A BLIND SHOOTOUT THAT WILL STUN YOU!

[lolzgreg]

I just redid the cabling in my whole rig, like I said. Cost me $1000, but well worth it. I only bought 3 microphone cables, since I don't do drums in house very often, but in the near future, I'll probably be spending a lot more on cable

The cable I bought it solid core cable; no strands. It definitely makes a difference because the transfer of energy is much easier through something solid and pure.

 

[lolzgreg]

how long were the individual cables?

The same in every test 15 feet for the instrument to the DI box, and 4 feet for the xlr to preamp, 2 feet from the preamp to converter.

 

[Ermz]

Jesus. TBH I'm partially offended that cables are able to make that much difference. Especially if overpriced units like Monster cables pull such horrible results.

Don't tell me I have to go pull my dozens of Mogami/Neutrik cables in favor of some ridiculous $500 per meter options. :zombie:

FYI: I didn't really think it was a pickup-selector difference, but it was a scattershot guess just in case. I only listened briefly to the cleans on headphones regardless!

 

[lolzgreg]

Jesus. TBH I'm partially offended that cables are able to make that much difference. Especially if overpriced units like Monster cables pull such horrible results.

Don't tell me I have to go pull my dozens of Mogami/Neutrik cables in favor of some ridiculous $500 per meter options. :zombie:

FYI: I didn't really think it was a pickup-selector difference, but it was a scattershot guess just in case. I only listened briefly to the cleans on headphones regardless!

I was just assuming you heard a pretty enormous difference, which I surely did. My point here is that you don't have to listen for it; cables do matter a lot, and by using less than great stuff, you are harming your recorded tones and your monitoring.

It would probably cost you a grand to re-do your rack. It only cost me so much because I got a crapload of long speaker cables too for the amp-rack.

 

[John_C]

Great stuff here, nice and easy to understand as well:

http://www.terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/guitarcables/guitarcables.htm

 

[Ermz]

The difference is enormous. Compared to A, C sounds like someone has cocked a wah mid-way in the signal chain and left it there.

Surely the Mogami/Neutrik combo isn't that bad though? Any reason you didn't test them here?

 

[lolzgreg]

I don't have Mogami aside from to the monitors and reamp box and I just heard the Opals with the new cable and

With Mogami, in most accounts I've heard it isn't that bad, but the gentleman who sells these cables also sells competitor's brands, since he is authorized to build cable for several manufacturers, and he does not stock high-end Mogami; I'm assuming it's because he doesn't think the quality is up to par, but I don't put words in people's mouths.

All I know is I'm happy with the change for sure. I'm sure it will help all parts of my craft.

 

[John_C]

The difference is enormous. Compared to A, C sounds like someone has cocked a wah mid-way in the signal chain and left it there.

See the article i posted, the resonant peaks of the pickups are effected by the cable.

 

[Fbarre]

The website is extremely confusing. I can't find the microphone cables. Do they also have amp to head, spdif and aes/ebu cables?

 

[Derpsicle]

Holy. Shit.
Brb, switching cables!

 

[colonel_claypoo]

first of all, thanks lolzgreg for sharing your findings with us. I find it astonishing indeed.
if you're interested in a controversial discussion maybe publish your findings over at gearslutz haha!

I will conduct a test with my cables right now and see if I can spot any differences.
I don't own high quality cables so I suspect amongst all the cheap cables I have I won't find them to be much different.

have you tested your highest quality cable against your cheapest?

 

[lolzgreg]

The website is extremely confusing. I can't find the microphone cables. Do they also have amp to head, spdif and aes/ebu cables?

Toward the top of the page there are the varying types of cable in that orange bar (instrument/speaker/microphone/etc).

Then when you click that, you can choose from the type of cable on the right window that pops up.

first of all, thanks lolzgreg for sharing your findings with us. I find it astonishing indeed.
if you're interested in a controversial discussion maybe publish your findings over at gearslutz haha!

I will conduct a test with my cables right now and see if I can spot any differences.
I don't own high quality cables so I suspect amongst all the cheap cables I have I won't find them to be much different.

have you tested your highest quality cable against your cheapest?

Yes; in the rack. I had no name brand XLR and now I have Gepco, which sounds beastly to me

I don't have any super cheap instruments to be honest, and I just had enough time to conduct this test! I have mixing to do

Hopefully in the future I'll be doing more shootouts.

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

This is really interesting.. maybe it's because it's solid core instead of strands?
I tested a 2€ cable against a 30€ cable.. and they gave the same result, they nulled..
I guess I have to get a solid core cable instead..
Or a bunch of'em.. more gear, less food..

 

[jipchen]

Wow. Monster isn't even available here afaik and I always hated them so that's cool, haha.
I wonder how my Sommer Cable The Spirit XXL cables would perform in comparison.. they're said to be high-end instrument cables for studio use.
Any chance you try a sommer in comparison with the Monster and Lava/Gepco cable?

 

[kev]

I personally preferred B. Cables have always made a drastic difference lol. After using elixir guitar cable i'm never going back!

 

[JeffTD]

The cable I bought it solid core cable; no strands. It definitely makes a difference because the transfer of energy is much easier through something solid and pure.

Hmmm... that's really not how science works.



I'd like to hear a comparison between Mogami, Planet Waves, and Monster on the guitar end. I've always hated Monster cables, so this test is no surprise to me, but I'm not sure I believe that Lava is that much better than the others I mentioned.

I'm also not really convinced that the Lava XLR cabling would be any better than Mogami/Canare/Gepco, but that's another test.

*edit* realized the better XLR cabling you mentioned was the Gepco, not Lava brand stuff. Yeah, huge difference between Gepco/Canare/Mogami and generic Belden type shit.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

Wow. Mogami isn't even available here afaik and I always hated them so that's cool, haha.
I wonder how my Sommer Cable The Spirit XXL cables would perform in comparison.. they're said to be high-end instrument cables for studio use.
Any chance you try a sommer in comparison with the Monster and Lava/Gepco cable?

I just tested my sommer "the spirit" guitar cable against a super cheap no name cable and they nulled just like "ForHerDeadEyes" said in the post above yours.

maybe I have to conduct the test differently. instead of playing an already recorded signal from my DAW and rerecord it (through the cable in question),

I should maybe pickup a guitar and play two takes through different cables.

Is that the way how you conducted the test, lolzgreg?

 

[~BURNY~]

I just tested my sommer "the spirit" guitar cable against a super cheap no name cable and they nulled just like "ForHerDeadEyes" said in the post above yours.

maybe I have to conduct the test differently. instead of playing an already recorded signal from my DAW and rerecord it (through the cable in question),

I should maybe pickup a guitar and play two takes through different cables.

Is that the way how you conducted the test, lolzgreg?

Active pickups?

I love how my previous comment got ignored btw. Not that I'm all butt hurt but I thought it was a valid aspect of this issue.

 

[jipchen]

I just tested my sommer "the spirit" guitar cable against a super cheap no name cable and they nulled just like "ForHerDeadEyes" said in the post above yours.

maybe I have to conduct the test differently. instead of playing an already recorded signal from my DAW and rerecord it (through the cable in question),

I should maybe pickup a guitar and play two takes through different cables.

Is that the way how you conducted the test, lolzgreg?

Thanks for the information man!
I'd appreciate if you did the second test you mentioned, I would do it but I only have several Sommer The Spirit XXL cables, haha.

And yeah, it would be interesting to read how you did the tests, Greg!

EDIT: Plus I only have guitars with active pickups (directed at Burny )

 

[lolzgreg]

Active pickups?

I love how my previous comment got ignored btw. Not that I'm all butt hurt but I thought it was a valid aspect of this issue.

Sorry Burny! Didn't mean to skip over your post. No, passive pickups for this test. With actives the cable wouldn't matter AS MUCH, but nonetheless, it matters.

I just tested my sommer "the spirit" guitar cable against a super cheap no name cable and they nulled just like "ForHerDeadEyes" said in the post above yours.

maybe I have to conduct the test differently. instead of playing an already recorded signal from my DAW and rerecord it (through the cable in question),

I should maybe pickup a guitar and play two takes through different cables.

Is that the way how you conducted the test, lolzgreg?

Two takes through two cables, yessir.