Thanks all. The XLRs I just received appear to be perfect, new Cardas Golden Reference, that's not to say they're not a good counterfeit, but they certainly sound better than the Nordost Red Dawn I'm replacing them with....so. The speaker cable is 3 mos old from a US based seller so I have no concerns there. Unfortunately, I'm being forced to pay retail for my 8M run from preamp to amp so.... That said, I have an 8M run of Red Dawn available :-).