mic cables

[o-ron]

Looking into buying some new 50' xlr low-z cables. Musician's Friend has some decent Shure cables on sale for $20 for the 50'. Are these cables good enough? I'm doing home recording stuff so nothing super professional (example microphone to be used: oktava mc012). I'm pretty sure the Monster Cables are not worth their price (just like they aren't in other cable formats). Suggestions?

Thanks

 

[TexRoadkill]

They should work fine. Make sure they have a warranty. Horizon cables are pretty decent and they have a lifetime warranty same as Monster.

 

[o-ron]

ok, i found some horizon alz pro cables on ebay for $18/50'

Here's another question:
since I don't have a snake or channel box, i normally run my (well, until now borrowed) cables all the way from the mixer to the instruments which is sometimes quite a ways. To most efficiently do this and spend the least amount of money, I decided I would buy 3 or 4 50' cables. However, should I worry about excessive length? In other words, when I don't need 50' and I'm up close to the instrument(s), would that excessive cable just cause noise? Would I be better off with a bunch of 20' cables and then just connect them when I need something longer? (does dais-chaining cables like that introduce excess noise?)

Wow, that was a whole lot of questions i guess.

Thanks!

 

[H2oskiphil]

yes yes no yes.....

There's a bunch of answers...

 

[o-ron]

so for long runs it's better to have a 50' cable than 2 or 3 20' cables chained together?

 

[gorbyrun]

50' cables are evil. Don't buy them. Seriously. To wrap a cable properly you need to twist it as you wrap (so it will last), this is very hard to do with a 50' cable. 50' cables always tangle. Connecting end to end is fine and makes set up and tear down faster and easier. (100' is not a problem)
Musician's friend has 20' mic cables for $4.99 each. I bought 4 to try them out (for that price I had to see), I normally use monster cables... but, when I do live sound... some bands and locations are dangerious to my cables, I bought these for danger duty. They seem to work just fine.
I love my monster cables. I would buy one for any mic that is using phantom power.
I have however never tested to see whether I can hear a difference between these cables.... if you can wait a couple days I'll let you know.

Vegetable rights and peace.

Chaz

 

[gorbyrun]

$30 Monster VS $5.00 XLR

They are pretty damn close. I carefully compared a $30 monster cable with a five dollar XLR from musician's friend. It was very close. I think the 5 dollar cable may have a slight roll-off of the highest frequencies... but barely perceptible. I used two CAD E-100, they are not matched but I switched mics and got the same results.
The E-100's can have a sharp high end, I think they sounded a little better with the cheap cable.
In Monster's defence, I have never had one fail. (they range from 3 to seven years old, I have 20)
If your're on a budget, buy one Monster, the rest cheaper. Even if the Monsters last longer, you can get 6 for the same money...

Chaz