Need recommendation for hi-rez xlr plugs for re-termination project
I recently bought a pair of balanced interconnects, here, and am mostly quite pleased with the sound but the seller was mistaken about their length, and I have 3M instead of 2M and that too would have been longer than needed. I've contacted the builder of these fine cables and he's willing to re-terminate them.
Sonically, these cables have the blackest background I've ever heard and lots of wonderful detail. They are well-controlled with an excellent bottom end and the images are dense and corporeal. BUT, I find the top end a bit less extended and open than I'm used to. The xlr plugs are gold plated and I'm not fond of gold in my system for the most part. So, I'm looking for recommendations for very detailed and precise xlr's but want to avoid brightness.
I have a pair of male Xhadows from another project and could pick up the matching females for about $150. The re-term is already going to be pricey as the cables are fairly complex so price is an issue. I was going to repurpose the Furutech FP 601/602 rhodiums I have on another pair of cables but the builder glues them so can't do that. I rather like the rhodium plugs I've used, mostly on power cords, so am interested in that option as well. I have noticed that rhodium over silver sounds quite a bit better (to my ears) than rhodium over copper. The Cardas CG xlr's are rhodium over silver but I can't find any reviews of these plugs and seems they never get a mention. Also, looking at AECO plugs. Partsconnextion (Canada) said they are quite good but really didn't address my question about comparing them to other hi end xlr's so hard to know about these. They are, however, quite affordable. The quad costing less than the 2 female Xhadows, if I were to go that way. Anyway, opinions regarding the Xhadows vs the AECOs vs Furutechs vs Neotechs vs Oyaide xlr would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I have the Acoustic Revive xlr plugs on my 6Sons Audio Golden Eagle interconnects. These are very good interconnects and they do have the extended and detailed top end i'm looking for. Are these rhodium plated plugs still available for sale? I haven't seen them listed anywhere. And the Bocchino's are out of my league. Do you feel the Acoustic Revives are better than the Furutech FP 601/602? Thanks drpie
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The Furutech XLR range does NOT use copper pins, EXCEPT for their very top-of-the-line CF-601/602 NCF XLR connectors. The rest of them use α (Alpha) Beryllium copper and phosphor bronze conductors, according to their website. Those copper alloys range from about 20-50% of the Annealed Copper Standard (IACS). |
I was going to try some ETI ones in silver for a TT, but they would not sell a pair of females… Only Make/Female pairs. The Neutrik are my go to… but I am not much of a cable fellow, so it is usually Neutrik and Mogami. But the TT to phono are using low capacitance silver wire… hence the desire for silver XLRs.
As @erik_squires mentioned…:
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Ah man, it's hard to get the kind of answer(s) one is looking for here nowadays. I do appreciate that members do take the time to offer up answers and observations, but I really do question the legitimacy of some of those responses. I frequently see responses like the one from gdnrbob saying "IF your equipment uses the AES standard, then XLR cables should have minimal effect on sound quality." I currently have 4 pairs of balanced interconnects, Moon Audio Silver Dragon, 6Sons Audio Golden Eagle, Grover Huffman Pharaoh, and some older cheapo professional cables. They most certainly DO NOT sound similar, and they have a very significant effect on sound quality. Now, if you've experimented and tried several different cables and found your statement to be true, would you please reveal what those cables were. Also, do you find unbalanced/rca interconnects to sound generally different or do they sound relatively homogeneous as well?
I also find a concern with electrical conductivity with regards to sound quality to be largely misplaced. The Oyaide 004 AC plug's outermost plating is platinum and that is rather less conductive that silver, gold, copper, rhodium and most anything else you'll see in audio but, the 004 kills every silver, gold, and copper plug I've tried by being more resolving and neutral and just about everything else I value in my audio system. YMMV of course. What matters is sound and I'm looking strictly to those who have direct experience with the xlr plugs mentioned. If any of you have experience with the Neutrik silver or the DH Labs vs those mentioned plugs, I'd really like to hear about that. Thanks again for taking the time to respond
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@mitch2 My reference to OCC Pins was in relation to the Furutech Connector linked a prior post. In that same post, I believe the ETI Connector is a Beryllium Copper |
