Header Graphic
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > live sound: best XLR mic cables?
live sound:  best XLR mic cables?
Login  |  Register
Page: 1

kudzurunner
6024 posts
Aug 19, 2016
5:01 AM
I almost had a gig derailed last night when I discovered, after the first set, that my ears were correct and that I'd been using a bad mic cable. I was using a new Sennheiser e935 mic, which is a fantastic mic ("best mic under $200," according to one website), but my ears told me that something wasn't right. After the set, I got out front and let my guitarist sing through it. Terrible!

So I yanked that cable and borrowed one from the club. Night and day! Fantastic mic!

So I'm going to mail-order a couple of new cables. For those of you who bring your own cables and mics to gigs--whether or not you bring your own PA--what do you recommend? I usually go for 20 or 25 feet. Mogami Gold? I'd like to crowd-source this. I don't need "the best"; I'm not paying $85 for a cable. But I want something high-quality and durable.
Thievin' Heathen
815 posts
Aug 19, 2016
5:49 AM
My Peavey lasted 25 years. I can't say for certain if the replacement is a 25 year cable, but it looks exactly the same. I'd bet it's another 25 year cable.

Note: It was the on/off switch that failed. They may be 50 year cables. I know it's a "no questions asked" lifetime warranty.
rogonzab
977 posts
Aug 19, 2016
6:01 AM
Are you good whit soldering? You can make your own cables, that is by far the best option alway. You can make an $100 cable whit $15-$20 and they last for ever.


----------
Sorry for any misspell, english is not my first language.
1847
3626 posts
Aug 19, 2016
7:41 AM
you crack me up... you make good money as a professor. you make a ton of money teaching harmonica, selling records
playing gigs, panhandling, god knows what else, and you are not willing to spend 35 of your hard earned dollars on a decent mic. cable.
sorry that is just too funny.

live wire cables are on sale at guitar center, if you buy any 4 cables they are 50 percent off. buy 4 sell the other 3
and i bet you make a small profit.

----------
.600_439660165
kudzurunner
6025 posts
Aug 19, 2016
7:53 AM
I'm glad that I amused you, 1847, but I really can't take credit. You need to take credit. You misread $85 as $35, and then mocked me for your own misreading. That IS funny!
STME58
1809 posts
Aug 19, 2016
8:26 AM
I'm no expert, but in my experience, cables go bad at the solder joints. The ones I have repaired have had very poor solder joints. Based on this, I think it is better to repair a cheap cable by re soldering the ends than to replace it with another cheap cable. I don't know at what price level the manufactures start paying attention to a proper solder process, but there will always be the temptation, even on high end products, to cut corners and costs in this area. There are parameters to a a cable, like capacitance and resistance, that can effect the sound, but these pale in comparison to a bad joint at the connector.
dougharps
1282 posts
Aug 19, 2016
8:29 AM
I don't know which brand is best. I have a Peavey cable that has lasted for 15 years as well as a Shure cable that came with a mic that has lasted the same. I bought another Peavey cable last year that didn't last 9 months. The difference was that the connector on the long lasting one was molded on to the cable. The one that failed was not.

With regard to sound fidelity, I can't hear a difference, and I use them for vocals and harp to the PA. For mic'ing an amp, you need reasonable fidelity and most of all, reliability.

I always bring extra cables to a gig, as well as extra harps and at least one extra mic.
----------

Doug S.
6SN7
660 posts
Aug 19, 2016
8:29 AM
My local independently owned music store will make a cord, any length, and its as good as the high end one like you mentioned. The cord you sighted Mogami, is an excellent choice.
I have had good luck with Planet Waves American Stage
1847
3627 posts
Aug 19, 2016
8:31 AM
my bad... i did miss read ...

i agree i would not spend $85.00 dollars on a cable either, not even if i was bill gates.

guitar center is having a sale, check it out on line.
----------
.600_439660165
1847
3629 posts
Aug 19, 2016
10:26 AM
stupid deal of the day 3 pack
Todd Parrott
1374 posts
Aug 19, 2016
10:37 AM
I use Mogami. May be expensive, but they have a lifetime warranty, so if they break or go bad for any reason, they will replace them. Only way you'll ever have to buy another cable is if you lose it.

P.S. There's also a Mogami SILVER series which also has the same warranty, but costs less. You can search for Mogami Silver vs Gold to read about differences (if any) in sound. I think Gold is preferred more for recording, where the smallest sound differences matter most.

Last Edited by Todd Parrott on Aug 19, 2016 10:50 AM
kudzurunner
6026 posts
Aug 19, 2016
1:36 PM
Here's how I solved my problem.

I searched "mic cable" best live on Google. (Those four words, with "mic cable" in quotes.)

I found the following article:

Budget Microphone Cable Comparison

The EWI clearly surpassed the others. I went to the EWI website, audiopile.net. There, I found three different qualities of cables offered for sale.

mic cables

The Starline are the economy cables assessed in the article. I took one step up to the PSMN Premium Mic Cable with Neutrik XX Cord Ends. I'd already come across many references on pro audio gear-head forums to the Neutrik being THE brand of cord ends.

PSMN Premium Mic Cable

I ordered five 25-foot cables at $21 each. Done.

Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. Ya got me thinking.

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Aug 19, 2016 1:39 PM
shakeylee
570 posts
Aug 19, 2016
3:41 PM
I keep it very simple with cables .
I do not buy the cheapest
I do not buy the most expensive .

Anything in the middle is fine .
----------
www.shakeylee.com
pharpo
796 posts
Aug 20, 2016
8:30 AM
I use Monster or Live wire just because they have a lifetime guarantee. Save your receipt !
----------
Photobucket

Procrastinator Emeritus
Greg Heumann
3266 posts
Aug 20, 2016
12:06 PM
Any mid-priced XLR cable is FINE> Low impedance mic cables are wired in "balanced mode" which provides excellent shielding and low loss even over lengths beyond 100 feet. Avoid the cheapest of the cheap; no reason to spend big bucks falling for the "monster cable" deceit.

High impedance mic cables? Another story. Get good stuff.

Adam - if you could HEAR any significant difference between the old and new cable you tried, then something was physically wrong with the old cable, for sure. A signal wire can break with balanced cables and some signal will still get through.

----------
***************************************************
/Greg

BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
Bluestate on iTunes

Last Edited by Greg Heumann on Aug 20, 2016 12:08 PM
kudzurunner
6028 posts
Aug 20, 2016
3:10 PM
Yeah, something was definitely wrong with the cable. No question.

I've got a couple of Mogami Silvers and they're fine. The problem for me with Mogamis is, the cables are noticeably thinner than other cables. I didn't realize that when I purchased them online, and I don't particularly like it. But I will keep those two cables as solid backups once I've received the five identical new cables I've ordered. I like the idea of starting fresh with a set of very good cables. Maybe it's because for years I've bought one here, one there, used one that came with a new mic (definitely NOT the best quality). So I've got the classic "mixed bag" of mic cables, and I'm just not sure which ones I can trust. That's why the problem the other night bothered me so much. As far as I know, that cable had been working fine. But perhaps it hadn't; perhaps I was using it for the kickdrum or the Sennheiser e906 mic on a harp amp, and perhaps it was giving me substandard sound. Since I've got five different makes of cables, I can't keep track of what's old, what's new, what I should take out of the rotation.

That problem is now over. I should have done this years ago--and certainly when I bought first one PA system and then a second system. At some point I should have just bought a set of new cables. But I never did. Until now.

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Aug 20, 2016 3:12 PM
nacoran
9201 posts
Aug 20, 2016
8:19 PM
Pharpo, it would be nice if you didn't need the receipt. It wouldn't be too hard for them to just require anyone who sells them to exchange them. Craftsman tools were only ever sold at Sears, so you could always take them to a Sears to get them replaced, but anyone who has lifetime guarantees that are sold in multiple chain stores could figure something out. :)

My computer chair had a problem a while back. I got it at OfficeMax or Staples or one of those places. I called them up with the part number I needed. It was just a little bracket, but they could only sell the whole seat (and the shipping and handling on that would have been more than the bracket was worth!) but the lady said it was their store brand, and they had a longer warranty than the other brands they sell and asked me if I still had the receipt. (The warranty is 5 year, pretty good. Better than my car.) I happened to notice though that the manufacture date was less than five years back. I eventually convinced her that that was enough to get the warranty honored but she made it seem like she was only doing it because it was the nice thing to do!

Okay, maybe it was, because I did admit that, depending how good I've been on my diet I'm a little over the weight limit, but she kept telling me I really needed to find the receipt... from a 4 year old chair when I obviously hadn't gotten the receipt in my receipt drawer... not likely.

----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)

First Post- May 8, 2009
JustFuya
947 posts
Aug 21, 2016
12:40 PM
@nacoran - K-Mart & Orchard Supply Hardware(CA only?) also sell Sears tools. I'd heard they stopped lifetime warranties but it looks like I was misinformed. They may have placed conditions on them tho.

I was shopping online for a tape measure two days ago and read in a comment that one Sears store had to stock more than normal quantities of Stanley tapes because a work crew would come in for a free swap after deliberately breaking their tapes once a week. Their foreman wanted all employees to have clean ones and this was his work ethic. Incredible.

I worked at a Montgomery Wards (National City) in the hardware & electrical departments during a summer vacation. Two sailors came in with a 3/4" breaker bar that was almost impossibly bent and must have been used with a 20' cheater bar. I asked them what happened and they said it fell from the upper deck on their ship. I was not about to swap it and we 'discussed' it for a while. I wanted to know how they really accomplished that but they stuck to the story. They smirked and asked to see my boss. He gave them a new one while I shook with anger & defeat in his office.


Post a Message



(8192 Characters Left)


Modern Blues Harmonica supports

§The Jazz Foundation of America

and

§The Innocence Project

 

 

 

ADAM GUSSOW is an official endorser for HOHNER HARMONICAS