Want to know if anyone has any good XLR cables under $300 a pair to connect between the GCD and M700s?
I use Audioquest Red River between my GCD and S300. They work great. Of course price is a function of length with cables. Mine are .75m and were a little over $100 for the pair.
In this price range I would look at Wireworld Eclipse 7. I use the lower cost Oasis for my Magnum Lab Tuner into my ZTPRE preamp and I chose Oasis as it is the cheapest using their DNA Helix structure and as I needed 2.5 m plus I went with the cheaper version. The Oasis sounds quite good which makes me think that the Eclipse would be excellent.
If you can spend a little more I would look into VooDoo Cable; their Evolution and above are wonderful cables.
I suggest you start with high quality pro audio cables, such as Mogami 2534 RCA Male to RCA Male Neglex Quad. Very affordable, neutral, quiet. You can easily make your own, but pro suppliers offer them premade, see, e.g., here.
You need to spend a great deal more to improve on these. Plus they are sufficiently affordable you can rewire your entire system at once.
How to Make a $50 High-End XLR Interconnect Click
Two excellent pro sources of cable (Mogami, Canare, etc.), connectors (Neutrik XLRs, BNC, etc.) and custom made cables (if you prefer to buy bespoke):
I use the homemade XLRs Elk referenced between my preamp and M700s in my second system. (Mogami cable and Neutrik connectors.) They are surprisingly good.
I just upgraded my 5M balanced cables between BHK Pre and BHK 250 from Kimber Hero to AudioQuest Niagara (silver). It was an expensive upgrade, but I wouldn’t call the performance improvement major. More of a “just a little closer to the real thing”. From what I have read over the years balanced cables are harder to improve upon. By that I mean a well designed, but lower cost balanced cable sounds very good, even excellent. To get significant improvements requires significant investment (you could probably say that about a lot of the high end, but I digress …). Mogami cables with Neutrik connectors, Kimber Hero, or the Wireworld are an excellent start.
Has anyone tested the BlueJeans balanced cables? I love their interconnects but haven’t used their balanced.
Elk is right about the Mogami Neglex being neutral. Until I used the XLR version between my GCD and Oppo, I had never heard a cable bring nothing to the system. Between my GCD and M700s, I use a homebrew XLR made from Ixos cable, which I had in my old system.
I am using their cables and they sound fine to me. I find Blue Jeans cable to be of good quality and at a much more decent price.
On the Mogami neglex, when I say it brings nothing to the system, I mean nothing in the neutral sense. It’s a good thing in a cable.
I’m using Audioquest King Cobra-good value at Music Direct’s current closeout price.
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I really like Cerious Technologies cables. I’m using their Graphene Extreme and it’s really good. However, it’s slightly over your price point at $350 for 1m.
I’m completely satisfied with cables (and speakers) from Zu Audio.
I use their “Event” series but their “Mission” series are also fabulous.
They sell their excess or discontinued stuff on Ebay. You can get some amazing deals.
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My dealer in Perth, Australia let me compare Van den Hul D-102 lll and Chord Shawline for a couple of weeks.
The Shawline to my ears, was the favoured interconnect. Unfortunately the more expensive one!
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I’m in the same boat (roughly) trying to find some balanced cables to run between my Gain Cell DAC and S300. Would the Kimber Hero’s provide the best bang-for-the-buck, or would I be better off with something form bluejeans cables or Mogami? I could get away with only a 1/2 meter of balanced cable, so the hero’s would set me back approximately $170.
Doug
I got these Mogamis
They’ll terminate them with Neutrik connectors for you.
I don’t know about the others but I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be happy with the Kimbers.
Hi Doug… is there any chance that you have a quality hifi dealer nearby that can offer you some loan interconnects to trial for a week or so?
I used to make most of my cable purchases online, however once I learnt that many shopfront dealers offered this home auditioning service, I haven’t shopped online since. There is obviously a huge profit margin in cables and a lot of dealers are also quite willing to negotiate a favourable price for you when dealing in person.
Thanks for your responses. Crane, I do have several quality hifi dealers in Colorado Springs, so perhaps I will contact them and see what they say. Good call. I should have thought of that since one of them let me in-home the Monitor Audio Silver 300’s that I ended up buying from them - don’t see why cables would be any different. I’m just concerned their selection will be limited, and I’ve heard good things about the Kimber Hero’s so I’m hoping they have those. In fact, I only need 1 pair - probably less than 1m since I’m stacking them on top of each other (different shelves though), so I can afford to go a bit nicer (relative term - afford)!
Using Blue Jeans (Belden) balanced cables. Wonderful!