XLR cables for a reasonable price?

As if there were no other good amps or engineering approaches. There are, and many. I believe that manufacturers and dealers should be honorably dismissed. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge and skill they might have, this is not a proper place for them to be.

@inna If you want a good S/PDIF cable, it will have to be a certain characteristic impedance and is based on AES3. A good USB cable will meet the standards required by the USB standard. The standards are required by the principles of operation. Manufacturers usually know that if they are to make a cable for those applications they will have to adhere to the standards. The same is true of manufacturers of the hardware itself.

The puzzling thing is why the balanced standard is so commonly ignored in high end audio. In any other field of electronic endeavor, it would be considered bad practice and the manufacturer of such equipment would likely be out of business fairly quickly.

I’m not saying (as I pointed out earlier) that high end audio equipment that does not support the standard does not sound good. I am saying that when it does not, the cable is a veil in the system. That’s all.

Manufacturers choose whether or not they want to deal with that problem. Its not a value judgement on my part but I sense that you think it is. Personally I don’t get why anyone would want to have a cable be a veil in their system, but maybe the realization that the cable will be exactly that simply hasn’t dawned. Plus people get into this sport for very different reasons. I like to listen to music, but some like horse trading equipment, looking at how manufacturers solved certain problems (pick up a copy of The Art of the Motorcycle, which illustrates how this works in the motorbike world), being able to say how much they did or didn’t spend and so on.

atmasphere

The puzzling thing is why the balanced standard is so commonly ignored in high end audio.

You understand that AES48 is just one "standard," correct? There are other ways to design balanced components and choosing an alternative doesn't mean the standard you so cherish is "ignored."

When I take a banana out of the fridge, I'm not ignoring the apple. I'm choosing one over the other.

You understand that AES48 is just one "standard," correct? There are other ways to design balanced components and choosing an alternative doesn't mean the standard you so cherish is "ignored."

@cleeds You are correct to a point. There are other ways go design balanced components. My only point here is that if they don't support the standard, the cable will be a veil. Put another way, expect to have to audition cables just like you do with single-ended stuff to get the best 'sound'.

There are two aspects of the balanced standard. One is AES48. The other is the low impedance aspect (which means the input impedance of the amp might be as low as 600 Ohms- you can see right there why a lot of tube preamp manufacturers don't do that...).

XLR Cable and Chassis Connector Grounding

"Neutrik is often asked whether the shiny silver tab on typical XLR cable connectors should be connected to anything."

"In the course of the evolution of the AV industry, it has come to be that this tab is practically never terminated. This means, in turn, that the shell is not grounded. When in doubt, simply leave this tab unterminated."

"Whether or not they are internally wired to the shield signal, XLR cable connector shells always make an electrical connection to chassis connector shells once the two are mated."

"Typically, chassis connectors need to be grounded. The industry best practice is generally to tie all of the chassis connector shells, pin 1 (cable shields), and the enclosure shield to a common ground."

Excerpts from:

Neutrik USA Today - Grounding XLR connectors - Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2016

Read the entire Neutrik application note →

Additional Reading: AES48 - "AES standard on interconnections - Grounding and EMC practices - Shields of connectors in audio equipment containing active circuitry."

Note: Benchmark uses Neutrik cable and chassis connectors because of their superior performance and durability.

In accordance with these best practices outlined above, Benchmark bonds pin 1 of XLR chassis connectors directly to chassis ground. Benchmark leaves the cable tab unterminated on all analog XLR cables, but terminates this tab on AES digital XLR cables.

Benchmark recommends leaving the cable tab unconnected on all analog XLR cables.

Benchmark terminates the cable tab on AES digital XLR cables to minimize radio-frequency emissions when two or more digital XLR cables are connected end-to-end. Digital cables that do not have the tab terminated should not be daisy chained.

Benchmark recommends tying the cable tab to the shield on all AES digital XLR cables.

atmasphere

My only point here is that if they don't support the standard, the cable will be a veil.

Yes, we can agree that it seems that's your only point. I'm not sure that I agree with the premise that the cables in my mostly-ARC system represent a "veil" on the sound, but I understand that you're absolutely certain that they do. After all, they do not employ your patented Balanced Differential Design® circuit.