XLR-Balanced Hybrid Hi-End Cable

The whole point of the balanced line system is to eliminate cable artifact, and to that end sliver and gold wire should not make a difference! However, the balanced line system is a standard and if the standard is not supported by the equipment in use, cable artifacts will appear.

Its not that hard to support the standard. Here it is, in a nutshell:

1) pin 1 ground, pins 2 and 3 are signal (usually pin 2 is non-inverting and pin 3 is inverting)
2) ground is ignored at the input and output
3) the cable will be a twisted pair within a shield
4) the impedance of the drive circuit will be low.

A common problem is that many high end products do not ignore ground! If signal currents are present in the shield of the cable then the construction of the cable will become audible.

I am able to use very long and relatively inexpensive cables on account of the fact that the equipment in my system supports the balanced standard (also known as AES file 48). Installation of high end cables really does not change the sound- and that is how it should be (and fundamentally different in this regard as opposed to single-ended cables).

Ralph, are using Mogami Gold Studio, available at Guitar Center for $39.95/pair of 3' balanced cables with Neutrik XLR's?

I feel my balanced Clear Day and WyWires cables are superior to my Canare with Neutrix XLRs. I use Canare on stage because it's flexible, durable and when I have 100ft of it or so on my kit alone it's affordable as a mic cable. I've used my Canare's on my home system and they sound just fine but they're not as open as my main cables, but soft and too polite; I actually prefer my Clear Day single ended cables over the balanced Canare's at home. Blows my mind when people say all balanced cables sound the same. I've made plenty of my own balanced cables with no shield such as the three braid Kimber's with various conductors and there is a difference in my opinion on how they sound. Maybe the gear I use is poorly designed so cables do make a difference...  I do agree the gap between balanced cables seems less than single ended cables and the geometry of a cable has a lot more to do with its signature than the material of the conductor alone. 

How’s the bass on the balanced Canare’s, adg? For subwoofer use, for instance.

The Canare is a good cable. It's a little soft to my ears so if one has a bright system it would be ideal. I think the bass is fine and use it on my kick drum and all the mic's on my kit. Really the big thing that jumps out to me when I threw them on my system is it's a polite cable, but musical. I think it would be fine on a sub and the stuff is vey affordable, comes in a wide range of colors and is extremely flexible. It's definitely not a bright fatigueing cable. The Canare digital cable is decent too.