Hello
I hope that this is informatic, it is based on several personal test that I have done in the last 16 months. Sorry for bad english.
Mic Cables imo are a very important thing in the signal chane, and the choice of cable I take as serious as the choice of the converter I use. Oposite a Mic or a mic pre where personal taste is an issue for a converter or a cable there is no such thing as personal taste, the more transparent the better.
The difficulty imo with comparisions is to make sure to really listen to the difference in the cable. If a singer sings in a mic, then you change the cable and the singer sings again the difference in the tone produced by the singer is much bigger than the difference of the sound of the cable.
One interessting test I and a friend of mine have done was that we splittet the output of a brauner vm1 (the XLR Output of the powersuppley) with a mic splitter into 3 outs. the 3 outs went to a GML 8304 Preamp (then to a meitner 8 channal converter). From the output of the VM1 Suppley we used a very short cable. Then we connected three identical cables (with identical lenth) to the 3 outputs into the GML. This was to check that the outputs of the splitter and the inputs of the GML all were identical. We listened carefully and did phase filp tests to make sure that this was the case.
Then we used 3 different cables. There was a quite big difference, certainly bigger than I thought, and with a good monitor system easy to hear for everybody. For all the peoples involved (Me as soundengineer, my friend the Mastering Engineer, one other engineer and two musicians) there was no question of taste, it was just a clear order of which cables sounded the most transparent and uncolored while not "stressy" and agressive.
Another test we have done was that we thought the difference in cables should also be there with linelevel signals. If so, it should be more easy to do tests. One test we did was that we had a musictrack in the DAW going out of a Meitner 8 Channal AD (2 times stereo) and go to directly to the Meitner AD, using different cables for the stereo pairs. The difference where a little harder to hear, yet still there and very well reproducable. We recorded the signals that went throug the DA/AD back to the DAW, so we could also compare to the original.
So to sum up (without going to much into the details)
Some of the most expensive cables seemed to have much better marketing then sound...
Some that I liked:
The Gotham
(which one did you use? Please edit the model into your post, for clarity, then remove my note- K.H.)
was a good cable, very equal in frequency response imo and not "stressy", not harsh, very enyoing. However it seems to me that it is not great on transients, and it is not able to reproduce the depth of field information absolut corectly.
The Epilog Kabel (Sommercable). Very Equal in frequency response, extremly transparent. Does not have the shortcommings of the Gottham. It is more expensive, but still payable. Klaus: I am sure you would like that cable!
The Vovox Cable:
New on the marked, made by a swiss firm. I am still checking that cable, but I think it is extremly interesting. Very good on transients and depth of field information. A little (really only a little) stessed on the range between 2 and 5 khz.
Btw: Dirk Brauner was totally convinced by this cable, and the more expensive of his tube mikes now comes with a vovox cable to connect the Mic to the Power supply.
(Not the KHE! I hated that cable's coldness, constriction and stridency in the midrange- K.H.)
I am currently also comparing the Vovox-Brauner Cables to the original Braunercables.
(He used different cables over the years- K.H.)
Difficult to find a setup where one is really listenig to the cables and not other attributs.
Thanks
Daniel Dettwiler
idee und klang studio
www.ideeundklang.com