2. cables
  3. 171067-165146

Coiling XLRs.... yes or no?

I purchased some xlr’s that i was fond of a few months back. Shunyata sigmas

I was able to get them for a great price but unfortunetly they are 3m. I figured it was fine as it gives me flexibility in the future (such as going monoblocks), but for now my lumin x1 sits on a rack directly above my diablo 300 amp. Honestly with how close they are i could get away with 0.5m

So i have them susupended in the air but coiled. I’m reading that this is a big no-no but most of the stuff i have read is related to speaker cables.

what should i do in this situation? Is it so bad that I should consider selling my interconnects for shorter ones?

questforhifi
ghdprentice
7,027 posts
 

Thanks. Good to hear the results of your experiment.

maxwellseq
31 posts
 

Coiling will increase inductance, but only slightly and not enough to make an audible difference. The studios and stages where your music is recorded are full of hundreds of XLR cables coiled up. Of couse, most studio kit is balanced and so common signals are cancelled.

One possible choice is to "fold" the cable in half (i.e. stretch out the cable from both sockets) and then coil.

tim_p's avatar
tim_p
361 posts
 

I have a pr of Cardas Golden Presence XLR from my phono preamp to amp and it is 1.5m as opposed to the 1m I need and the same as yourself, I got it at a great price!  So I have it coiled/looped, but not all crimped up tight. It is loose and just one bigger loop behind my rack and zip tied. There is no noticeable difference from looped or to just hanging loosely. 

ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,486 posts
 

Generally its probably not a good idea... but it also might not make a difference.

ozzy

ghdprentice
7,027 posts
 

@ozzy   +1

 

Well said.

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