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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
deralte
33 posts
 

xlr = balanced, the main advantage is they do not pick up whatever interference. So coiled up or near to mains lead would not make any difference at all. 

cakyol's avatar
cakyol
940 posts
 

XLR wires carry differential signals. It will not matter that much if you coil the wire. Especially only 3m long. You will not even hear the difference one way or another.

jheppe815
65 posts
 

Note on a lot of pro audio stages, all the XLR cables are coiled up to keep the excess lengths tidy.  As a sound tech, I've been coiling balanced cables for nearly 40 years and can't hear any difference in coiled vs. uncoiled.  Hence the reason for using XLR; they are quiet no matter how you route them.

 

questforhifi OP
105 posts
 

both ways sound great

I have routed it well. If there is a difference, i would need to record both ways and listen to the recordings back to back to be able to tell for sure. I like to think there is a difference at least; and its nice piece of mind.

Found a way to route it through my cabinet without interacting with any other cables and the way i did it you cant see the cables

 

ghdprentice
7,027 posts
 

Thanks. Good to hear the results of your experiment.

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