XLR Mic Cable vs Regular Mic Cable: Key Advantages
XLR vs regular mic cable: learn why a three-conductor XLR cable gives cleaner sound, less noise and a stronger signal at the same gain on a mixer.
Advantages of an XLR mic cable over a regular mic cable. In music and anything else involving audio, the microphone plays a key role, because it is used for recording vocals and instruments, for concerts and even for karaoke. There are many types of microphone, from the carbon mic, liquid mic, fiber optic mic, ribbon mic, electret mic, condenser mic, laser mic and crystal mic to the cardioid mic.
Apart from the cable that comes with a mic, mic cables generally use XLR. A mic with an XLR cable turns out to have several advantages over a mic with a regular cable. So what are the advantages of an XLR cable for a mic? Here is the full explanation.
Cleaner Sound With Less Noise
The first advantage of an XLR mic cable is that it produces cleaner sound with minimal noise. You can prove it yourself with a sound test that compares a mic on a regular cable with one on an XLR cable. Place the mic stand 100 meters (about 330 feet) from the audio mixer. What is the result? The sound from the XLR cable mic comes out cleaner and with less noise than the sound from the regular cable mic, which is full of noise.
More Sensitive, Stronger Sound at the Same Gain Level
If you compare the strength of the sound from an XLR jack mic with a regular cable mic, you will hear a clear difference. The sound from the XLR cable mic tends to be more sensitive and stronger than the sound from the regular cable mic. Why is that?
An XLR cable has three layers, or conductors: the shield (the outer sheath), a positive signal wire and a negative signal wire. A regular cable has only two layers: the shield and a positive signal wire.
So why does an XLR cable use three layers? What does each wire do? Wire one and wire two carry the positive and negative signals. Wire one produces an upward wave and wire two produces a downward wave. The noise on wire one and wire two tends to be identical, and it can come from signal interference such as radio signals, mobile phones, TV and other electrical signals.
Next, when the signal reaches the processing stage inside the audio mixer, it is inverted. The waves that ran in opposite directions are flipped, so the resulting sound is stronger. The noise that was identical on wire one and wire two cancels itself out because of the flip. The resulting wave is pure, clear and low in noise.
Those are the advantages of an XLR jack mic cable over a regular mic cable. With an XLR cable, the sound has minimal noise, because the noise cancels itself out. The vocals also come out stronger, purer and clearer.
