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I'm trying to find 20' gold plated 16 awg mic cables with lifetime guarantee. Monoprice only carries 15 and 25. I already have their 35' and I'm happy with them other than the excess length I usually have.

If I can't find 20' then I will go with their 25'. Any suggestions?

Yes, Mogami cables is the best option and you should use gold plated ONLY if the female connector also has a gold plated connection

I don't know why you want gold-plated. Unless you are buying really expensive cables, and even then, that is not necessary. (No, you don't need to match metals.)

I find the Whirlwind cables from zZounds work great. They are $10.00 for one, or $99.00 for 18 of them. I bought the 18-pack. If I need lengths more than 20', I just plug them together.

No lifetime guarantee, but after nearly a year I haven't had one fail yet. If I were to suspect a failure, I would just toss it and replace it.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--WHRMC20

You can get 18 of these good quality cables for the price of 2 Mogami. (And no, cables don't affect sound.)

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

But why? Mic cables will go bad over time - I go through 1 every 6-8 months, why not spend a few bucks more initially & never waste money on another mic cable? Maybe that's just me, but I can't see spending money I don't need to spend. Haven't paid for a mic cable in nearly 10 years.

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It's your opinion Cables DO affect sound and sorry, you NEVER mixed metal!

BTW, it's not a personal opinion but something I've been reading, told... but I do share it based on my OWN experience

Well, I misquoted myself. The ones I have now are actually 50 foot. I will keep them for backup and I purchased 3 25'. 2 for my mains and one for the wired mic. I won't buy cheap, I buy lifetime warranty only.

These aren't for mics, they are for speakers, aren't they?

I use Live Wire lifetime guarantee cables for my main singer mics. I have three of those, and they take the bulk of the wear and tear. I haven't had to replace one yet in a couple of hundred gigs.

But to connect my powered speakers and powered monitor, as well as use for secondary mic cords and rack interconnects, I find using the good-quality Whirlwind to be simple and trouble-free. I need 10 or more mic cables, at least, for all my uses. I chose to invest in three of the $30.00 cables and 18 of the $5.00 cables. That gives me what I need for less than $200.00, and gives me spares and extra length for long runs and lost and out-of-service cables. If I bought a dozen of the lifetime cables, I would have to spend twice that, and would be rationing cables in comparison.

I keep the Whirlwinds on two cable reels split between the two non-stationary rigs, and wind them up and out as I need them. If I have to position a powered speaker or fill 60' away, no problem -- I just use three of those connected together.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

For powered speaker runs or mic cables for that matter I recommend beldin 8451 cable cut to length with Canon xlr plugs. That is if you want to get serious then you will learn how to use a soldering iron. I do repair my own in the field but that is my choice and not recommended for eveyone.

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I don't use them for my speakers, but would. All my balanced cables throughout the PA itself are all lifetime warrantied. Even if they don't get touched, eventually will go bad. I am just about to do a complete cord replacement of all my processors from the mixer to the amps after 3 years of just sitting in the same exact place, never being moved, a couple cords are actually going bad - won't cost a dime to replace.

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Who told you that? Mogami?

You can get very few serious audio engineers to state that cables affect sound by their construction. They use high quality cables -- as I do -- because of the reliability. They don't have to worry so much about contacts corroding, strain reliefs failing, etc. But a brand new Whirlwind cable and a Mogami cable -- you simply wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you did a true blind test. Resistance is resistance and zero ohms is zero ohms.

If you are talking speaker cables, gauge of cable definitely makes a difference. It is because longer cables present a higher impedance and cause more power loss.

No one has been able to prove that line-level cables exhibit any difference based on construction, presuming that they don't have deficiencies. "Audiophiles" sometimes claim they hear a difference, but that seems to be mostly in their imagination since they have been repeatedly unable to tell the difference in blind tests.

Next time this argument comes up on LAB lounge, go press your opinion.

With regard to metal on metal, over time in permanently installed setups you can see some ionic migration that can occur, causing problems. But in systems where the cables are constantly connected and disconnected, this will not be a problem. In general, it is a mistake to buy gold-plated cables because most audio equipment you are connecting to doesn't have gold-plated connectors. But again, it won't make any difference if you are constantly disconnecting and connecting.

P.S. Anything *anyone* posts is always their opinion, unless they make a citation. At which point what they cite is someone else's opinion.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

You may not hear the difference but maybe others can Read this article:

http://www.pcrecording.com/cable.htm

BTW, I didn't write the article

No, Mogami did.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Thanks for this excellent article - good read. The technical piece basically says/agrees what my Bible (Sound Reinforcement Handbook) says about the varying quality and characteristics of cable construction, but in more detail.

I agree that better cables are probably well worth the money when in a studio.

But...is that difference really noticeable in a noisy bar filled with half drunk patrons shouting out "Sweet Caroline"?

You're correct, a Mogami for live is a waste even though it offer a better sound, good chance you'll never hear the difference But, I'd say you still need to buy a quality cable like Lonnie said

That's one way to go, but it's not a paying proposition at a 5x premium. Even if you can manage the receipts and the cables, and you think the lifetime is going to go through 3-4 replacement cycles on each one, it still might not pay because it takes time and gasoline to get the cable replaced. For me, that is a major deal as I am not close to a store.

I do it for the singer mic cables, as those are going to get real abuse. The lifetime guarantee cables are of better construction and lay flatter to boot. When they inevitably fail, I can replace them, but that isn't why I buy them. I do it because they will last longer.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

At audio frequencies cable is not that much of a factor. For video 0-4.5MHZ it it becomes a factor but on any cable run the termination 75 ohms is more important. In the uhf range 100 feet of co-ax will totally attenuate 1000 microvolts of signal.

For an absolute test I would have to sweep it with a spectrum analyzer and build graphs. Then I would know what it's parameters are.

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Guitar Center you don't need the reciept - at least the 2 I frequent up here never asked for one, they have your records on file. As far as cost, the ones I got were not that much more than a cheap comparison, maybe by a few bucks. It's worth it to me to never buy another cable.

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$29.99 for Monster Basic XLR cables from Sam Ash with lifetime warranty. So for $60.00, I have two that they replace for free at the store whenever I want. I bought those cables back in 2003, and have replaced 5 cables over that time. So, I have spent $60.00 plus about $10.00 in gas (Sam Ash is about 15 miles from my house). So I have spent $70.00. If you don't have a store near you, or just don't want to drive, you can send them into Monster and get new ones back in the mail in about 2-3 weeks.

You spent $99.00 for 18 cables that will eventually, one by one, go bad and need to be replaced with more $99.00 cables. That is "not a paying proposition" compared to the Monster cables, or any others with a lifetime warranty.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Why would you think Whirlwind cables are going to go bad? They are a good brand, Whirlwind snakes are top notch. Haven't had one go yet. They are not like those cheap cables you buy at GC or Sam Ash. Those are awful -- wouldn't take one if you paid me to do so.

As far as replacing them, I live 50 miles from Sam Ash or Guitar Center, and rarely get there. I do everything by mail order. Not only that, I pay myself $25.00 an hour minimum for my time, since I work for myself. If it takes me three hours and 100 miles at even a cheap 38cents a mile, I can buy the $99.00 cables and have them shipped to my door for what it costs me to go replace one that cost me $30.00 in the first place.

I am offering options. I am convinced that the mix I selected -- good quality cables for speakers and interconnect, top-quality cables for singers, is the best for me. It has worked out great after almost two years.

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.