Best of XLR cable?


I have just heard Kimber KS-1136 and that is my number one cabel for me so far.I never heard Nordost Valhala so Kimber is the one.I transformed my system to something I never expected to happen.My system is Meridian 808.2i,Sroll Lyric(best buy I have ever done)Tannoy Canterbury.
128x128mikedimitrov
You guys don't have any favorite cable?I thought I will learn some of more great cables.
JPS Superconductor 3 are great and the JPS Aluminata is even better if you have the budget.
I got me one of them there 808-i2's. Just got mine a couple of weeks ago and I love it. I already had the Tara--Zero. When I put the Zeros in play I could hardly believe how much difference a cable could make.
I use the dac/pre functions then straight to the amp. in balanced form of course.
I own Valhalla and Siltech Gen.5. Both are great and expensive cables. It depends on your budget. There are many lower cost products out there the compete with the best, however.
The "best" XLR cable is MarkerTek Pro using Canare Star Quad cable silver soldered to Neutrik connectors!

Very cheap but "pro" quality!
Many expensive XLR cable assemblies do not use "true" balanced cables, only three single end cables.

A "True" balanced cable has the + and - wires contained "within" a shield (ground).
Hi,
first I want to say that you must try cables in your system, because probably some excellent cables donĀ“t work or match with your System.
Here you have some cables that probably exceed your Kimber, or probably not.
Stereovox Bal600
Shunyata Antares (now discontinued)
Harmonix HS-101 GP SUS XLR
Kubala Sosna Emotion
Tara Labs The 0.8
Stealth Indra or Metacarbon (both too expensive)
Acoustic Zen Absolute
For the price, the Shunyata and the Harmonix represent excellent options.
Hope this help you
I have found some very inexpensive XLR cables that have been quite revealing, bettering my current cables at one tenth of the cost!

I will be auditioning some more expensive balanced cables in the near future to compare to the cheapest set of wires I have ever owned.

I couldn't build them this cheap!.
I own the Tara Labs Zero Gold I/C, Tara Omega Gold speaker cables, Tara Cobalt power cord with oyaide termination's, very good sound, quite pleased, for cost no object, check out the new Tara Zero Evolution I/C and Omega Evolution speaker cables, and the Omega Evolution power cord, then if you really want to kick in the, this is it, over!, check out the new Tara Labs flagship model, The Grandmaster Evolution I/C, speaker cables, and power cord cable.
I have a pair odf HiDiamond Diamond 3 XLR's burning in from my VTL 7.5iii preamp to Krell FPB 300cx amp, which only accepts XLR. These simply are superb, both physically and audibly. replaced JPS Aluminata, itself a terrific cable, but the HD is a notch above, Great presence and natural sound, nothing emphasized.

Who knew?

Neal
I bought a pair of xlr cables from surfcables.com for a garage system the other day for a ridiculously cheap price and am shocked just how good they are sounding after just two days of play time. It turns out he is also a Audiogon member. I'm posting this not as an endorsement, but just for other Audiogoner's to take a look. I don't think his prices can stay this low for long.
Nglazer, nice amp and cables you have, all that I posted above is on my modded Krell 700cx amp, congrats to you.
I have tried the two types of Blue Jeans XLR Cables (amongst others) between my Audio-gd Master 7 and Magnum Dynalab MD-209; one made with Belden 1800F, and one made with Canare L-4E6S. I prefer the later, but the cable has to run through a gauntlet of power and other cables, so the shielding may be the reason it sounds better to my ears.
I second the XLR balanced from SurfCables.com. I run a set out of my LKV Phono 2-SB. Very happy. The cables are well made from quality parts and come at a reasonable price. I never did an ABX test (please don't flame) - but i tried them in a couple different configs - including simply adding them in line to my all-ballanced system - and i could not discern a difference with the cables in line or out. I.e. they may not be for folks looking for cable "magic" - but they may be great for folks who just want a high quality cable that doesn't screw up your sound. Plus they are a great value.
Thanks, Audiolabyrinth,

I have read your post about the Krell amp upgrade, and in fact have discussed with Patrick at Krell. I live about 45 mins from Krell, and intend to do upgrade if it ever stops snowing and I can get my sons to carry the amp out to my buried car. Cheers.

Neal
Hi Nglazer, Neal, my name is keith, anyway, accidently, it was not my intentions, when krell went to do a total capacitor job on my amp, they told me that the OEM caps that are in my amp were no longer available, and that if they did this job, the caps are alot better that they chose to use anyway than what was in my amp when it was manufactured, so I said, by all means, do it!, along with many transistor up grades, tweaked power supply, and these none oem brand caps, but they are oem speced, my krell produced a different sound after it burn-in 500 hrs, hugly better in every way, the best part was the grainless treble detail, more detail whirling around the room, this amp never done that before!, this is why I call my amp a modded Krell 700cx, cheers.