All XLRs are created equal?
 

Definately NOT

I had ordered some Neutrik XLR's and TRS jacks a while ago, and whilst waiting for the order I went to a local "Budget" electronics store to buy some XLRs to knock up a couple cables I needed straight away, at least until the Neutriks came.....

Anyways, I ended up grabbing a couple of Amphenol male XLRs, obscenely cheap, but Amphenol do have a good reputation for tough connectors, so I thought they would be fine.

I was doing some mastering of some tracks the last few days, and noticed that my balancing was alot louder in the left speaker than in the right. The waveforms looked pretty even, but I figured something must be wrong, so I took one side of the wave and reduced the gain so everything was balanced. After playing back some other material, I noticed the same in-balance happening, so decided to investigate, and after running some pink noise into each speaker, I noticed one was putting out about -6dB SPL less than the other.

"SHIT!!! My monitors are fucked" I thought......wait, maybe one of my cables is bad. So I do some tests, and deduce that indeed one cable is screwy. After replacing the dud, and playing some music through the speakers, I notice the problem is still there.

So back I go, pink noise through the speakers, SPL meter in my hand, and one of the monitors is playing back at -4dB less than the other!!!!

"SHIT!!! My monitors must be fucked" I thought......but after doing more tests, I again traced the fault to the cable with Amphenol XLR on one end. After then inspecting the Amphenol XLR's pins, I notice they are made of some really shitty, not-quite-metal Metal?????? It almost felt plastic!!!!

I immediately chopped off the XLRs and binned them, replaced the dud with another cable, and BINGO.....my mixes are perfectly balanced :)

Anyways....a long story I know, but something we should all keep in mind.

Dont buy shithouse connectors and cable!!!! (I learnt my lesson)

jase i have a friend who works for the sole distributor in aus for JM Labs/Focal systems and Quest cabling and connectors.
if you are interested in top quality cabling pm me and ill give you his details.... im sure he could work a deal out for you
the best quest cabling is around $400AUD/metre 8O (thats without connectors).....not that you would be buying that stuff - it just goes to show that you do get what you pay for.

Indeed!

But too late.....I have in a box, 90 Neutrik TRS plugs, 40 Neutrik XLRs, 20m of balanced multicore, and 40m of Klotz balanced mic cable

Lets do some soldering :)

hehe sounds like you will be there for a while mate :wink:

those bastards at JM stand around all day listening to a $150,000 set of utopia be speakers (20hz-40khz!!!!) - i want that job! :twisted:

I have always wondered who really needs a cable that's $400/m. Actually I'd like to know who hears the difference between $10/m cable and that $400/m cable (hearing a difference and thinking of hearing a difference are two different things).

This is like the one company that sold the $500 powercords and a piece of wood that improved the sound.

not me mate.

the only person i have heard that owns the utopias is richard branson - virgin owner. his whole house is full of focal apparently :evil:
im not sure how much of a music buff richard is, but im sure celine dion sounds amazingly good on them :wink:

That sure was a good laugh, but i agree with you on this matter - the only time i've had complained about cables was when i tried to do some modifications to my cables i use for my electric-guitar.

The sound got really electric - like a static "frrrrzzzzhhhhh"-sound - But i needed that type of sound for a tune i was making in school + it wasn't a big loss at all, since the cable did cost me 35:- SEK

[quote="3o3"]sounds like you had some grounding problems there mate.
a resolder probably wouldve fixed the buzz....

I think stereos with $400/m cords is like a Virus with platinium knobs. Some people naturally say that a Virus with platinium knobs sounds better.

Wow. That has to be a good system then. But doesn't that mean that it's distorting the audio?

Yes, but it was the sound i was after -> i wanted to sample it and add some more effects to it. It was a really nice sound-effect, but i lost the tune when i did quit the school.

But i can't understand how people spend so much money on cables; I wouldn't pay more than $10/m acctually.