[Exacoustatowner]

   
One can measure this sort of thing, and as used driven by a low impedance source (headphone amplifier) and driving a modest impedance load (heapdhones) finding frequency response issues due to the cable will be difficult unless its inductance or series resistance is relatively high.
 
You didn't mention what wire the XLR cable was made from - there are options.
 
However one option appears to be

Belden 1800F cable.​

   http://www.belden.com/techdatas/metric/1800F.pdf
 
Its resistance and capacitance is nominal, and most significantly its conductor's resistance is stated to be 77 ohms per kilometer.  A 1 meter cable can be expected to have a resistance of 0.154 ohm which is trivial in this context. It is highly improbable that 1 meter of this cable has audible losses when used to drive headphones.

•  
  

Hi Arnie
Would that not be 0.077 Ohm? Actually they are listed at 3 feet which is 36 inches- a little under a meter which is closer to 39 inches) I don't know the original manufacturer of the cables. Here is the description. " http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/all-patch/37-290.html"
 
I don't believe that there are any well made cables that act as low or high pass filters-just wondering if there were any measurements of typical XLR cables to refer the person to without being rude. 

 

[arnyk]

   
That concern strikes me as interesting.  Care to elaborate on that?

 
I see no concern on my part...

 

[maverickronin]

Well, that Belden is spec'd at 85pf a meter so if you hang 15M off an electric guitar pickup with an Zout of 10Kohms you'll be down 3dB at ~12.5Khz so it depends what the cable is attached to.
 
Most home audio geat,  DACs, amps, and even tube buffers, shouldn't have Zouts high enough to cause problems like that though.

 

[upstateguy]

 

   
That concern strikes me as interesting.  Care to elaborate on that?

 
I see no concern on my part...

 I wasn't very clear.  In discussing frequency response issues relative to inductance and resistance in cables.....
 
You said, "You didn't mention what wire the XLR cable was made from - there are options." 
 
So I assumed that what you meant was that the material the cable was made from had some sort of impact on the sound and was wondering if you might elaborate on that.

 

[arnyk]

  Hi Arnie
Would that not be 0.077 Ohm? Actually they are listed at 3 feet which is 36 inches- a little under a meter which is closer to 39 inches) I don't know the original manufacturer of the cables. Here is the description. " http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/all-patch/37-290.html"
 
I don't believe that there are any well made cables that act as low or high pass filters-just wondering if there were any measurements of typical XLR cables to refer the person to without being rude. 

 
yes, finger glitch. 77/1000 or 0.077 ohm per meter, which is negligible for this application.
 
Between the fact that no manufacturer of standard cables would try to sneak in low pass filters  severe enough to be audible, and the relatively short length of the cable, audible effects are pretty well factored out of the situation. It would take a lot of planning and scheming for them to have audible effects!
 
I've been known to use mic and jumper cables from that source, and they have been just fine.
http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/bulk-mic-cable/31-102.html  for details about the actual wire used.
 
 
The copper conductors are 21 gauge which is on the heavy side for mic cables so they are a little extra strong. They claim that the jacket is rubber and free from triboelectric effects which can be more of an issue when they are actually used for microphones.

 

[arnyk]

 
 I wasn't very clear.  In discussing frequency response issues relative to inductance and resistance in cables.....
 
You said, "You didn't mention what wire the XLR cable was made from - there are options." 
 
So I assumed that what you meant was that the material the cable was made from had some sort of impact on the sound and was wondering if you might elaborate on that.

 
the two wires that they offer as options have different electrical characteristics. Not different enough to make a difference in this application, just different enough to be different. 

 

[Exacoustatowner]

yes, finger glitch. 77/1000 or 0.077 ohm per meter, which is negligible for this application.

Between the fact that no manufacturer of standard cables would try to sneak in low pass filters  severe enough to be audible, and the relatively short length of the cable, audible effects are pretty well factored out of the situation. It would take a lot of planning and scheming for them to have audible effects!

I've been known to use mic and jumper cables from that source, and they have been just fine.
http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/bulk-mic-cable/31-102.html  for details about the actual wire used.


The copper conductors are 21 gauge which is on the heavy side for mic cables so they are a little extra strong. They claim that the jacket is rubber and free from triboelectric effects which can be more of an issue when they are actually used for microphones.

Thanks Arnyk
About what I thought. It would require extra effort and material to purposely make a horrible XLR cable.
Evidently there is a magical effect in play with the persons Blue Jeans Cable XLRs.

 

[Speedskater]

Aren't there two conductors?
So 0.077 + 0.077 = 0.154 per meter.

 

[arnyk]

  Aren't there two conductors?
So 0.077 + 0.077 = 0.154 per meter.

 
 
That was the number I posted first in http://www.head-fi.org/t/729693/the-voodoo-less-cable-thread-reasonable-cable-vendors-and-reviews/180#post_11758290  and the fact that there were 2 conductors were the reason why.

 

[icebear]

LOL

Folks, the two conductors have a resistance of 0.077 Ohm / meter.
The total resistance of the finished cable is 1m x 0.077 Ohm/m = 0.077 Ohms
When the cable is 2m : 2m x 0.077 Ohm/m = 0.154 Ohm
 
But when you have two conductors these are each 1m and next to each other, not behind each other.
So the cable is 1m long but has two conductors in parallel, each with 0.077 Ohm.
The total 1m cable with 2 conductors will have a little less resistance than a single conductor, theoretically half (0.077Ohm / 2 = 0.0385 Ohm) but usally that's not what is actually achievable.

 

[Steve Eddy]

LOL
Folks, the two conductors have a resistance of 0.077 Ohm / meter.
The total resistance of the finished cable is 1m x 0.077 Ohm/m = 0.077 Ohms
When the cable is 2m : 2m x 0.077 Ohm/m = 0.154 Ohm

But when you have two conductors these are each 1m and next to each other, not behind each other.
So the cable is 1m long but has two conductors in parallel, each with 0.077 Ohm.
The total 1m cable with 2 conductors will have a little less resistance than a single conductor, theoretically half (0.077Ohm / 2 = 0.0385 Ohm) but usally that's not what is actually achievable.

When used as a cable, the conductors are not in parallel. They are in series. So the resistance of each conductor adds. So the total resistance of a 1 meter cable is indeed 0.154 ohms.

se

 

[icebear]

When used as a cable, the conductors are not in parallel. They are in series. So the resistance of each conductor adds. So the total resistance of a 1 meter cable is indeed 0.154 ohms.

se

????

physically the conductors are next to each other, each one connected to the plug are they?
At least that's the way I configured my XLR cable, for me that is parallel.
 
For my limited understanding the 2 conductors are not wired behind (in series ?) each other -----c1----- ------c2------
Am I missing something?
http://physics.bu.edu/py106/notes/Circuits.html

 

[cjl]

 
????

physically the conductors are next to each other, each one connected to the plug are they?
At least that's the way I configured my XLR cable, for me that is parallel.
 
For my limited understanding the 2 conductors are not wired behind (in series ?) each other -----c1----- ------c2------
Am I missing something?
http://physics.bu.edu/py106/notes/Circuits.html

Parallel vs series isn't about whether they are physically next to each other, it's about how they're wired. In the case of the cable, the signal goes down one cable, through the headphone, and then back through the other cable, so the signal must traverse both cables to complete the circuit. Because of this, they are in series.

 

[icebear]

OK, slight missunderstanding about the cable type ...
I used a star quad type, which has 4 conductors + shield. I used 2 conductors for pos. and two conductors for neg.
This makes two in parallel and then in series

 

[Steve Eddy]

???? :confused_face(1): physically the conductors are next to each other, each one connected to the plug are they?
At least that's the way I configured my XLR cable, for me that is parallel.

For my limited understanding the 2 conductors are not wired behind (in series ?) each other -----c1----- ------c2------
Am I missing something?
http://physics.bu.edu/py106/notes/Circuits.html

Yes. You're missing the bigger picture that we're talking about a circuit.

Go to the link and look at series resistance.

Eliminate R3. Then move R1 to the return line down below R2. R1 represents the resistance of one wire and R2 represents the resistance of the other wire. Although now the two resistors are "next to each other," just like the two wires are "next to each other" in the cable. But in terms of the circuit, they are still in series.

Don't feel bad. I had a bit of a time wrapping my head around this too back when I was first learning basic circuit theory. The way things are drawn in textbooks often doesn't help when it comes to thinking about real world circuits. Hopefully visualizing it like I described above will help make it "click" for you. If not, I can try and explain it better for you.

se