XLR cables for a reasonable price?

I'm a Benchmark fanboi for sure but it's taken me a lot of years to arrive here, so take that for what it's worth.  My DAC3 HGC and AHB2 combo is the best combo I've ever had and the thing that stands out is the astounding S/N ratio, achieved through proper gain structure, shielding, clever power supply's, etc, and cabling is part of that program as well.  In my pro career balanced was the norm, and we'd usually use a DI box to include unbalanced sources, but inputs to the consoles were always balanced, so I was nodding my head at the tech info on the Benchmark site concerning Star-Quad topology.  You can't go wrong with Canare or Mogami 4-conductor cable, with a slight edge, IMO, going to Canare for a touch better EMI/RFi rejection.

Get you some quality cables and don't look back.
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/116637511-the-importance-of-star-quad-microphone-cable

 

Look for either older NOS or used cables. I’m using a three meter set from RSC. They were either the top or second from the top when they were made.  I paid $500 delivered.

Just received my Atma-Sphere Class D amps.  They’re fantastic right out of the box but I won’t dwell on that since there are enough Class D battles (threads) going on.  Already tried my $2,000 Cardas Clear XLR cables and my $100 Mogami XLR cables between the Class D amps and MP3 preamp.  SQ is the same with either cable.  As I said above, put your money to better use somewhere else in your system.

That's quite remarkable. marco1, do you think it means that the Mogami is so good or that the Cardas is incredibly overpriced?

Anyway, by all means please tell us about those amps, how they sound in your system. I remember that you currently don't have analog source, this is important too.

Amps just came in today so much too soon to evaluate them other than like I already said they sound real good right out of the box.  I actually bought them as summer amps to replace my Atma-Sphere OTL amp when it gets too hot at my beach house. So I have plenty of time to break them in before next summer 😎. Your right, as I already mentioned in another thread, I sold all my analog gear and now using strictly digital as my source.  But it’s pretty good stuff ( Aurender N200 and Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC) so quite frankly I’m not missing playing records one bit.  Regarding the cables I think the answer to your question is neither.  With the fully balanced preamp and amplifier combination, the XLR interconnects just do not make a difference.  It’s not a question of one sounding better or worse than the other or the price of the cables, they just sound the same, at least to me, and from what I understand many other people as well.  I’m basically a Cardas guy.  Just love their cables after trying many other brands.  They continue to give me the flavor I like and while not cheap, imo are worth it.  I use their Clear or Clear Beyond for power cords, speaker cables, usb and interconnects. Everywhere but the connection between A-S preamp and amp.  I even use Clear RCA’s when I put in my single ended Conrad Johnson amp where there is a definite improvement over the Mogami RCA interconnects.  So the only thing I can conclude, and as Ralph Karsten continues to preach, when using balanced interconnects between a fully balanced preamp and amp the interconnects do not make a difference.  Go figure.