer are current limited (usually two 6k8 resistor in series on pins 2 & 3) so you only need a good quality capacitor of about 1µF with a better than 50v rating on each leg to block the phantom power. The only possible problem is the DAC output is likely to be unbalanced, so you will get a 6dB drop in output when driving one side of the balanced circuit, unless you come up with a true balanced output from the DAC via a transformer or OP amp or use a balanced output DAC. The killer for a portable headphone type DAC is it is unlikely that any blocking Cs on the DAC output are going to have a 50v rating.

Speaking from experience, I'm not in favour of the inline cable 'bodges' because in the de-rig it's very easy for the special cable to be bundled up with the rest of the XLR cables and be lost or nicked. A physical box is much better and gives more space for components of a better spec. Better still, just drive any USB DAC of you choice through a good quality DI box or inline transformer, it will probably remove any USB power supply buzz at the same time.

 

[daftcombo]

Are you plugging the phono stage in via XLR into the mic pre input, or RCA into the line in? You should be going RCA into the line ins. An interface can't supply phantom power over line ins so there's no need to be concerned.

I plug the Balanced (XLR) output of this interface:

(reviewed here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...easurements-of-musical-fidelity-mx-vynl.7753/)

... into the input (TLR) of (a slighty older model of) this interface:

(reviewed here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...rlett-2i2-audio-interface-gen-3-review.10187/)

 

[Nutul]

Would a USB to XLR cable with isolation on the USB side achieve the same device protection but without the signal degradation?
Seems like this might be a better way to do it.

There is no such thing as a USB to XLR cable. USB carries digital data, XLR carries analog "data".
What you seem to mean is a USB tiny-miny dac with balaced output on XLR connectors... hence not a mere "cable".

 

[Waxx]

I've installed this device (or an older variation of it) in a metalurgy factory connected to a phone, where the phone works as backup alarm system over 4G for when the network goes down during a disaster. There also the sound is not that important, it needs to be simple, durable and transfer sound to the alarm horns connected to it. It's a while ago when i did it, but i know these kind of systems are often used in that kind of industry. The same system is also used in the metalurgy factory where i do the IT now (but not installed by myself).

The main alarm system works over voice over IP trough teams. When that fails over in the system, a phonecall can be made by the responsible to that mobile phone and the alarm goes anyway, without local lan or wifi.

I can also see how this may be usefull for other (semi-)industrial use. But for hifi this is a joke, that is true.

 

[enricoclaudio]

All I can tell you is that cable has no place on my desk LOL. When I travel to run sound, I first call to know the equipment I'll be running and always bring with me all the necessary equipment to avoid unnecessary DA - AD conversions trying to keep the signal flow in the digital domain (when possible) before hitting the output stage. In my everyday desk I send signal from my MacBook Pro M4 Pro via Dante (DVS) and Waves over Ethernet. Ethernet is the way to go these days in the audio world. Most of my FOH engineers friends travel with their own Waves SoundGrid servers and plugins and MacBook Pros + all the necessary cables, ethernet switches and even wireless routers to run sound with an iPad anywhere in the house.

 

[chaeyoung]

I’m a professional live sound systems engineer/designer/occasional FOH mix engineer.

This is a live sound product. No one would purchase this for domestic/hifi/studio use as there are much more practical solutions for less money.

We use products like this to do easy reference soundchecks with songs from cell phones, and if console network audio/usb interface isn’t available, to run emergency evacuation announcements, intermission playback music, etc. with a product that easily fits into a pants pocket or small pocket in a backpack and doesn’t require any additional cables.

Bleeding edge SINAD is not relevant. Nothing else after the console is going to be significantly better than -85db SINAD especially after factoring ambient noise floor. Modern live sound consoles have tons of clean preamp gain so the output level is a non-issue.

Accidental phantom power protection and bulletproof reliability/dependency, and usb class compliance for plug and play compatibility with every source and every receiver is. We cannot guarantee that every console we work with will have a Dante/waves/usb interface.

there is a reason why this is the industry standard device.

I these days, personally carry a Fosi DS2 with a custom 4.4mm to dual XLR cable with caps to block phantom power. But if someone wants a plug and play solution without worrying about making custom cables, these are great.

as a live sound engineer as well, I do back this up.
I've also used said cable for testing purposes to see if speakers work and cable runs are okay in TV studios.
for small stuff where we don't have a system rack or LM44 or the like. and use a mixer as the all in one package (yes it happens even for huge companies) this would be nice as well since we don't have many USB-Pro DI's.

for the system racks we have (they're outdated by now) we use reaper with an internal USB audio device so we don't use them for that purpose.
and in all likelihood our system tech brings their own case with everything in it so it's either AES3 or 2 XLR's