the plummer Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Hey, When I bought that new Sunfire Theater from Ultimate Electronics, I made a pretty sweet deal. When the deal was done, the salesman tried to sell me these new fangles special cables. He said that the Monster cable was the only brand cable made and I had to buy them because they make a huge difference. At $100 per 3' cable (the system requires 5) I opted to pass. Thinking that sureley Radio Shack had the same thing for cheaper. Boy did the salesman argue and try to pressure me into that purchase. When I got home, I just used the old RCA Jacks that came with my old Adcom system. I was fairly impressed for a few months. Then the urge to fool with the equipment hit again (this usually happens twice a year). I broke out my owners manual for the Sunfire and discovered that the "Special Cables" that could only be purchased at that time from Ultimate Electronics were nothing more than Balanced XLR Microphone cables. I drove to my local Radio Shack and bought 5- 15' cables for $15 a piece. Came home and hooked them up. WOW!!! What a difference. This was one of the best things to reduce hiss that I have ever tried. I can now throttle up to about 80 - 85% volume with NO audible hiss. I can't imagine how the $100 cables can make any more improvement. Lets hear from others if your stuff is capable of or you are currently using the Balance XLR cables. See Ya The Plummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I use XLR cables when I can. It made a big difference especially when using them with my subwoofers compared to the RCAs.I don't get humms an buzzes out of my system. I'm just too nutty to put up with it. When I do use RCAs for interconnects I've had good luck with Outlaw's twist and lock cables otherwise the XLR cables are the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurs Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I use signalcable XLR's, better sound and better price than the monster IC's I've tried... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I have no problem with hiss in my system, even when everything is maxed out. I use MIT Avt 3 series cable for everything, so I have no real motivation to upgrade to XLR. plus, my old Mcintosh amp is not capable of it, neither is my preamp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonrpayne Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 My gear doesn't support it or I would. Most of the time there's little or no difference on short runs, or so I've heard. Makes sense for long sub cables and so forth though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I'm using mostly silver RCA's. Tried some Cobalt Cable XLR's between the pre and amp and didn't notice a difference. Returned the XLR's and kept what I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Damon mentioned something important that I overlooked in my post. A few of my runs are longer than 20 feet. THATS where you'll be able to tell the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I use 7 6 foot PS Audio XLR's for each of the 7 speakers. Haven't ever tried connection the amp to preamp w/ RCA's though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelerFan Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I wish I would have had the option of trying XLR's when I bought the NAD stuff, maybe it would have cured the hum problem I had. Unfortunately the NAD was RCA's only so it went back. When I try to upgrade again I'll be sure to select gear with XLR's. Now I have some very nice Cobalt RCA's sitting on the shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the plummer Posted May 9, 2004 Author Share Posted May 9, 2004 Nicholtl, How are you using XLR's to your speakers. Aren't they high level output and require good speaker wire to drive the magnets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Ok, I have to ask, what are XLR cables? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 ---------------- On 5/9/2004 9:25:17 PM m00n wrote: Ok, I have to ask, what are XLR cables? ---------------- XLR cables are cables with three-pronged ends that fit in the "balanced" input/output sockets that are on most commercial gear and many high-end consumer gear, such as my B&K Ref 200.7 amp. This website shows an example, along with some user reviews. The third prong is for ground, and the other two are for left and right. The idea that theoretically, keeping the ground seperate from the signal lines should result in a cleaner signal. It seems they do help if you are having some problems with hissing in your system. Also seems to be prefered if you have some long runs (i.e., your amp is clear across the room from your pre-amp). Since many commercial installations have some pretty long runs, these are much prefered in commercial settings. Also to add: Here is an article on the Sound and Vision Magazine website that explains what all the various types of connections that are available, including XLR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddvj Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 To the people that say they didn't hear a difference... Didn't the system play a little louder with the XLRs? I don't own any equipment with XLR cables, but I have seen/heard some A/B demos, and even if you don't hear a difference in sound quality, there is no denying that there is a definite boost in output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 My Amp has the connections but my processor does not. They are only 18 inches apart and I've heard no hiss with the RCA cables I'm using (I've read the balance cables make little or no difference unless you're running over 6 feet). That all being said, I would be using balance connections if the processor was so equiped - no reason other than it's suppose to be "better" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 ---------------- On 5/9/2004 10:54:34 PM Darren wrote: My Amp has the connections but my processor does not. They are only 18 inches apart and I've heard no hiss with the RCA cables I'm using (I've read the balance cables make little or no difference unless you're running over 6 feet). That all being said, I would be using balance connections if the processor was so equiped - no reason other than it's suppose to be "better" . ---------------- Yeah, I am the say way. I have the connections on my amp, but not on my processor. I honostly doubt it would make much of a difference in my setup either. It may reduce some of the hissing, though. Hell, just upgrading my processor (currently using a Denon AVR3802 reciever as a preocessor) may help reduce any hissing that I find. If it has the XLR connections, I may try them, if I can find the cables relatively cheaply (not talking about the $100 Monster Cable ones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 ---------------- On 5/9/2004 10:53:47 PM toddvj wrote: To the people that say they didn't hear a difference... Didn't the system play a little louder with the XLRs? I don't own any equipment with XLR cables, but I have seen/heard some A/B demos, and even if you don't hear a difference in sound quality, there is no denying that there is a definite boost in output. ---------------- In short, no. When I switch to XLR's from RCA's there is no difference in the volume because the input of the amp is different for the different connections. If your amp does not have reduced gain from the 6db boost caused by using the balanced connection than I would be suspicious if the amp is even correctly utilizing the balanced input. Just because the pieces have the connections does not mean that it is wired properly. And I would bet that a lot of stuff with XLR's is not a true balanced connection. Many of them simply bridge the RCA and XLR inputs together inside of the amp and use the standard unity gain amplifier instead of the required differential amplifier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 ---------------- On 5/9/2004 9:45:41 PM skonopa wrote: The third prong is for ground, and the other two are for left and right. The idea that theoretically, keeping the ground seperate from the signal lines should result in a cleaner signal. ---------------- Probably a typo, but to clarify, the three wires are positive, negative, and ground, not left, right, and ground. See here for clarification. http://www.nullmodem.com/Audio.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmiles Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I use XLR between the pre-pro and amp. If anyone is looking for a deal on cables send me an email at: mmiles@icrinc.net Regards, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 the plummer: My current gear is unable to take advantage of the low-impedence, XLR conectors, or "Cannon Plugs" as they were commonly-called years ago. My home system does not really seem to suffer from any hiss issues. The fact that all of our components are housed in a steel relay rack that is fully-grounded, that also allows us to keep all of our interconnect cable runs short probably helps. Also, we use either optical or firewire connections only on most of our equipment. But, I will tell you that many years back (late 1970's) when I used to run commercial sound for road shows, I ran EVERYTHING with XLR connections. XLR's are an absolute imperitive for any runs over 20 feet. Otherwise, the hiss and interference would drive the audience (and me) nuts! All 30 of my stage microphones used then were also low-impedence (300-Ohm), XLR-type. Wherever possible, the band members would also use the XLR interconnects on their stage gear (such as keyboard-to-effects-to-preamp-to-poweramp, etc.), which helped immensely. In some cases I also used XLR-connected, "direct boxes" instead of mics to pick up sound from certain stage gear when possible. To sum up, if I could take advantage of such connections on my home gear, I definitely would, even though our system currently works so well that it would be hard for me to imagine it sounding much better. I do realize that the possiblity for improvement always exists! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 ---------------- On 5/10/2004 8:33:12 AM Strabo wrote: Probably a typo, but to clarify, the three wires are positive, negative, and ground , not left, right, and ground . See here for clarification. http://www.nullmodem.com/Audio.htm ---------------- Yup, you're right. I forgot this is for a single channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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