Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Are there sonic quality differences regarding XLR cables?

Greetings,

I think this topic may have been discussed in the past and I was hoping someone could give an opinion or lead me to a link concerning balanced interconnects. I recently upgraded to an 861v4 and was in need of XLR cables. So in a pinch I purchased three Mogami Gold microphone cables.

The audio quality difference between the G61 and 861v4 is IMHO is a significant improvement and worth the investment. The question is, are the higher priced balanced interconnects going to make any further sonic improvements in my system. I can`t imagine it getting any better.

Much appreciated,

Jim

IMHO they will just be more expensive, not better.
Some might be engineered to sound different, but they won't be better.

Steve.

Jim,

In my analogue setup I tried several XLR cables from Siltech and MIT.
Not all sounded better, but some do.

I know not a very good answer, the solution is to go to your dealer and get some cables to try at home to compare.

Martin

Thank you Martin and Steve. I appreciate your advice.

I've been using balanced connections on my system for years, recently just switched to aes/ebu and it's it's fantastic.

My system runs Micromega transport into the 518 as a volume control, then into my Micromega DAC which then is connected via some Van Den Hul The Thunderline balanced in to my M60's. Over the years I've used a few cabled, Transparent, Van Den Hul, Nordost, but end then was using some Van Den Hul The Thunderline balanced for AES/EBU, switched over to using some Van Den Hul The Second, which at the time was using phonos as I liked the sound more, this Feb I sent them back to Van Den Hul and had them rewired for AES/EBU and to be honest I've never been happier, so much better in every way than using them in phono, also can say the same for all the cables, The Transparent stuff was also very good over the phono 75 ohm versions.

IMO the audible effects of different cables on an analogue system is much less with balanced than RCA type interconnects. We are talking about very subtle changes here.

However, I've never used XLRs for digits.

That just goes to prove that AES/EBU can be sent over any old cable (see 'Anybody know why Meridian chose SPDIF (unbalanced) over AES/EBU (balanced)?' thread)!

You seem to have used a balanced analogue cable for unbalanced digital, no wonder it sounds better now, it was probably way off the 75 ohm requirement for coax SPDIF, but fine for AES/EBU.

Who sold you the original cable for digital use?

Steve.

I think that van den Hul recommend some of their analogue cables for use in digital applications. If memory serves, they argue that the correct impedance isn't important.

Mark S

VDH do have some weird ideas, that 'Second' cable has an series resistance of 36 ohms per metre, most other balanced cables are much lower, for example the Van Damme balanced I recently used has a series resistance of under 85 ohms per Kilometre.

That would have a serious frequency roll off at any sort of length, for example;

-3dB point would be 20KHz if the cable was 1.8m long.
-3dB point would be 16KHz if the cable was 2m long.
-3dB point would be 7KHz if the cable was 3m long.

The Van Damme cable would have -3dB point of 3.7MHz at 3m long to put it into perspective.

These are simplified calcs, only taking one leg into account with no load, so best case!

Steve.

AES /EBU cannot be sent very far in 'any old cable'
Star Quad the best wrap for analog with best EMI/RFI rejection has too much capacitance for long runs (100' +)
Roger

I actually was using them for analog at one point, and just tried them as digital and even being phono sounded better than the thunderline which were set up for AES/EBU. Based on that I had them converted to AES/EBU by van den hul. I've had lots of cables over the years. My system is very sensitive to everything so cable changes show big differences, I've never been happier with a cable. Other big changes where the rewiring of my M60's some nice improvements there. In terms of 75 ohm I used to use VDH videolink, fantastic cable and pretty cheap, then got the Nordost Silver Shaddow I think it was, ended up going back to the videolink, then on to the Transparent which I first tried with their 75 ohm version that was very good so got the AES/EBU version. I kept that for a few years before wring up some vdh thunderline I had laying about in to to AES/EBU config and that was better again. So then tried the second. I also have some bits of VDH dedicated AES/EBU cable, now discontinued and the thunderline was a lot better overall.

Got loads of thunderline, love the stuff, wired in side the speakers outside everywhere, great stuff!