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Chaining microphone cables
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Old 31st October 2007   #1
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Question Chaining microphone cables

Does sound quality suffer alot if I were to chain my 2 30 foot cables together to make a 60 foot cable? I have a live performance I need to record saturday and I only have 4 - 30ft cables, and I need 2 cables 50+ feet and I'm cheap...
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Old 31st October 2007   #2
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as long as the XLR connects are high quality, and the soldering job is a good one, shouldn't make that much of a difference.

of course, assuming that it's a balanced signal. if it's unbalanced, forget 60ft.
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Old 31st October 2007   #3
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Yes sir, XLR, high quality doubtfull :P I don't even know what kind they are...
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Old 1st November 2007   #4
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As long as your connectors and cables are fine, you'll be fine. I chain cables all the time. I try to avoid it, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

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Old 1st November 2007   #5
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Each connection adds a point of failure, but, as others have pointed out, if you use quality cables then you'll be fine. Make sure the XLR's do not have broken locking tabs.
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Old 1st November 2007   #6
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If it helps, I've chained three 50 footers together in a pinch. I sort of built my own 6 ch snake with returns for FOH amps this way. Though hardly noticeable, your highs will diminish as the distance lengthens... But I didn't notice a great change comparing 30' and 150' [edit: using quality parts on the custom-made 50 footers, btw]
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Old 1st November 2007   #7
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Just make sure nobody got clever and lifted the ground on one end of the cables!

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Old 1st November 2007   #8
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Excellent.

I'm with you folks on these points


Quote:
Originally Posted by theblotted View Post
as long as the XLR connects are high quality, and the soldering job is a good one, shouldn't make that much of a difference.

of course, assuming that it's a balanced signal. if it's unbalanced, forget 60ft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fifthcircle View Post
As long as your connectors and cables are fine, you'll be fine. I chain cables all the time. I try to avoid it, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

--Ben
Quote:
Originally Posted by bishopthomas View Post
Each connection adds a point of failure, but, as others have pointed out, if you use quality cables then you'll be fine. Make sure the XLR's do not have broken locking tabs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Testing123 View Post
Just make sure nobody got clever and lifted the ground on one end of the cables!

-Keith
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Old 3rd November 2007   #9
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perfect application for a proper test set (such as Terrasonde/Sencore, or my favorite Minirator & Minilyzer) to measure continuity, polarity, and voltage over frequency. When I link multiple XLRs I always test them like this.

I also test all my XLR cables this way in advance when the gear is being prepped for a gig anyway...
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