2. cables
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Do Costly XLR Cables Make A Difference?

Serious question here. I currently own a rather good XLR cable that goes between the amp and DAC. I’m considering a better XLR cable to improve things, basically all the good aspects of sound reproduction such as deeper and more defined bass, better separation and detail across the frequency spectrum and an airier and more 3-dimensional sound in the midrange and treble. Will a different XLR cable supposedly one that’s costlier bring me to that direction?

My current XLR cable costs about $2k actual price paid.

I’m looking at an alternative pair up to about $2k perhaps $3k tops if it is proven that the cable is able to bring a noticeable or worthwhile if not significant difference. I am actually looking at the Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 and Gold Eclipse 8 XLR.

Any experience would be appreciated. 

 

ryder

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

erik_squires
15,902 posts
 

Cables make a difference but rarely are they worth the price, and they are usually subtractive in some way.  That is, they limit treble or mid range making these expensive tone controls. We get excited to hear that a $10,000 set of cables made a significant difference in our system, and since it's 10x more expensive this difference MUST be better, but it's smoke and mirrors.

I use homemade balanced cables, shielded with pure silver wires and silver contacts and gave up on my expensive Wireworld cables entirely.

Your investments in room acoustics will pay much better dividends.

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