Dot,

I recently saw a picture where you had a mic upside down (the ADK Vienna, if I remember correctly). The cable looked like a red garden hose, what is it? and why do you use it?

Did it look something like this.. ...



If so it's Blue's "Cranberry" cable.

BLUE Microphones Accessories

copperx, it's an XLR mic cable by Requisite Audio. They get used just like any other mic cable. It puts a high-quality cable in the path so as not to detract from the performance of the mics during evaluation.

I must say that sound quality aside, the cable thickness looks very sexy. I don't know why. It's not cheap, though. Does anybody know of a "thick" and cheap cable? (Yes, sometimes I'm superficial )

Why do you want thick?

I have one Monster cable, which is thicker than my Canare or Mogami and I much prefer to work with the Canare or Mogami.

It's like when heavy guitars were the rage because supposedly they have better sustain. I have found that generally, the lighter guitar the more resonance it has........not to mention much more comfortable to play for long periods.

quote:

Originally posted by copperx:
I must say that sound quality aside, the cable thickness looks very sexy. I don't know why. It's not cheap, though. Does anybody know of a "thick" and cheap cable? (Yes, sometimes I'm superficial )

I've got some power cables that actually DO use garden hose as a jacket (with heat shrink and fabric over it to make it look real purty and some beefy hospital grade Hubbels...looks cool as hell and even better, and I can't understand the physics here, sounds better than my skinny plain black IECs.

A couple audiophile friends of mine have some Purist Audio Dominus cables that are just about the thickest damn things I've ever seen, a good 3" in diameter I'd guess...and they cost upwards of 10 freakin grand(!!!!) I can't imagine spending that much but they do sound incredible. I personally have a 4m pair of Purist Proteus, which were the model down from the Dominus, though not nearly as thick, about like a nickel I'd say, and fluid filled so they're squishy. They're a bit touchy but they do sound freakin' awesome. A bit off topic from mic cables but since you bring up thick ass cool looking cables...

If it's big fat cables you like but have a light budget, DIY! You can make them as fat as you like and the sky's the limit with what you fill the space with.


My neighbor makes cables and I'm trying to get him to make me a set of balanced cables for my active monitors. He's still developing his favorite insulators--mine will probably end up being, of all things, slag based, with a layer of dry air and housed in a thick surgical tubing. I'll have a set of Neutrik XLRs put on and still on the fence about the cable stock--I'd like silver but silver is really easy to fuck up--can be lean and harsh if it's not high quality high purity and carefully selected--so probably will go with Teflon coated Cat5, very low capacitance an Teflon is a good dielectric material. Air is even better and possibly the slag--in my neighbor's single ended prototypes it's beating out the carbon-filled cables sonically.

Once you get past the cheap copper Monster hump there are some really interesting approaches to cabling. Some of the best cables I've heard are Virtual Dynamics which use strong magnets on the ends, right ahead of the terminations, and cryogenic treatment. Kind of a pain to hook up as the magnets are always grabbing each other LOL, but what a fast lively sound. My very favorites are Ridge Street Audio cables. The best silver cables I've ever heard, the best period I've heard actually. They're totally hand made using some proprietary processes, cryo-treating, and a very particular, very high quality 5 nines silver. Their insulator is a secret but I have my ideas. If they weren't so damned expensive I'd have them make me some custom mic cables and balanced monitor ICs! Oh well. I do plan to get thier digital ref coax cable though.


We are very crazy people, as you can see.



Dan, any idea what the Requisite's claim to fame is--what approach do they take?

I forgot the fact that Requisite Audio made cables. When I think of Requisite, I think about their mastering compressor.