Sendt XLR Cables Real Gig Review

Date: 8/19/2013
Venue: Carson Valley Inn, Minden, Nevada
Band: The McBride Brothers Band
My job: Vocals and Guitar
Cable reviewed: Sendt 50 Foot XLR Male / Female Microphone cable, 24AWG

Cable reviewed: Sendt 25 Foot XLR Male / Female Microphone cable, 24AWG

I guess it is pretty understandable that microphone / XLR cables don’t get much attention lavished upon them. Most people are more concerned with the quality of their mics, sound board, instruments, speakers, and heck even instrument cables seem to get more love than the lowly XLR cable!

With recent tests and studies on capacitance and its relation to the transmission of audio signals we are starting to realize that super-expensive-cables don’t really make sound clearer, more pure, or more present. At best they can deliver an uninhibited signal and you will get exactly what your instrument or mic “put out.” Having said this, my real test of a “good” cable is:

a.) Does it deliver your signal without capacitance/frequency loss?
b.) Is its construction sturdy?
c.) Will it daisy-chain with another cable without creating intermittent signal loss?

Sendt forth for 12 hours

4:30 pm

After driving through the Feather River Canyon, semi-forested high desert, and Reno, I pulled into Minden, Nevada and finally into the parking lot of the Carson Valley Inn. I unloaded my stuff and immediately started setting up my guitar rig. When I was done I started to set up mics and powered monitors and suddenly remembered that I was supposed to test our new Sendt XLR Cables and report my findings.

5:00 pm

I pulled the cables from my gig bag and took them out of their packaging and I was immediately struck by how soft the cable was and instantly thought, “Man, most cables in this price range are way stiffer with all kinds of tangle-prone memory.” So the cable was off to a good start. I took a look at the connector ends and instinctively tried to see if they unscrewed and were “repairable,” and sure enough they unscrewed smoothly. Inside the housing I noticed a compression fitting to secure the connection from being ripped off of/out of the connect by unexpected tugs or slight pulls, a very nice touch! When I hooked the female end of the cable into my Shure SM Beta 58 it seated really nicely and had a rubber pad that kept the connector seat from chipping my mic upon insertion. This probably reduced that static noise a little too, providing some grounding qualities. When going into the mixing boards input the male connector, again, seated very nicely, snug and secure. Overall the cable and its connector seem very sturdy and are easy to use for the purposes they are intended for.

In all of this the limberness of the cord is a total asset, it was able to weave around bass drums and behind bass amps and into the board effortlessly and it stayed in position all night, not moving as other “memory” cables sometimes do.

5:40 pm

At sound check I noted that my mic sounded exactly as it should and that is a good thing, this shows that the cable has little to no capacitance and the Beta 58 was able to shine through like the great live vocal mic that it is, enough said.

11:30 pm-4:30 am

I packed up my stuff at the end of the night and the Sendt cables rolled up easier than all of my other cables, this eased my mind even further knowing that I was going to be able to write a glowing review of a product that I was unfamiliar with at the beginning of the trip. Then, just for good measure, I took the male and female connectors and plugged them into each other to see if this cable would daisy-chain nicely with itself/other Sendt XLR’s. The fit was perfect, very snug with little play between the two connectors, which means no crackling and/or loss of signal…this cable is something I would actually buy!

As I drove through the canyon I was listening to a Reno/Sparks station that was starting to lose signal, and right in the middle of an Allman Brothers Band song and I thought to myself, “I need a two hundred mile long Sendt cable so that this doesn’t happen!” Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man….neener neee!!!

---

When he’s not fishing, road testing cables with his band, or fielding musical/instrument cable questions over the phone or e-mail, Michael handles operations and is simply loving life.