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do microphone cable brands make a difference
in over all sound

Comments

Ravikash Mon, 10/04/2010 - 14:47

This is a bit of a tough question to answer, technically speaking, no. Its just wires, so name brands don't really determine anything. When buying cables you want to buy something, that is dependable and a good quality. The point of buying cables is to have something that gives you a clean signal and will stand up to wear and tear.

TheJackAttack Mon, 10/04/2010 - 15:20

For very short runs the answer is no, provided the wire is of reasonable quality, the connectors are good quality and properly assembled, and provided the cable hasn't been kinked or pulled/stretch across some corner etc.

For long runs quality of the wire and type is important not just for signal degradation but also for RF rejection. There is a reason why Canare quad and equivalent is often used for high end recording.

RemyRAD Mon, 10/04/2010 - 19:40

We use to measure a cables quality by how dense the braided shield was. If it was dense with a high strand count & made from copper, you had a good cable. If the wire had double twisted pairs, you had an even better microphone cable. If you found you had a second braided shield, you had even better microphone cable. If the shield was a piece of aluminum foil with a wire, that's not microphone cable. Fine for line level devices. Everything else is crap. Microphone cabling, like tubes, can also be microphonic. Even some nicely made Mogami microphone cable with a copper twist shield was microphonic. If people were walking on the cables, you could hear the electrons being squeezed. That was a rotten surprise and one you don't want. While I won't buy MONSTER cable, generally because it is overkill, it still makes one realize that wire can very much affect the way a microphone sounds. This is even more important for low output microphone such as ribbon microphones. As your microphone cable gets longer its capacitance increases along with its losses from length. In essence, every microphone cable becomes a rudimentary rolloff filter. With less noticeable audible effects the shorter you are, the better you are. I frequently have to deal with microphone cable lengths of 300 to over 900 feet in length. And I cannot afford the high-priced snake cabling. So these artifacts & problems must always be in mind.

I like to measure long ones
Mx. Remy Ann David

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