XLR-Balanced Hybrid Hi-End Cable

I use Analysis Plus Solo Crystal copper and Silver Ovals that are silver over copper oval braid. The copper alone are punchy in the bass and drums (I like!) The silvers a tad more open and slightly laid back. Using Solo Crystal inter between source and pre, Silver pre to amp and Big Silver Oval speaker cables are giving me a good balance. 

Purist Audio Design, over 30 years of making awesome cables

Try the new Cerious Technologies Graphene cables.

Ah ha, adg---a drummer. So you carry your own mics and mixer with you to gigs? That's a great way to get the balance you want. Most sound guys put the snare drum way too loud in the mix for my tastes. But then I usually play a brass-shell (Ludwig Black Beauty) live, a pretty loud drum. It doesn't need any boost, it's got lots of presence.

adg....I second ClearDay  (They're silver, but don't let that scare you)  Clear Day will send you a pair for evaluation no charge. Canare is not in the same league.

The Canare is a good cable. It's a little soft to my ears so if one has a bright system it would be ideal. I think the bass is fine and use it on my kick drum and all the mic's on my kit. Really the big thing that jumps out to me when I threw them on my system is it's a polite cable, but musical. I think it would be fine on a sub and the stuff is vey affordable, comes in a wide range of colors and is extremely flexible. It's definitely not a bright fatigueing cable. The Canare digital cable is decent too.

How’s the bass on the balanced Canare’s, adg? For subwoofer use, for instance.

I feel my balanced Clear Day and WyWires cables are superior to my Canare with Neutrix XLRs. I use Canare on stage because it's flexible, durable and when I have 100ft of it or so on my kit alone it's affordable as a mic cable. I've used my Canare's on my home system and they sound just fine but they're not as open as my main cables, but soft and too polite; I actually prefer my Clear Day single ended cables over the balanced Canare's at home. Blows my mind when people say all balanced cables sound the same. I've made plenty of my own balanced cables with no shield such as the three braid Kimber's with various conductors and there is a difference in my opinion on how they sound. Maybe the gear I use is poorly designed so cables do make a difference...  I do agree the gap between balanced cables seems less than single ended cables and the geometry of a cable has a lot more to do with its signature than the material of the conductor alone. 

Ralph, are using Mogami Gold Studio, available at Guitar Center for $39.95/pair of 3' balanced cables with Neutrik XLR's?

The whole point of the balanced line system is to eliminate cable artifact, and to that end sliver and gold wire should not make a difference! However, the balanced line system is a standard and if the standard is not supported by the equipment in use, cable artifacts will appear.

Its not that hard to support the standard. Here it is, in a nutshell:

1) pin 1 ground, pins 2 and 3 are signal (usually pin 2 is non-inverting and pin 3 is inverting)
2) ground is ignored at the input and output
3) the cable will be a twisted pair within a shield
4) the impedance of the drive circuit will be low.

A common problem is that many high end products do not ignore ground! If signal currents are present in the shield of the cable then the construction of the cable will become audible.

I am able to use very long and relatively inexpensive cables on account of the fact that the equipment in my system supports the balanced standard (also known as AES file 48). Installation of high end cables really does not change the sound- and that is how it should be (and fundamentally different in this regard as opposed to single-ended cables).

Plenty of great cables out there that's for sure. Narrow it down to the ones you're interested in and see if you can find a store or if no store local I've had great luck with the manufacture sending them to me direct which is a no brainier - Try before you buy.

Paul of Clear Day Cables is a great guy and he does make very fine cables that embarrass many other brands out there that sale for much more. Paul always sent me cables with no money up front and paid after I knew I wanted to keep them. Bought many, many cables from Paul. 

I'm still enjoying my Clear Day Cables but have moved them into my daughters system and now using WyWires. Paul's cables are very good but the WyWires just take it to another level as they should because they cost more but the value is there as well. I haven't completely changed over so my system has a mix of the two that work very well together as well.

Both these lines are fine cables but you may prefer one over the other or another. I can say both Clear Day and WyWires will send to you direct and return your money if you don't like them; both great guys to work with.

Signal Cable's Silver Resolution is a nice "hybrid" that you can check out. I used to own these and they are really good cables. But when I switched to ClearDay Silvers, it was a major upgrade in sound. I did not experience any "shiny" bass. But I believe every system is different. Did you reach out to Paul at Clear Day?

Hybrid Cable is made by mixture of silver and copper materials. If you use just silver BASS sounds are shiny or If I use copper BASS sounds are very vivid  which I experienced with my audio system.

I added a link just to make an example for hybrid cables.
http://www.effectaudio.com/upgrade-cables/headphone-cable/eros-occ-silver-occ-copper-hybrid-headphon...

Thanks,
Nicko.

What is a "hybrid" cable?