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.
I get a kick out of cable reviews that sound like wine reviews. You've written the review before you got the cable. Good cables make a difference. Expensive cables does't always mean good cables. I like to make my cables out of Mundorf Angelique wire. Parts connection has seveal nice choices of XLR connectors. Jerry |
Well stated @carlsbad.
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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. |
“Will a different XLR cable supposedly one that’s costlier bring me to that direction? Not necessarily. I am using two sets of XLR’s in my system, the 2nd XLR costing only $1K which is 1/4th the cost of 1st XLR, offering great performance and synergy with rest of the cables / components. Instead of focusing on cost, I would focus on cable; what would be the best cable irrespective of brand and cost (within your budget) would allow me to squeeze the best performance out of my DAC ➡️ Integrated and meet your aforementioned criteria. The cables are much like any other component in your system. I recommend auditioning different brands of cables through your dealer network. Before I make a suggestion, may I know what speaker and power cables being used in your system? |
