Microphone Cable Shootout

[thesilentdrummer]

Ever since I my last purchase of a new mic, mic cable, and mic stand, I have wanted to do a cable shootout because with each new mic, I purchased a different kind of cable. I was planning on getting around to it, but Brandon's recent blog prompted me to do it now. Here's the Breakdown:

There are 4 cables

• Shure Cable, 15', that came with my PG57's. Price Unknown, Price per foot (PPF) unknown.
• Live Wire Cable, 20', (For the purpose of this experiment, now called Cheap Live Wire Cable). Price, $15; PPF, $.75
• Live Wire Cable, 25', (for the purpose of this experiment, now called Expensive Live Wire Cable). Price, $30; PPF, $1.20
• Monster 100 Cable, 20'. Price, $30; PPF, $1.50

Apart from that information, the Shure cable is the thinnest and most flimsy. That is followed by Monster 100, then the Cheap Live Wire, with the Expensive Live Wire the thickest.

The mic (Nady RSM5, my new mic), preamp (Presonus Firestudio Project Pre's), gain, pop filter, and distance from mic were all constant for each cable. No effects, equalization, compression, limiting, or ****ing (haha) devices or plugins were used.


What are you waiting for?? Listen to the clip! Don't scroll down until you are ready to look at the results.

[thesilentdrummer]

The Results








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Cable 1: Shure Cable
Cable 2: Cheap Live Wire Cable
cable 3: Monster 100 Cable
Cable 4: Expensive Live Wire Cable.

So, could you tell a difference between the 4 clips??? I certainly couldn't. What this does for me is completely debunks the quality of cables myth. When I was buying my monster cable (at guitar Center), I really didn't want to buy it. I didn't feel like spending $30 on a 20 ft cable when I bought my longer "expensive livewire" for the same price. When I asked if he had any live wire cables, he said they didn't have any at the time, and further questioning yielded the response that going any cheaper would make the audio quality suffer. So I bought my first (and last) monster cable.

Also, the monster cable female connector is slightly larger than my other cable's female connectors. This made it a bitch to get in and out of the mic.

All of the them sound the same to me. So it comes down to durability. In the studio , I see no reason why any of them couldn't last a long time. They all could be stepped on (on a carpeted or wood floor) without a problem. On the road, the Shure and even the Monster cable might run into some problems with ware. I feel that the cheap live wire could take a good beating. I think that the cockroaches will be using my expensive live wire cable the world is nuked out. The connectors on the Monster do look most solidly built (and they look cooler too), but I don't think any of the other connectors are subject to durability issues.

The thing that frightens me is that I only have Monster Standard 100 cable. They sell the Performer Monster 500 (20' cable is $60, $3 a foot) and Studio Monster 1000 (20' cable will only set you back $130, $6.5 a foot).


Trust your ears and make your own decision. Feel free to comment and discuss.

[thesilentdrummer]

One more thing: I have been told that expensive cables aren't worth the extra money -- there are a thousand other factors that affect my recordings/live sound quality before the cables. I half-heartedly believed that before, but now I have tangible proof. Hopefully reluctant people who HAVE to have Monster Cable now know they don't NEED it. I will boycott Monster Cables (for this and other reasons). But you are free to do whatever you like, as long as you don't have any preconceived notions of a "best".


All this bashing of Monster Cables is NOT a reflection of its sound quality. It is quite good, but there are other companies that offer same quality products for less, and those companies don't sue anyone with similar names.

[magno]

Without cheating, and giving it 2 listens...
1,4,2,3
best to ummm well they all kinda sounded the same
good job

[thesilentdrummer]

Originally Posted by ap1325

I prefered #1 but it could be a diference in your vocal tone and not the cable itself.

Exactly. I tried to SPEAK the lines exactly the same (try singing or playing guitar exactly the same... much harder). A slight variance in the way I talk impacts the sound 1000 times more than the cable used, I think.

Its interesting that both of you preferred the "cheapest" cable. Probably the way I spoke it.

[SomeAudioGuy]

Another microphone cable I've come to really like over the last couple years is Mogami. Even the Mogami "Silvers" (their budget line) have served me very well.

I've just recently started getting into George L for instrument and patch cabling.

[thesilentdrummer]

Originally Posted by ap1325

FYI: I was not influenced by 'magno', I had picked my choice before I read his reply to your post.

Didn't think you were. That makes it even more intriguing.

[richiebee]

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest factor in deciding what cables to buy is how well made they are, and how easily they coil.

[thesilentdrummer]

Hmm, I was thinking: mic cables say that they have superior shielding from stuff like AC hum. So is there a way to make a "gun" that shoots out interfering waves that I could sibject the cables to?? I thought about wrapping the cables in extension chords and connecting them to high current sources (toasters or high wattage/current lights or something), but would that work?? Whats the physics behind it?

[magno]

Originally Posted by thesilentdrummer

Hmm, I was thinking: mic cables say that they have superior shielding from stuff like AC hum. So is there a way to make a "gun" that shoots out interfering waves that I could sibject the cables to?? I thought about wrapping the cables in extension chords and connecting them to high current sources (toasters or high wattage/current lights or something), but would that work?? Whats the physics behind it?

Yesss, that's a good idea.
Coil them up in a a big ball, put some power bars on top loaded with ac/dc power supplies(and toasters).
Make sure you plug your amp in to the power bar that has the ground plug yanked out of it.
Or you could just bring the cables over here, probably the same effect.