Microphone XLR Cables

Use:
1. Neutrik gold plated contact connectors: NC3MXX-B & NC3FXX-M
2. Sommer Cable star-quad cable: 200-0301 Microphone Cable SC-Square 4-Core MKII; 4 x 0,20 mm²; PVC Ø 6,50 mm; black
It is the best I can suggest you in both - price & quality.
 
You're welcome - Canford have some amazing and unusual audio gear. They are still the preferred supplier to the broadcasters as they sell practically everything. They were very much unheard of publicly till a few years back and had some great gear that people sneaked through the BBC and ITVs order system. The favourites were the 19" rack mounting beverage dispenser - a beer fridge, and things like single point outside broadcast access vehicle, ideal for restricted spaces, golf courses and rough terrain - a unicycle. I ordered one of those and the fridge, and my bosses at the time never twigged. Never could ride the damn thing!
 
I second everything Rob said. Cable type or price makes no difference to the sound quality*. The only time you might notice a cable change is from a passive guitar to amp and that is due to the friggin' things being sensitive to cable capacitance (most things are not but see *) But! You can have a lower capacitance expensive cable or a cheap one and V/V.

Mic cables need of course to be flexible and tough, at least they do for field work but in a studio there is often a lot of cables that hardly ever move. AI out to monitors for one example or runs to and from a patch bay (and those crazy good ole' analogue boys with m'track recorders and mixers!) These "static" runs can be made up with smaller diameter foil screened cable. Much easier to terminate and foil gives 100% RF shielding, even the best braid does not. Much cheaper too!

*Star quad cable is, as said a 4 lay cable where opposite wires are connected together in the XLR. This means that no matter the direction of the interference there is always a wire to pickup a cancelling signal. The downside is a stiffer cable and one with higher capacitance per mtr. The latter makes little difference to audio signals unless the lines are very long, >100mtrs say when you might get some HF loss or could upset some less well designed line amplifiers. Note, star quad does not give RFI protection because the balanced input amp with have long since lost gain and hence common mode rejection. If you ARE plagued with RFI some good 10k+10k INPUT transformers with an inter-winding shield are the best solution.

Dave. GRRRRRRR! Rob, not seen or heard of feeble new Nukie clamps. Do you have a picky and have you contacted them?
 
They'r not feeble but I had two where the outer screw on part (the bushing???) snapped off, leaving the thread inside, and the remainder floating. Not sure if the material has changed or the slightly bulbous shape is the reason - or simply just bad luck/dodgy mould? Never occurred to me to contact Neutrik - just a dodgy cable, chucked into the 'for repair' bin.
 
Ooooer Rob!
Just dug out an "old" XLR cable to looky-see and it's broke!

Now that is not a NEW plug, got to be at least 5 years old. I am going to post the picture to Neutrik because in the past they have been very grateful for information about ripoffs and copies and so I am sure they will want to know about this.

Mind you, if I have a five year old busted connector and YOU have had the experience they probably already know? Still, can't hurt eh?

Er? Server is still acting up a bit...
Dave.
 

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Rob, you said "new" Neutrik XLRs but I got a very swift reply from Jesse at Nukes..

"
Thank you for your email.
I'm impressed to see an original C Series XLR considering that line of XLR was in production in the mid-late 70's and has long been discontinued.
I'm sure you can appreciate our connectors have come a long way since then with significant improvements in both our X-Series and XX-Series connectors"

Do have a "new new" one to show them? They obviously think the present stock is fine. Maybe, like me you have some "NOS" still pristine in its poly bags?

Dave.
 
No Dave - I decided not to buy them even though they're a bit cheaper. Not as bad as the cheap switchcraft shape ones you can buy on Ebay - Switchcraft shape but made out of the most easily bendable material I've ever seen - you can bend them with your hands. My original SM57 came with a cable with the green insert Switchraft XLR on the mic end - the ones with two grub screws to clamp the cable - I still have it somewhere.
 
No Dave - I decided not to buy them even though they're a bit cheaper. Not as bad as the cheap switchcraft shape ones you can buy on Ebay - Switchcraft shape but made out of the most easily bendable material I've ever seen - you can bend them with your hands. My original SM57 came with a cable with the green insert Switchraft XLR on the mic end - the ones with two grub screws to clamp the cable - I still have it somewhere.

Okay dokay.. I have a cable with the original CANNON XLRs on it and the wire is heavy enough to run a 2kW kettle I am sure!

Dave.
 
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