Anyone have any experience with ZAOLLA cables?

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 12:40 pm

Anyone here ever use Zaolla cables? I hear they are quite good, but then some people say you don't need to spend that much and they aren't any better than Mogami, just hype. I'd like to hear if anyone has actual experience with using them though!

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:57 pm

Iv'e never used them. But you should read the rest of this post and if you don't agree with what it says then i'm sorry for waisting your time. I'll try not to be biased. From what I can tell they are the same as most other "highend" brands in the usual fancy packaging, bragging about the same materials and their manufacturing techniques.

Anyway, at one time when I didn't know any better I was really into having the best cables. Lately I feel different about it. I have lots of expensive highend cables (some that cost $100 per foot). Most electronics don't even employ materials that good, so... buying highend cables won't make your sound better. Remember something is only as good as its weakest link. Don't get me wrong, you should still buy quality cables so your sound won't depreciate. If you really understand the manufacturing process and what materials are used then you might be surprised at what you really only need. Here is a very basic example: I’ve seen manufacturers claim "Oxygen Free Copper" makes their conductor superior. What they don't tell you is that even the cheapest copper wire is oxygen free. It is a natural separation in the smelting process. It's a little more complicated than that but you get my point.

Zaolla along with many many other companies use Silver for their conductors by means of the same manufacturing process. I’m sure their insulation is great at keeping RFI out but it’s really overdone and a waist of materials. My point here is that do you really need all this? I guess you might if all the circuits and components in your mixer, stereo, instruments... where made from “pure silver”, but their not.

My suggestion for mike cables would be to use Belden 8412 wire with Switchcraft XLR's. Honestly your sound will be just as good.

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:56 pm

I spent a few moments one day at GC and tried the mic cable compared to both a Hosa and a belden and it did indeed sound different. It seemed to be brighter. Brighter doesn't mean better. It does have my interest. Sometime in the near future I will compare it to some of my gear and cables and see what's up.(Mogami/Monster/Cannare)

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:17 pm

I bought a pair of Zaolla silverline snakes for use on my rosetta 800, to me they sound significantly better than the Hosa or ProCo cables I've used in the past. YMMV

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 11:18 pm

Hosa might as well make coat hangers they suck so bad!

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:17 pm

ProGold and Deoxit are a better investment, IMHO. Also, I believe that the only advantage gained with a gold plated connector is when it's used with a gold plated jack. That is something to consider. The problem is usually at the connection...

-BH

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:46 am

Did a cable shootout for a local gear shop that had some Zaolla cable in for evaluation. I ran a 10 foot length of Zaolla mic cable against ten foot lengths of Canare L-2T2S and Rapco Roadhog cable. While the Zaolla seemed to have a slight bit more detail, it wasn't enough to justify the rather exhorbitant price difference IMO. A ten foot length of Zaollo mic cable is $117.00 retail. It's sturdy, well constructed cable with quality connectors, but IMO you'll get excellent results from either Rapco, Canare or Mogami cable which are all far more reasonably priced.

Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 1:53 pm

I had been a big naysayer for boutique cabling for years--mostly because I didn't want to consider a good reason for buying the stuff for my own studio. But the more I think about it, there are definite audible advantages of quality cabling. I think a lot of the more esoteric things are hogwash, but things to minimize cable capcitance and maximize shielding are good standards that do cost money and do make an impact. Of course it really depends on what your plugging the cable into and the characteristics of the input/output devices. The weakest link argument is valid, but many transmission line properties of electrical paths are proportional to the length of the path. If you are talking about the quality of the path inside a piece of gear, that is inches. But you are comparing that to a 10' cable. In the end there's just so much fudging it is probably just ear dependant and even dependant on your studio as well.

Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 11:44 pm

I have mostly Canare cabling, some Mogami and some Monster. When I first got my RADAR i needed a 20 dsub 8 channel snake to go from the mic pres to the RADAR in another room. I bought a proco snake at the local GC cause they had it in stock. I was suprised when I patched it in how mediocre my mics sounded. Needless to say I returned it and ordered a new canare snake.

I have a zoalla mic cable and when I A/B it with a canare cable I can hear a difference. But in the mix it doesn't seem noticeable. I'd like to hear zoalla cables to and from the recorder but I'm not ready to plunk down $800+ for the privilege.

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

How good was the wiring @ Abbey road in 1967?

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