little advice please

[broKen]

Hi everyone. 

I've been experiencing some unwanted sounds from the AT 2050 mic that I've determined is from the cable. No problem using the sm58, but when using the AT condenser there is some rustling, pop and crack. I thought I had it fixed once before but...  Anyway, any advice for a good quality cable for around 50 buck. 15-20'  Monster? Mogami? I don't know much about it so any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Barefoot Rob]

Make sure that the pin's on the AT are clean,if you really think its the cable hunt down a CBI cable I have some for 30 years and they always come thru.Oh ya I'm not a fan of Monster cable's.

[abalone at last]

Apex....they are a division of Yorkville Sound ( Canadian company). Pro gear at a good price. Check the Long and Mcquade website. They ship International if you're not in Canada. 

https://www.long-mcquade.com/

[jpmist]

Hi everyone. 

I've been experiencing some unwanted sounds from the AT 2050 mic that I've determined is from the cable. No problem using the sm58, but when using the AT condenser there is some rustling, pop and crack. I thought I had it fixed once before but...  Anyway, any advice for a good quality cable for around 50 buck. 15-20'  Monster? Mogami? I don't know much about it so any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I've always checked out Monoprice for cables, good prices, excellent customer service, (but high shipping)

http://www.monoprice.com/?gclid=CI6pmr6JwcMCFUQ8gQodXIgA1Q

[broKen]

Thanks for the responds guys. I shall check out each of these. 

[ST]

Hi BroKen,

I have Monster cables and cables from lots of other manufacturers. I like the ones from Mogami and Canare. They are flexible, coil-up easily and sound good.

I can tell you that the Monster cables are heavy, thick, near impossible to tangle, and they sound the same as the others. I've only had one microphone cable outright fail and it was a super thin one that came bundled with a deal on a Shure microphone 25 years ago.

You can spend as much or as little as you like.  In the end I use the Monsters here (they don't travel) just because they are heavy. All the others of various brands seem to work just as well.

The last few microphone cables I picked up for live use have switches on the barrel at the end that goes into the microphone. This has been really handy, but that's because I sometimes swap in different microphones for different performers and it's nice to be able to kill the signal before swapping microphones.

If you are in the US, here's a supplier that I use there.  

http://audiopile.net


--== Please click the picture for more details ==--

They've been great.

[broKen]

Thanks ST. I bought something recently, so I wouldn't be stuck in the middle of a gig. Appreciate your info.

[dberch]

I'm confused. If there is no problem with the SM58, then why are you assuming it's the cable? Seems to me that indicates the trouble is with the AT 2050 mic.

[broKen]

I'm confused. If there is no problem with the SM58, then why are you assuming it's the cable? Seems to me that indicates the trouble is with the AT 2050 mic.

So am I David. The 2050 works fine with the new cable but hardly works at all with the other. The 58 works fine with the suspect cable. Guess I should inspect the mic.

[dberch]

Do you have a cable tester?  Behringer sells a good for pretty cheap. Handy to have around.

Behringer CT-100 Cable Tester

David

[ST]

Hi BroKen,

If you're curious you could test the old mic cable with a continuity tester. They have cable test machines at the rental counter of the place I rent gear, but I also have a simple multi-meter that I occasionally use for things like this.

I looked up a wiring diagram for XLR microphone connections  like your SM58

and a wiring diagram for XLR condenser microphones  like your AT 2050 microphone.

I never look at this kind of stuff in this much detail but it appears that if you've got a (n intermittent) short from pin 1 to ground, that might just let the SM58 work but I'm guessing that it would goof up the condenser microphone.

That's a wild guess.... When it comes to cables my usual approach is  "if in doubt, throw it out".