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 jaytor

jaytor's avatar
jaytor
747 posts
 

I like to place my front end components on the side wall so they are not between the speakers and run long balanced cables to monoblocks which sit very close to the speakers. This allows me to use very short speaker cables, but means my Preamp to amp interconnects are 7M. My other interconnects are quite short (1M or less). I could not discern much difference between relatively inexpensive cables (e.g. Mogami) and more expensive cables for these short connections, but the differences were much more apparent with the 7M connections. 

I ended up settling on Iconoclast 4x4 UP-OCC interconnects. These are not outrageously expensive in longer lengths (now about $4k for 7M, was a bit less when I bought them) and provided a nice improvement in detail and a modest improvement in image solidity compared to other cables I tried. I didn't try any of the Uber-expensive cables though. 

And yes, my equipment (DIY) does adhere to the AES standard. 

 

 

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