which cables to use with my xpa-5??

[InVeNtOr]

no defiantly use some kind of conduit. i personally used pvc piping in my living room (my old apartments). i liked that more because it was easy to assemble and cut (if you buy the super swanky hand held cutter), and not to over look, cheap. i used the standard white one (gray is electrical) but unless it's against some house code, there wouldn't be a difference.

those sucky sales people, you definitely want tinned wire if you never want to worry about corrosion. i personally never go near Monster junk. the shield's sole purpose is to shield out interference. speaker wire really doesn't have issues with that because it runs off of 60Hz which is real low for emi/rfi. not to over look the power involved is too low to carry it back to the receiver and actually do it. i personally like the twisted wire because it's free for me. i had the monoprice standard wire and didn't hear any differences between the two. the actual reason i changed it out was the outside diameter of the monoprice vs. the twisted wire. since my ET center is all bundled together, it made a difference.

Youth, your right, my bad. i spoke to blue jeans about having a cable with RCA and XLR. what i was told, is there isn't an "approved" method so it does little good. my personal thought was if the cable is 50' long, and the RCA end is in the area where there is low emi/rfi then the cable itself would help out. the XLR end would be tied up with all the other ET center wires. i haven't changed mine out because it seems to work just fine.

[Youthman]

Long runs definitely benefit from XLR. That's why pro setups (such as concerts) use XLR cables.

[wuzzzer]

second, Youth, there is a difference between RCA and XLR, but only when you have runs over 10' or in high emi/rfi areas.

True. My comment was there is no benefit having a cable that has XLR on one end and RCA on the other. At least that is my understanding of it.

Except when your receiver only has RCA outputs and your power amp only has XLR inputs, as in my case. []

[The Dude]

so what you guys are saying about xlr is that you have to have xlr inputs and ends if not your defeating the hole purpose.(as in if you used a rca to xlr adapter)

[Youthman]

so what you guys are saying about xlr is that you have to have xlr inputs and ends if not your defeating the hole purpose.(as in if you used a rca to xlr adapter)

Correct. If your receiver has XLR and your amp has XLR, go for it. If your receiver has RCA and your amp has XLR, go with RCA.

[wuzzzer]

The XPA-5 has both XLR and RCA inputs. If your receiver has XLR outputs you'd want to use XLR cables. If it has RCA outputs, use RCA cables to the RCA inputs on the XPA-5.

[InVeNtOr]

that is the one draw back to Elemental Designs Subs. they don't offer a single sub with XLR inputs. i even called them and asked if in the future it was possible and they simply said, they didn't see a point.

you wouldn't need an XLR or RCA adapter, monoprice actually sells cables with XLR and RCA ends. that was why i was initally confused when i called blue jeans cable and they said there wasn't an "approved" method.

[wuzzzer]

you wouldn't need an XLR or RCA adapter, monoprice actually sells cables with XLR and RCA ends.

I can vouch for that cable since I'm using one in my system and not only was it very inexpensive, it also eliminated the annoying hum I was getting with my previous setup that consisted of RCA cables and then an RCA to XLR adapter.

[The Dude]

thats a very nice cable at that price.

[Thaddeus Smith]

These are very good cables: Vampire Wire CC

These are audibly better, but just a little: Vampire Wire SC/II

btw ..there's a dude on the bay selling a bunch of new old stock at heavily discounted prices. I picked up a pair of the SC/IV's @ 1.5m for $54 instead of $160 from Vampire Wire direct.