Long XLR's: PAD Venustas versus Mogami

What components are you connecting? If the connection is between your BAT Rex preamp and the power amp, and the existing cable is Mogami 2534 in a balanced quad configuration, the cable's capacitance is high enough to be causing a small but probably perceptible rolloff of the extreme upper treble, and a slight dulling of transient response, due to its interaction with the high output impedance the preamp has at high frequencies. See Stereophile's measurements.

I can't predict whether the PAD cable would be better, worse, or similar in that respect because its capacitance doesn't appear to be specified.

Unless the output impedance of the component driving the cable is low (and the Rex's is not low), I would not invest in a 40 foot cable without knowing what its capacitance per unit length is. And assuming you want the cable to behave in as neutral a manner as possible, and if it is the Rex that is driving the cable, you should try to select a cable having significantly lower capacitance than the Mogami 2534.

Finally, I would be cautious extrapolating from the experience of others if the component they are using to drive the long cable has significantly different output impedance characteristics.

Regards,
-- Al

I'll add to my previous post that a very experienced audiophile I know uses 30 feet of Oyaide PA-02 in a balanced configuration, with excellent results. It has much lower capacitance than the Mogami 2534. He has compared those two cables, and as might be expected the Mogami's presentation differed, in the direction of being more relaxed.

The Oyaide is about $28/meter in bulk (unterminated) form.

http://www.oyaide.com/e_audio/audio_products_files/pa-02.htm

http://thecableco.com/product.php?id=6451

Regards,
-- Al

Al, thank you for the advice. I thought the thing Mogami had going for it was low capacitance. As you mentioned, it doesn't seem easy to find the capacitance of the PAD.

At the moment I'm not using the REX, I'm using my Joule LA-150 SE preamp. It has an impedence switch inside to handle longer runs but I haven't switched it (at least not yet) because I am going out from that into a Rives PARC (which is balanced) and from the PARC I'm using a 40' run to the amps. What I don't know (and maybe you can shed some light on it) is what matters more in this situation - the output impedence of the PARC or the Joule.

Hi Floyd,

Driving the long cable from the PARC will make the output impedance of the preamp irrelevant. The only situation in which the output impedance of the component preceding the component driving the cable would matter (as far as that cable is concerned) would be if the component driving the cable were a passive preamp, or some other completely passive and unbuffered device.

I would characterize the Mogami's capacitance as being moderate, or perhaps a little on the low side of moderate. It is low enough to be negligible at more typical lengths, when driven by most components (including the Rex). One of its major strong points is its noise rejection performance.

Given the low output impedance of the PARC, I don't think that the sonic differences between the Mogami and other cables you may consider can be predicted based on technical factors.

Regards,
-- Al