Does Mic cable Brand/Price REALLY matter?

[GuitarHack]

I need a new 10 meter mic cable. Mogami 2549/2534Quad/ ...., cheap name, hideously expensive name, "Insert name here"..........

Does it REALLY matter. I understand with extremely long cable runs with high-capacitance cable that there is some high freq loss.

For a 10 Meter cable? Does it REALLY matter?

Fact before opinion please. Thanks.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

What kind of cable? Unbalanced instrument cables do have some issues at longer distances (even 10 meters probably) however, no matter how high quality you get it isn't going to get much better. It does make a little difference, but it's mostly voodoo. With balance cables, you won't have very much of a problem at that sort of distance. I'm not sure what components you're talking about hooking up. Just my opinion/experience.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

There was an experiemtn that a college did with progessional audio engineers wherer they play music in a theater from a PA and one trail was a high end mosnter cable and the other, they cabinets werer hooked up by coat hanger wire, and without knowing what cables were being used/or changed, they could not tell a difference. the copper elements/compoud used in about 99% of cables are the same alloy copper, the higher priced stuff is either brand name hype or they make more sturdier stuff.

You won't have capacitance with low impedence like microphones and line level singals until your getting up into 100+ feet. That's why you see in studios that they have the head in the control room and the cabinet in the live room stung to by a 50 ft. cable.

 

[Joematthews]

Does it really matter... I'm gunna say no judging from the fact there is no difference whatsoever in my tbone cable and my neutric loaded Hosa cables.

Joe

 

[Nebulous]

I need a new 10 meter mic cable. Does it REALLY matter?

Fact before opinion please. Thanks.

If you're asking if the brand matters on a mic cable as far as the sound goes, simple answer: no.

As others have mentioned, the construction and durability do differ significantly IMO.
Cables with cheap or unsuitable rubber/ covering will probably have a short lifespan, especially over that distance. For mic and instrument cables I generally go for a thin, flexible and "rollable" cable, ie, one that isn't too stiff or that doesn't hold any turns or twists in it.

If you can make your own cables, or if you want some local hand made cables with quality cable and connectors, I would recommend Factory Sound in South Melbourne. I can't really compare their price because the material they stock and use on their cables is some of the best that I've seen and no premade, big brand cable has come close IMO.

 

[xconnyx]

cables make no difference, but the plugs reliability/durability makes a big difference. so quality plugs don't break that fast and the connection between socket and plug is way better. neutrik is my favorite for basically everything in audio connections

 

[colonel kurtz]

cables make no difference, but the plugs reliability/durability makes a big difference

+1

i've found that even with "mid" level cables...you know, stuff that isn't hosa or the proprietary MF brand or whatever...but not on the level of mogami and such, it still doesn't take all that long sometimes for the connectors to crap out

 

[GuitarHack]

Cheers dudes.

 

[xconnyx]

also the type of cable makes a difference, like a symmetric cable, don't use this for guitars you will have cracking and a light buzz sound in your amp then. also don't use asymmetric cables for symmetric connections like xlr mic cables because the sense of symmetric connections and their resistance of interference is gone.

btw, i would prefer to solder your cables by our own. it's way cheaper then buying cables with good plugs. just buy 100meters of some cable and 20 good plugs, solder everything and you have got your self some new, cheap and good cables.

soldering information and connecting your preferred plug you'll find via google. it's not that complicated. but if you search for xlr connections on google you have to make sure you'll find the right connection digram for your country. afaik europe and the states have different ways of connecting wires in xlr plugs.

 

[Calippo Tecks]

Depends what kind of cable probably... I don't notice any difference between my cheap XLR cables for micing up and my more expensive planet waves xlr cable. I DO notice a difference between jack to jack guitar cables that are cheapo and expensive. Maybe the biggest difference that I've noticed is from my speaker cable from amp to cabinet. I used cheap speaker cables first but then tried out a speaker cable that came with my Marshall head and it sounds definately warmer, more nice mid tones.

 

[if6was9]

Yeah it more so the construction with mic cables- longer life with better cables, I've a few nice, long, thick cables with neutrik connectors that have lasted me years and a cheap S snake lead from thomann that crapped out about 2 months into use. Sound wise I've never noticed any differences between my cheaper and more expensive leads. I'll use any of them on any source/mic.

You do notice big differences with guitar cables, probably because of their unbalanced nature and the level of the signal being sent. I still remember the day I used a nice planet waves cable instead of the cheap shit one that came with my guitar 4-5 years ago- it was like night and day.

Also a few months ago i bought a speaker cable from maplin- went for their more high end one with better connectors. It fried both my amps within minutes of use. I finally narrowed it down to that being the only common factor with the 2 amps blowing and when I cracked it open there's frayed cable and bad connections at each end. It's the worst made cable I've ever seen.

 

[riffmachine]

A couple of months ago, I was recording my bassist with some mics and a DI. He had a Mesa Boogie bass amp (I can't remember the model) that had a DI out on the back. We used his Mogami 1/4" instrument cable, but it was a tad too short to make back to where we had his amp. You could insert it into the DI and mic pre, but the cable was hanging about 6 inches off the ground. So, I swapped it for a longer Planet Waves cable I had, and we could immediately tell that the tightness in the lows and high end definition was gone and replaced by a bit of mud. We moved his amp and repositioned the mics so we could go back to the Mogami. I had always thought it didn't really matter, but we could hear the difference immediately. I'm wondering if it was because we were going through a high quality amp and a nice mic pre (Vintech 273) at the time. We were both curious if there would be a difference, but we were both surprised that it was obvious.

 

[Trevoire520]

Deffo noticed a difference in guitar cables, my Klotz La Grange cable seemed to be more "full range" than cheaper cables when it broke during recording and I had to change over, other guitarist in my band said he noticed a difference too.

Can't say I've noticed a difference in mic cables, but the improved build quality is definatley worth the money.

Would be curious to hear a comparison between speaker cables. Though I'd bet a fair amount of money that there isn't any difference whatsoever. Infact I might have a chance to do something like this myself soon...

 

[Joshua Wickman]

Just ordered a Mogami guitar cable. So I'm gonna have to see if i can notice a difference between my Fender guitar cables and Mogami.