XLR Cables

[inspire]

Who do you think I am? 😄
This is a very serious audio cable, and what makes it special is the fact that it is very well shielded, which ensures a clean signal even when used near Wi-Fi sources and power cables.

Both cables are 1.5 m long, and if needed I can connect them together — for example when using my shotgun microphone — to get a total length of 3 m. I’m already very excited to hear how much of a difference this will make in my recordings.

I already have the first location picked out where I’ll use it, and yes — I’m basically planning to record silence in the courtyard of an ancient monastery (Pirita Convent).

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

6 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

Good luck sending a balanced signal down those.

 Actually, I take that back, you can send the ground down the shield.  So you can do it.  Probably still has higher noise than starquad on long runs, but it is at least technically possible to balance it.

2 minutes ago, inspire said:

Who do you think I am? 😄

Someone who needs to read up on noise rejection and twisted pairs.

[Paul F]

For you future cable purchase considerations, people have suggested using Canare cable. Here is a comparison.

 

 

[Bouke]

13 hours ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

Someone who needs to read up on noise rejection and twisted pairs.

Please enlighten me. Balanced (ground, hot, return) uses the difference between hot and return and hot and ground to decuct leaked noise, right?
What has that to do with twisted pairs? Total different way of doing about the same, but I've seen that in network and telephone, never in pro audio.

 

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

31 minutes ago, Bouke said:

Please enlighten me. Balanced (ground, hot, return) uses the difference between hot and return and hot and ground to decuct leaked noise, right?
What has that to do with twisted pairs? Total different way of doing about the same, but I've seen that in network and telephone, never in pro audio.

 

 

The most commonly used XLR cable (Canare L-4E6S, mentioned by Paul F & others in this thread) is two twisted pairs plus a shield, a configuration that is colloquially known as star-quad.  So it's very common, just perhaps not commonly known by people who don't build their own cables.

Mic levels are very low, and sending them a long way (30m+) means many, many different measures to reduce noise and EMI need to be taken.  Braided shielding, balanced circuitry and twisted pairs are three common design features.  As you say, different ways of achieving the same goal, and they are additive, so it all helps.

For a 1.5m lengths like inspire is messing with ... I'm sure his speaker cables will work at that length.  At that length even bare wire won't pick up much additive noise (might be measurable, but probably not audible).  At longer lengths, you need to take all measures, and the speaker cables won't do as well.

[Paul F]

6 hours ago, Bouke said:

Please enlighten me. Balanced (ground, hot, return) uses the difference between hot and return and hot and ground to decuct leaked noise, right?
What has that to do with twisted pairs? Total different way of doing about the same, but I've seen that in network and telephone, never in pro audio.

 

 

Balanced audio cables use twisted pairs with a shield.

Telephony uses twisted pairs, no shield. 

 

In both cases, the twisted pair is received by a differential receiver which rejects common mode noise on the twisted pair.

 

Balanced cable does not use the shield for any active circuit noise reduction. It is just a shield. 

[inspire]

16 hours ago, Paul F said:

For you future cable purchase considerations, people have suggested using Canare cable. Here is a comparison.

 

 

 

The specifications for the In-Akustik S25 cable shown in Paul F’s photo can be found earlier in this thread (on the first page), as we received these details directly from the manufacturer (specifications for the In-Akustik Exzellenz Connect 212 Audio cable from the manufacturer).

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Great.  Let's do some math with these specs.  At 100m (the maximum realistic length for XLR before noise starts to become an issue in good quality cable), the (theoretical, calculated) 3dB rolloff for Canare L-4E6S is ~1.2MHz (1÷(2×π×8.6Ω×144e⁻¹²F×100m)), and for in-Akustik S25 is ~3.6MHz (1÷(2×π×12Ω×36e⁻¹²F×100m)).  In other words, both are two orders of magnitude higher than the maximum audible frequency (20kHz), so any issues of frequency roll for either cable are a complete non-issue.

At that same 100m length, the higher resistance of the speaker cable (16Ω vs. 8.6Ω) will lead to roughly double the signal loss, and much poorer shielding and lack of twisted pairs will lead to much higher noise, which will combine to make the signal likely unusable for the speaker cable.  The Canare will probably be fine.  But it's not something you can easily calculate, and it depends on how strong the signal is (not strong for mic-level signals), and how bad and how close the external noise is (AC & Cell signals were cited, both of which are likely to be audible on a badly placed, badly shielded 100m run).

At the 1.5m length that you are actually using, both will be fine.

[inspire]

I do not argue. I just wanted something good and got it. I have had expensive things that I did not have to be satisfied with. Including RCA cables that were expensive, but the connection to the nest was too dense and it was very bad to unify and unify them. There have been expensive USB stick, which gave very quickly ends (deaths away) etc. I am pleased with this cable. Yes, maybe a small overkill, but I got what I wanted.

[Paul F]

I don't know how I missed the capacitance  comparison Inspire. I went to the link in your first post looking for specifications. 

 

[inspire]

I made my first recordings at the ruins of Pirita Convent, using a Schoeps MiniCMIT GR microphone with a Rycote Windshield Kit MiniCMIT:
Recorded on 29 December 2025 at the ruins of Pirita Convent
Link:
https://freesound.org/people/inspire153/sounds/840366/

This recording was made using two connected 1.5 m S25 Connect 212 Audio | XLR cables.

I also tested different NoiseAssist plugin settings: –14 dB, –3 dB, 0 dB, and –5 dB.
Yes, the NoiseAssist plugin is a very powerful tool. I currently own only one license, but I will probably need to purchase a second one in the future, so I can apply it to both channels when working with stereo recordings.

I’m also including a screenshot from iZotope.

 

[inspire]

Bell chimes of St. John’s Church (Jaani Kirik) in Tallinn, Estonia, recorded outdoors at Vabaduse Square on January 20, 2026 at 11:00.

Recorded using a Sound Devices MixPre-6 II with a Schoeps MiniCMIT GR microphone. N.Asst was set to -7 dB.

This recording was made using two connected 1.5 m S25 Connect 212 Audio | XLR cables.
Air temperature during the recording was -7°C.

Link:
https://freesound.org/people/inspire153/sounds/842634/
 

[Jason Nicholas]

Different to audio cables of course, but I just finished two days of training at work to do test and and tagging of single and three phase devices and cabling; there is something strangely satisfying about examining cabling and testing the health of it (I may think differently about this after testing the many thousands of devices and leads we have in a major event venue that’s over 100 years old).