XLR interconnect suggestions?

[2FlyingYorkies]

So I've satisfied myself on the goodness of my new Kimber 12TC speaker cable over the past few weeks (see separate break-in thread). Over that same time, I've convinced myself that I have an actual synergy problem with my balanced interconnects that isn't getting better with time.

Swapping A/B with the old generic RCAs previously used, there's an immediately apparent notable harshness (French horns become somewhat painful) and a clear loss of presence and slam in the mid-and sub- bass (pop/rock loses all energy and drive, and organ pedals go awol). Detail remains excellent, if not improved. The cables in question are silver plated OFC, 18ga. I suspect the silver is the issue (though I would not have guessed that mere microns of plating would have that kind of effect!). Clearly the synergy isn't right for my setup, so I'm looking for something else.

Seeking suggestions for XLR interconnects in the ~$500 per pair or less range to run between the DAC and preamp, and preamp and amp. Obviously based on the above, I'm looking for relative warmth and LF extension, without giving up too much detail if possible. Digital cables from sources to DAC are Wireworld Starlight 7, but I'm not beholden to any particular brand.

[Speedskater]

Way less than $500, more like $60 to $100 for a pair.
Chose a cable that has:
Top shelf Neutrix XLR connectors.
And a top shelf Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable from a major bulk cable manufacture like:
Belden, Canare or Mogami.

= = = = = = = = = = = =
Some good US cable vendors are:
Markertek, Redco and Blue Jeans Cable.

[mdp632]

Why not just get the matching kimber xlr ? Others might disagree but imho Mixing and matching brands throws off the tonal Balance in system.. subjective but my opinion of course

[Speedskater]

The Kimber Summit Series balanced interconnects are about as poor a design as you can get.

Once again, you need a:
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable.

[mauidan]

Audience OHNO XLR - $419.00/meter

[Mr Peabody]

+1, I was going to suggest the same thing

Why not just get the matching kimber xlr ? Others might disagree but imho Mixing and matching brands throws off the tonal Balance in system.. subjective but my opinion of course

[La Dolce Vita]

Audience OHNO XLR - $419.00/meter

+1


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[pweg]

id recommend one of the Purist Audio Design cables that use liquid shielding - either Neptune or Poseidon.

Lovely warmth, great midrange and bass and still blessed with great spatial clues and depth.

[KeithR]

Contrarian opinion (and just went through this): I don't feel XLRs make much difference like RCAs. I'd buy Mogamis and put funds elsewhere.

[2FlyingYorkies]

Thanks for the thoughts. The "matching" Kimber (Hero, i believe) seems like a logical starting point. Audience doesn't put out much "real" information on their products, so the engineer in me remains skeptical, but I'll see if i can get an audition. Purist might be ok, but the fluid filled thing seems odd. And did they even survive Harvey? They're down in the Houston/Galveston area, I think. Anyway, seems like this might be an opportunity to try out Cable Co's cable loaner program, especially since I have very limited (ok, zero) local distribution on any of these things.

[Elberoth]

Borrow both the Kimber and Audience from the Cable Co and try yourself. Audience makes good stuff.

[Elberoth]

I would also try those two from XLO:

https://www.thecableco.com/Product/Ultra-Plus-2A-XLR
https://www.thecableco.com/Product/Reference-3-2-XLR

Very well made. High quality copper with teflon insulation. All XLO cables that I've heard have always been on the warm side.

Price is super competitive compared to other manufacturers, who seem to have increased the prices on their products several times in the past 10 or 15 years.

[Mechnutt]

Cardas Parsec will give you what you are looking for. I own a pair of the XLR's.

I also use a pair of Belden 8402 XLR's. They are detailed and resolving along with being transparent and musical. No sibilants and are neutral to slightly warm. The outperform the Cardas and my AQ Colombia 72v DBS XLR's. They are cheap. There is a whole thread about them on the Audio Circles forum. 1 Meter is about $70. Here are 2 places that sell them. I bought from the first company.

https://btpa.com/IC8402XLR-XX.html


The company below Cryo Treats them and charges about $90 for 1 meter pair.

https://www.takefiveaudio.com/shopdi...&searchfields=


Inexpensive cables but they don't sound that way.

[mauidan]

Here's another one:

http://store.jaguaraudiodesign.com/n...strada-207-ic/

[2FlyingYorkies]

I have a few different sets of interconnects enroute to me now from Cable Co's loaner program: Kimber Hero, Purist Genesis, Wireworld Eclipse, and Shunyata Venom. They didn't have Ohno XLRs to loan (just RCA), and XLO doesn't participate in their loaner program, so I won't be able to try those suggestions. Should be enough different flavors there to settle on something that works for me.

I feel like there must be something wrong with me that I'm suddenly excited to get a box full of copper wire in the mail...

[tom_hankins]

These are nice, at a very good price.
https://www.musicdirect.com/equipmen...terconnects-pr

Also the signalcable.com cables are good.

[2FlyingYorkies]

I wanted to post the outcome of my XLR cable audition. Let me start by saying that my wife and I have always been cable skeptics, at least to the extent that any differences are just differences, and not necessarily "right or wrong". We're also both engineers, which probably doesn't help with believing subjective sound over hard analytical or construction differences.

Cables auditioned were:
Cullen Crossover XLR (baseline)
Kimber Hero XLR
Purist Audio Genesis XLR
Shunyata Venom XLR
Wireworld Eclipse 7 XLR

All of the cables were pure copper (some "high purity", some OCC), with the exception of the silver plated copper Cullen. List prices ranged from $180 to $450 per meter pair.

We set up a double-blind audition process. I knew which cables we had received, what they cost, and what sonic qualities they were purported to have. She knew none of this. She put each model cable in a different shoebox, and she did the cable swapping. All I did pick which shoebox to use next when it was time to switch ("let's listen to Adidas now"), and I left the room while swapping cables. We used the same roughly hour-long playlist for each audition, and matched volume levels as closely as possible after each switch. This convoluted process may seem like overkill or even counterproductive to some, but the internal engineer was worried about confirmation bias, so we chose to eliminate that. The only non-double-blind part of the test was when our baseline cables were selected from a box (she knew which cables we already owned, of course), but that was only on her side, not mine. Listening notes were kept independently and only compared after hearing all of the cables. Since I knew what cables we had on hand, I took a stab at playing "name that cable" based on what I'd heard.

Anyway, the results of 10 days of listening were quite interesting. In the end, we each independently selected the same cables as the clear "best" and "worst". The ones in the middle were a little less clear, but the objective notes were actually fairly similar between us, just the subjective interpretation of "better or worse" was in question. The results of me trying to identify each cable based on the marketed or reported sonic properties were sobering - I got very few correct. One cable in particular I was convinced was our baseline "bad" cable that started this whole thing. I was wrong, though the baseline cable did end up being the consensus loser. Perhaps more interesting (more concerning?!) was that the most expensive cable was unanimously declared best, and the least expensive worst. Remember this was double blind.

So what did we end up liking most? Wireworld Eclipse 7. Is that because it completes a single-brand line-level loom in our system (i.e. synergy)? Get what you pay for? Real benefit to the different internal wire geometry? Don't know, but frankly it doesn't matter - it sounds the best in our system of the cables we were able to audition. Maybe there are more benefits to be gained at a higher price point, but at this point in time, I'm not willing to explore $1000+ interconnects, and am happy with the improvements gained so far.

As a side note, the Cable Company guys also put a "garden hose" style power cord in the box for me to audition, as they felt gains could be made in this area even if it wasn't the focus of my project (VooDoo Ultra Wave, if you're curious). I'm even more of a skeptic of the merits of power cords than interconnects, so it was treated as a side project or curiosity. We listened to it up front with the baseline cables, and weren't convinced we'd heard any real difference. After settling on the Wireworld interconnects, we tried the power cord again. This time there was a noticeable difference in sound. The best way I can describe the difference is that it was an energy and emotion based change. Our familiar (and by now tired) playlist suddenly sounded more lively and interesting, though I can't say I heard a difference in frequency extension or clarity. Soundstaging and air seemed better. Swapping back to our default power cord (which was a not inexpensive 10-ga silver plated copper item selected primarily because I needed a low-profile 90-degree AC plug and these folks were willing to make one that way), the newfound energy was missing again. My wife had the same impressions, and said words to the effect of "dammit" (in the sense that now there's something else to spend money on, and we frankly didn't want to hear a difference).

New interconnects have been ordered. Power cords will have to wait a while, but apparently are on the radar now...

[johndoe21ro]

AudioQuest Colorado SH..

[aKnyght]

Swapping A/B with the old generic RCAs previously used, there's an immediately apparent notable harshness (French horns become somewhat painful) and a clear loss of presence and slam in the mid-and sub- bass (pop/rock loses all energy and drive, and organ pedals go awol). Detail remains excellent, if not improved. The cables in questiotn are silver plated OFC, 18ga. I suspect the silver is the issue (though I would not have guessed that mere microns of plating would have that kind of effect!). Clearly the synergy isn't right for my setup, so I'm looking for something else

in my experience silver plated copper conductor wire is like nails on a chalkboard - grindingly harsh. this is in contrast to pure silver conductor wire.

on the other hand, tin plated copper conductor wire can be sublime.

[roncagg]

That was a great review, thanks. Many tout the importance of double-blind but few have the perseverance to actually go through with it! I have a question, I am about to get a DAC with balanced outputs which I will run into my preamp, but the amp is not balanced so the preamp output will be single ended to the amp, is it pointless to go balanced only halfway? Ron

[Mrppv]

In my system, Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme edged out Wireworld Gold eclipse 7s, and they are in your price range. (I haven't tried the new higher-end Matrix from Cerious)

I'm also using a Shunyata Python XLR pair. Both the Shunyata and Cerious were better than Mogami Gold to my ears.

[Speedskater]

Ron, go with a balanced interconnect system whenever to opportunity presents itself. No reason to go to an unbalanced input if a balanced input is convenient.

[Mikado463]

Jeff, nice review of your DBT cable test, also good to know that you satisfied your needs without breaking the bank ! Absurd cable pricing is just that...absurd !