Experiences With Costly Balanced XLR Interconnects Above $3,000

Try the Iconoclast UPOCC 4x4 Gen 2 

about 2300.00

No restocking. They even pay return shipping. Absolutely not one cent out of your pocket if you return. Get the 5 ft. Cable is stiff and you may need the extra length. 
 

Bob from Iconoclast a true pro. 

I found these two articles very interesting about balanced audio cables and balanced audio equipment. See balanced Line Standard below:

Mike

https://www.ranecommercial.com/kb_article.php?article=2107

http://www.atma-sphere.com/en/resource-why-balanced.html

I have tried so many cables through the years. I must admit I do like the Infigo Signature XLR and USB cables. Even though I had many problems with the distributor.

They have a very dynamic sound quality that bettered anything I have tried or owned.

ozzy

I had top four Audioquest 2M Mythical Creatures series in my system for 2 weeks on industry loan. For warm yet incisive at superb value for $ difficult to beat Pegasus IMO. IF you want the last bit of detail and air but at significant cost go up the line into Silver. 

Best to you on your quest for better sound

OP check Tellurium silver diamond interconnect XLR or Nordost Valhalla 2 ic.

I have only one set of XLRs that go from my Horizon DAC/preamp to my Gryphon EVO amp so its been less costly to go up the product lines. I have been running a Shunyata Sigma V2 Interconnect and have on loan from my dealer an Audioquest Dragon. These are both great cables but there are clear differences between the cables. I find when cable shopping there are clearly diminishing returns, BUT once I hear them in my system it's impossible for me to un-hear that 2% difference. I think it's risky logic to have one of us say one high end cable is better than another as it's system(including your room) dependant. I vote yes, thry the upgrade. If you are buying retail and your dealer won't let you try the cable before you buy it, find another dealer. I think buying used and selling if its not a fit is great as well. Good luck!

@pwerahera 

The answer your question is easy.  Yes, having the second “Hot” wire cancels noise, but quality of the conductors and the plugs still make a difference as well.

All the best.

Test out The Cable Company's lending library and try a few different cables. Let us know what you tried and what worked. 

Thanks for the recommendation @cfa88. I will look into it later. I am aware about the advantages of some of these pure silver or monocrystal silver interconnects from the likes of Siltech or other brands which have been recommended on the forums before and have no doubt they are excellent. It’s only the high price that is preventing me from trying them.

I think the monocrystal silver cables from some manufacturers are costlier than pure silver.

@ryder 

You may want to try Inakustik NF-2404 Pure Silver XLR 1m for $3700. Its price is not outrageous like Transparent Opus or Nordost Odin. The Inakustik is better than a lot of higher price cables. My system uses Inakustik, made in Germany.

Thanks for the responses guys. I’m trying to find justification to spending the money for the ultimate XLR, perhaps my last cable upgrade before I call it a day. @audioman58 made a valid point and I surely agree. It is diminishing returns with most of these costly high-end cables as one will need to spend a huge sum of money for a supposedly small difference. I have to admit I may have overspent on the cabling in my system but I do appreciate quality cables, usually the costlier ones. It’s the small differences that make a (big) difference. It’s the same with components.

ryder

Can you talk about the presentation/sound of the WW and Acrolink XLR?

Jafant, WW Silver Eclipse 8 XLR sounds leaner with better separation and tighter bass, Acrolink sounds fuller and warmer in the midrange with more bass. The last comparison was made when the WW was in the process of breaking with the old mains power cable. The results may be different now as the new mains power cable (Furutech DPS4.1 with FI-50 NCF (R)) has replaced the TCS31/FI-28(R). The difference is not subtle. 

I would say the only advance I’ve seen to XLRs in 40 years of professional recording is star quad it uses a ground and 2x + and - signals that phase out physically along the cable. Nearly all of the studios and all the production sound I’ve done with XLRs have been Canare star quad.

If you use 10k$ XLR interconnects in your system you will never get more info than the original XLRs which cost about 2$ a foot, and we generally never used more than 100 feet of it. If an XLR changes the signal of the channels on the mixer there is a problem with that cable there has never been a time when an XLR changed the imaging of a recording in the studio we would change the cable (there are probably 3 of them between the mic in the studio and the mixing console in the control room). Most mics are phantom powered usually 48v and if one conductor of the XLR has a problem there is a 48v pop and it blows your head off. I’ve seen frequency problems on 3 conductor XLRs with dynamic mics but never low level (changing imaging). Also after the audio signal gets into a component it goes through lots of changes in both analogue and digital circuits so the external XLR is the least of your problems. It’s the cheep unbalanced internal wiring of the component or audio transformer that makes the difference.

Hey its your money but it reaches a point when physics doesn’t care about your psychobabble about a wider and deeper image created by XLR cables and the money you waste could be better used by buying needy kids meals at the rescue mission. Look up 2nd law of thermodynamics then talk about how XLRs create information that doesn’t exist on the original recording.

I just don’t get it. The reason behind using XLR connectors is to eliminate noise, hum and whatever other signals coming from alien planets from the audio signal.

"This process is called Common Mode Rejection Ratio or CMRR and it is used to eliminate noise and hum which can be common to a signal. CMRR is most often taken advantage of in XLR balanced cables but it can also be used in single ended RCA cables as well. How does this work? Imagine a two-wire cable going from a turntable to a preamplifier. On one end you have the phono cartridge which is a coil of wire - with a beginning and end wire - each end of the coil is connected to one of the two wires of the cable. The other end on the preamp has a differential stage amplifier and on each of the two inputs we place the other end of the wire. With me? Now we start to play a record. The coil generates a moving voltage which is different at each end of the coil - it’s AC so it’s going + to - and then - to + so the voltage is moving back and forth over the coil - the signal always the opposite on each end of the coil wires. Our differential stage is loving this - it amplifies the differences between each end of the coil as the signal moves back and forth and we hear music. Now imagine a noise source - hum from a nearby transformer, noise from a cell phone or anything radiated in the air. That radiated noise is going to pass right through our two wires and be present on each of the two wires in equal amounts. So each of our two wires has lots of noise on it but the noise on each of the two wires is identical. The noise is common to the two wires. What does our difference amplifier do with this? Nothing! It rejects the noise completely. So you have high noise and signal coming into the differential stage and only signal coming out with the noise gone! It’s a bloody miracle. And there, my good readers, you now understand Common Mode Rejection, how it is rejected while at the same time amplifying only the music. XLR cables do this best because they have the two wires inside them surrounded by a third wire that is called a shield. An RCA cable has only one wire and the shield and they are not equal in construction so the noise isn’t as common as it could be and thus rejected not quite as much."

Can somebody here explain to me why $3,000 XLR connectors supposedly have a better CMRR than say $100 XLR connectors? Thanks in advance.

I tired some others but the Cardas Clear Beyond XLRs on my system are great. Here's a pair very nicely priced.

Hijiri Million Kiwami XLR cables are also great so I have been told but I have not heard them. You wanted over 3K!

Have owned a audio store for a decade 

I can say these ultra expensive $2500+ interconnects ,power cords, speaker cables ,digital  yes maybe a few % points better then a $1500 interconnects .

is paying double for say 3% worth it , in truth if your $$ pockets are very deep then yes ,if not save it for maybe a better front end .

ryder

Can you talk about the presentation/sound of the WW and Acrolink XLR?

Happy Listening!

I use Transparent for all of my interconnects, speaker cables and all but my amp power cord. I find them exactly that, transparent, dynamic, low noise. I have tried: Cardas (all upper tier), DHLabs, WireWorld, Harmonix, Straight Wire, Nordost (Odin 2 bested Transparent… but at $17K they should have)… and I am sure a couple more.

Thanks Soix. Guess what, I owned the Acoustic Zen Silver Reference II XLR about 15 years ago and sold them for $300. I see the used price has tripled. 😅 I am not in a hurry and will keep these in mind. Thanks.

Given what you’re looking for I’d try these, and if they don’t work out just sell them for little/no loss.  They excel at 3D soundstage, detail, air, but don’t throw it at you and present music in a very natural and organic way.  Give’em a shot and I think they could be your end-game interconnects. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155844408602

@soix i recently upgraded a mains power cable and was pleased with the improved sound quality. It is sounding quite perfect at the moment but I’m not sure if the system could improve further with a higher quality interconnect. If it’s possible I would like to have a more dynamic presentation with better clarity and separation across the frequency spectrum. Perhaps a slightly airier and lit treble as well. The cables I’m looking at are quite rare in the used market so I’ll have to buy new if none are available. They will be my final cable upgrade when the time comes.

@akg_ca thanks for the post. Good to know the Cardas Clear XLR is superior to the Nordost Frey.

blind A/B with generic ones and make decision whether it's worth/not.

My CARDAS CLEAR XLRs were a a superior performance choice in my system  after upgrading from NORDOST FREYs. 
Having them in a full same brand array offered further incremental performance uptick. 

The wonderful thing about cables is that they’re incredibly easy to buy and sell used. My advice is to buy any interconnect you wanna try and if it doesn’t work for you just turn around and sell it at little/no loss. That said, it’d be most helpful if you’d share what specific improvements you’re looking for over what you have now as it would make for more meaningful and more targeted recommendations.