What type of cables for Neutrik XLR connectors?

[DanielT]

I came across a number of unused male and female Neutrik XLRs on the used market. Excellent, I think. Now I have the freedom to choose the length of the cable myself.

BUT Neutrik does not recommend the type of cables to be used with the connectors, so what can you advise? Not, not advise regarding soldering and which cables are connected to which pins. I'm aware of that (soldering will be amateurish, but cable to the right pin will be fine).

Can you use a regular lamp cord? Or what cord, cable should you choose? Any features it should have?

I am attaching some pictures of the connectors and the active crossover plus the power amp I intended to use.

It is about these XLR connectors:

NC3MXX

3 pole male cable connector with Nickel housing and silver contacts.The next generation of the worldwide accepted standard of XLR cable connectors. The successor of the X series offers several new features which make it more reliable, easier to assemble and improves contact integrity as well...

www.neutrik.com

NC3FXX

3 pole female cable connector with Nickel housing and silver contacts.The next generation of the worldwide accepted standard of XLR cable connectors. The successor of the X series offers several new features which make it more reliable, easier to assemble and improves contact integrity as well...

www.neutrik.com

 

[MRC01]

I used to build my own, buying parts like Belden cable and Neutrik connectors from Mouser or other places.
Then many years ago I discovered that Blue Jeans Cable will build cables for me from the same high quality parts for the same $ that it would cost me to build myself.
If they don't have what you want on the site, call them up and they'll make something custom.
For example, when the factory cable for my Audeze LCD-2F wore out and needed replacing (it has unusual connectors to the headphone cups), Audeze wanted $150 for their OEM cable, which is nothing fancy and not even made that well. Blue Jeans built me a custom cable of higher quality parts & construction than OEM, for about half that price.

PS: you can use what Blue Jeans cable uses: Belden 1800F or Canare L-4E6S depending on your needs. Just order that same cable and build them yourself.

Balanced Audio Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

 

[VintageFlanker]

My recommendation would be either for Canare L-4E6S, or Mogami 2534 (Star Quad designs). Excellent quality and shielding, very flexible.

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

I used to build my own, buying parts like Belden cable and Neutrik connectors from Mouser or other places.
Then many years ago I discovered that Blue Jeans Cable will build cables for me from the same high quality parts for the same $ that it would cost me to build myself.
If they don't have what you want on the site, call them up and they'll make something custom.
For example, when the factory cable for my Audeze LCD-2F wore out and needed replacing (it has unusual connectors to the headphone cups), Audeze wanted $150 for their OEM cable, which is nothing fancy and not even made that well. Blue Jeans built me a custom cable of higher quality parts & construction than OEM, for about half that price.

PS: you can use what Blue Jeans cable uses: Belden 1800F or Canare L-4E6S depending on your needs. Just order that same cable and build them yourself.

Balanced Audio Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

Their XLR cable prices seem poor. $79 for a 25ft xlr, you can get a 25' ft pro co at sweetwater with neutrik connectors for less than half that.

 

[DanielT]

My recommendation would be either for Canare L-4E6S, or Mogami 2534 (Star Quad designs). Excellent quality and shielding, very flexible.

Thanks for the tips!

But can, for example, a Telephone/alarm cable work?

"With four conductors of copper, single-wire with insulation and jacket of white PVC plastic. Suitable for more than just phones and alarms."

4x0.2mm2:

Telefon-/larmkabel, EKKX

Med fyra ledare av koppar, entrådiga med isolering och mantel av vit PVC-plast. Passar till mer än bara telefoner och larm.

www.biltema.se

___
Or:

"Low voltage cable with flexible copper wire for car, boat, caravan etc. 0.75 mm2"

Kopplingsledning, RKUB, 0,75 mm², röd, 10 m

Kopplingsledning, RKUB, 0,75 mm², röd, 10 m

www.biltema.se

And can you bundle them together, for example, such cables, (if it works with one of the cables above) without problems? That provided, the contacts is soldered correctly. There will be twelve small cables in one package then.

 

[DanielT]

Their XLR cable prices seem poor. $79 for a 25ft xlr, you can get a 25' ft pro co at sweetwater with neutrik connectors for less than half that.

Aha.

 

[soundtrane]

Thanks for the tips!

But can, for example, a Telephone/alarm cable work?

NO. Please use a two-core shielded cable, many have been listed here. Using STAR QUAD may be overkill and actually will make no difference. Just two-core shielded will do the job.

cheers
-vin

PS: hope your "unused" XLR connectors have clean un-oxidised terminals, otherwise solder will have a difficult time sticking to them. If you have such an issue, use a round pointer file and shave off the oxidation layer by rolling the tip in each terminal, it will help a lot.

 

[DVDdoug]

But can, for example, a Telephone/alarm cable work?

It should be Shielded. That's a grounded-conductive layer around the signal wires. For a balanced microphone/audio cable you generally want a braded shield and two stranded conductors.

 

[DanielT]

NO. Please use a two-core shielded cable, many have been listed here. Using STAR QUAD may be overkill and actually will make no difference. Just two-core shielded will do the job.

cheers
-vin

PS: hope your "unused" XLR connectors have clean un-oxidised terminals, otherwise solder will have a difficult time sticking to them. If you have such an issue, use a round pointer file and shave off the oxidation layer by rolling the tip in each terminal, it will help a lot.

This is exactly what I'm thinking about. The cables I mentioned above in copper and insulated, but despite this cannot, if I understand correctly, be considered shielded cable and become parts of a three-wire cable to XLR? Is it because they are not considered a part of a Faraday cage? Or how the hell does it actually work together with XLR cables?

Shielded cable - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DanielT]

It should be Shielded. That's a grounded-conductive layer around the signal wires. For a balanced microphone/audio cable you generally want a braded shield and two stranded conductors.

You see my post above. I missed that you posted yours before I posted mine.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Don't select unknown stuff like this. Pick a good cable supplier. I've not used Canare and haven't used Belden recently, but I've been pleased with Mogami 2549.

MOGAMI® - High Quality Balanced Microphone Cables

Mogami Bulk High Quality Balanced Bulk Cables are recommended when extended high frequencies are important or where long cable runs may be needed.

mogamicable.com

 

[fpitas]

Differential signalling - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Balanced audio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Since there seems some question what's going on.

 

[MRC01]

Their XLR cable prices seem poor. $79 for a 25ft xlr, you can get a 25' ft pro co at sweetwater with neutrik connectors for less than half that.

Perhaps. But they do build top quality cables from top quality parts, with no BS or mystery about it. They publish all the exact parts they use, and the tradeoffs of different parts, for example lowest capacitance versus best shielding. So if they're too expensive, just look at the parts manifest they publish on their site to get great recommendations for the type of cable & connectors to use, and do it yourself.

 

[fpitas]

Perhaps. But they do build top quality cables from top quality parts, with no BS or mystery about it. They publish all the exact parts they use, and the tradeoffs of different parts, for example lowest capacitance versus best shielding. So if they're too expensive, just look at the parts manifest they publish on their site to get great recommendations for the type of cable & connectors to use, and do it yourself.

Being too lazy to make my own, and too crappy a technician to make good cables in any event, I get the Blue Jeans ones.

 

[KMO]

My last set of leads used Van Damme cables. This is what I'd recommend from their range:

Tour Grade Classic XKE Microphone Cable | Van-Damme

The tour grade classic XKE microphone cable combines flexibility, durability, noiseless operation in order for seamless communication.

www.van-damme.com

In my case they were assembled by https://www.ultimateproaudio.com/ who did a good job with my annoying custom specs, and pretty cheaply, but I can see lots of other suppliers selling just cable on ebay.

I've got no reason to suppose they're better or worse than the other brands suggested above - just throwing another name into the mix.

 

[unpluggged]

Balanced XLR interconnects should use shielded twisted pairs.

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

Perhaps. But they do build top quality cables from top quality parts, with no BS or mystery about it. They publish all the exact parts they use, and the tradeoffs of different parts, for example lowest capacitance versus best shielding. So if they're too expensive, just look at the parts manifest they publish on their site to get great recommendations for the type of cable & connectors to use, and do it yourself.

You get the same stuff with pro co. I mean these are xlr cables they're not exactly hard or expensive to make well. If pro co and often cheaper works for live shows, I'm sure just about anything will be fine for the home. No point in paying that small business markup with blue jeans.

 

[DanielT]

Superb with all the good tips in the thread. I thank you for them.
In addition, I learned about shielded cable. What it means. Which I had a rather vague understanding of before.

I will also investigate local music stores in Sweden. Those who sell instruments, microphones, plus PA and so on in general.

 

[LTig]

I will also investigate local music stores in Sweden. Those who sell instruments, microphones, plus PA and so on in general.

This is where I buy cables. With very few exceptions I solder all my cables using Neutrik XLR and either standard microphone cables or similar cables with 110 Ohm impedance (can also be used for digital AES/EBU connections).

 

[Ricardus]

Mogami 2549. It's what I make all of my balanced cables with.

Star quad is great because the nature of the internal structure makes it super flexible, but it involves just enough extra work building the cables that I don't use it.