Experiences With Costly Balanced XLR Interconnects Above $3,000

I would say the only advance I’ve seen to XLRs in 40 years of professional recording is star quad it uses a ground and 2x + and - signals that phase out physically along the cable. Nearly all of the studios and all the production sound I’ve done with XLRs have been Canare star quad.

If you use 10k$ XLR interconnects in your system you will never get more info than the original XLRs which cost about 2$ a foot, and we generally never used more than 100 feet of it. If an XLR changes the signal of the channels on the mixer there is a problem with that cable there has never been a time when an XLR changed the imaging of a recording in the studio we would change the cable (there are probably 3 of them between the mic in the studio and the mixing console in the control room). Most mics are phantom powered usually 48v and if one conductor of the XLR has a problem there is a 48v pop and it blows your head off. I’ve seen frequency problems on 3 conductor XLRs with dynamic mics but never low level (changing imaging). Also after the audio signal gets into a component it goes through lots of changes in both analogue and digital circuits so the external XLR is the least of your problems. It’s the cheep unbalanced internal wiring of the component or audio transformer that makes the difference.

Hey its your money but it reaches a point when physics doesn’t care about your psychobabble about a wider and deeper image created by XLR cables and the money you waste could be better used by buying needy kids meals at the rescue mission. Look up 2nd law of thermodynamics then talk about how XLRs create information that doesn’t exist on the original recording.

ryder

Can you talk about the presentation/sound of the WW and Acrolink XLR?

Jafant, WW Silver Eclipse 8 XLR sounds leaner with better separation and tighter bass, Acrolink sounds fuller and warmer in the midrange with more bass. The last comparison was made when the WW was in the process of breaking with the old mains power cable. The results may be different now as the new mains power cable (Furutech DPS4.1 with FI-50 NCF (R)) has replaced the TCS31/FI-28(R). The difference is not subtle. 

Thanks for the responses guys. I’m trying to find justification to spending the money for the ultimate XLR, perhaps my last cable upgrade before I call it a day. @audioman58 made a valid point and I surely agree. It is diminishing returns with most of these costly high-end cables as one will need to spend a huge sum of money for a supposedly small difference. I have to admit I may have overspent on the cabling in my system but I do appreciate quality cables, usually the costlier ones. It’s the small differences that make a (big) difference. It’s the same with components.

@ryder 

You may want to try Inakustik NF-2404 Pure Silver XLR 1m for $3700. Its price is not outrageous like Transparent Opus or Nordost Odin. The Inakustik is better than a lot of higher price cables. My system uses Inakustik, made in Germany.

Thanks for the recommendation @cfa88. I will look into it later. I am aware about the advantages of some of these pure silver or monocrystal silver interconnects from the likes of Siltech or other brands which have been recommended on the forums before and have no doubt they are excellent. It’s only the high price that is preventing me from trying them.

I think the monocrystal silver cables from some manufacturers are costlier than pure silver.