Cable Quality Comparison - Mogami or Canare

[Calvin]

Hey guys,
I have been thinking about buying some cable in bulk and making a bunch of XLR cables for the studio. I have some basic questions about what makes up good cable. I want High Quality cable and the two biggest cable manufacturers that I have been told to buy from are Mogami and Canare(I'm not even considering Monster because I think their cables are ridiculously priced).

Here is a quick link to the Mogami Quad Cable Here

And the link to the Canare equivilant Star Quad Cable is Here

Ok so lets start off with the most basic question, how do you solder a quad cable to a XLR Connector? ok I understand you need A positive and a negative and a ground so do two wires go to the positive and two to the negative and the sheilding gets wired as the ground?

Next, which type of sheilding is better? The braided copper sheild or the spiral copper sheild better for sound quality?

And last, with Mogami bulk cable costing almost twice as much as Canare bulk cable, is there any major reason not to go with the canare?


Any Comments would be appreciated

[Lowfreq]

Hi Calvin. I have used both cable maker's cables listed and found them identical in sound quality and duarability. I have used Canare Star Quad cable more than Mogami (about 4/1 or so) and have never been let down. Quality connectors are really more important than cable to a certain degree.

Ok so lets start off with the most basic question, how do you solder a quad cable to a XLR Connector? ok I understand you need A positive and a negative and a ground so do two wires go to the positive and two to the negative and the sheilding gets wired as the ground?

You pair up your conductors. two red to positive, two white to negagtive, and shield to ground. The concept of 'star quad' or 4 signal conductor cables is they can wisthsatnd more abuse without crackles or failures. Since you have two pairs tranferring the signal broken conductor won't affect your sound. It's all about durability. For live use it's mandatory. Canare comes in a lot of colors. Not sure about Mogami (besides black and white).

Next, which type of sheilding is better? The braided copper sheild or the spiral copper sheild better for sound quality?

Better? As long as both have the same coverage they should shield the same. Duarabilty is high with both 'versions'. Stay away from foil shields unless it's a permanent install. Flexiblity is practically the same as well. Marketing hype is at work here.

Another player in bulk cable is Belden. I was a long time Belden user then I needed some cable quickly and my suplliers were out of it. So I orderd up some Canare and later Mogami and never looked bakc. Belden is a fine cable maker but a little pricy and they have very few color choices (important for my custom cables). Neutrik's & Switchcraft connectors (gold pin varietes really last long). Best of luck.

[Calvin]

Thanks Lowfreq, I had figured that there was just some marketing hype going on about the differences in sheilding types, but I had to check to make sure. I too like the idea of lots of color choices, Purple is a running theme in my studio, well maybe not a theme, just the color of my sheets on the bed in my room.

[RolandK]

There are some sellers on ebay that have good prices on Canare and Mogami like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=41460

[Matt Whritenour]

There are some sellers on ebay that have good prices on Canare and Mogami like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=41460

but if you buy the cables and connectors, and solder them ur self it would be
about 15$ for that cable u can buy on ebay for 30

[Calvin]

Man if you got one of those $200 heat shrink printers, You could offer to personalize cables for free and I bet you could make a nice chunck of change off something like ebay.

[Lowfreq]

Check out Markertek. They have Canare Star Quad in Purple (my persoanl favorite as well). They also have red, yellow, blue, white, orange, green, brown, & black.