Mogami's are the standard. They're the best. Most won't notice how great they are until they compare side by side with a cheaply made cable just how much harmonic color and clarity is lost by using a cheap cable. And even then you don't really notice it until you add a quality compressor to the mix and start bringing up the noise floor.

Keep in mind there are a TON of factors that go into your sound quality, and they add up quickly.

Cheap mic + cheap cable + plus bad mic placement + plus bad environment + bad recording medium = the sound you get.... which will be bad.

Versus a high quality option plugged into any one of those categories will all result in different levels of quality. It's up to you where you decide to compromise.

But chances are, unless you have a trained ear... you'll probably never know any difference.

I have Mogami as well as may other quality and price levels of cable. IMO unless you have a noise issue caused by a short in a wire, most people won't notice the difference in sound quality between one brand vs another. Just stay away from cheap cables that can't handle being abused. My Mogami never leave my studio. I use other brands out in the field, that cost less but are of good quality. I'd go with the GLS for use in the field.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev, I don't have any study done to prove a measurable difference between different cables, but I wouldn't say that no one can hear the difference either. After decades of mixing recordings I do know that I can hear differences and just aspects of audio in general that most people are unaware of unless I go out of my way to make them aware of it. However, what a person is listening to audio on and where they're listening also factor in. So the differences may end up inconsequential for most people. What I can hear sitting in an acoustically tuned room with a very high quality sound system is much different than another environment and sound source.

After meticulously choosing all the other gear in a signal chain, the last aspect may be the choice of cables and at that point someone can try different brands and see if they hear anything different and have a preference. Perhaps the original poster could go down to a local shop and test the cables to see if he hears anything of consequence using the field recorder, mic and headphones he'll be using.

I use Live Wires in the field cuz they are guaranteed for life. If anything goes bad, they replace it for free. But I use Mogami's in the studio. Especially for long runs. The only reason is: I never have any issues with them... ever. No shorts, no hum, no issues. Just my personal experience.

But since cables get abused in the field no matter what you do, I use the Live Wires

http://www.livewire-usa.com/

@Aria I'll be using a Neumann TLM 102/103 in studio. With a Sennheiser MKH 416, and an MKH 50 for on set work.

Using a Sound Devices 633.

If you have microphones that are susceptible to RF then you better get cables that have sufficient sheathing.
Otherwise balanced lines shouldn't have to many differences among each other, although better brands will probably have better craftsmanship.. I can't get +48v on a cheap chinese cable, but it will run balanced line fine.

When it comes to unbalanced lines, you better go with a good brand, period.

As an electrical engineer AND a recording engineer I feel I can dispell all the BS about cables.. At audio frequencies, most decent quality cable (GLS is perfectly usable cable..) will not affect your audio at all. People are going to argue about that but pseudo-science is not proof, and the proof says you won't have any issue with signal quality.

Cheap cable does have some physical drawbacks though. Most cheap cable will twist inside it's insulation and after repeated coilings will start to get "warts" under the insulation where the conductors are being bound up and kinked.

Quad cable supposedly helps break up EMI ingress but the science says otherwise. A good balance between the differential conductors is more important to noise immunity than having special configurations of conductors, in reality. Quad cable has a lot more capacitance, which has the potential to degrade super high frequencies, but again, at audio frequencies, it won't be a problem. Just don't use quad for any type of digital connections like AES/EBU or anything else like that.

@Spacewig You hit the nail on the head. Most cable is going to be just fine for studio length runs. Longer runs inside buildings and things need lower cap cable and special types, but for typical mic-to-preamp setups, even the cheapest cables will work fine. If someone tries to sell you a cable for any other reason than being a solidly built cable assembly then they are probably just hyping up things that aren't going to gain you anything but a more empty wallet.

The other issue is connector quality. I have a few sets of the GLS cables in the rainbow colors. They work just fine in a daily recording situation because the connectors are essentially Neutrik knock-offs of pretty decent quality. They aren't perfect knockoffs but they are solid enough that I've never broken a connector. They even have the finger-style strain reliefs for the cable insulation which I think is mandatory. The older switchcraft-style connectors with the crimp type strain reliefs really suck and tend to come loose after a while.

I've only had to solder a couple conductors over the years after some hard abuse, but for the most part they have held up better than any other cables I've had for 3x the money. I'd buy them again when I need to replace any of mine in the future... And no, I don't work for them or anything but GLS treated me well in the past by happily allowing me to keep an extra set of cables they sent me by accident.

@Spacewig, wrote - "@Aria I will film myself making 15 recordings, 12 using a generic made-in-China XLR cable and 3 using a Mogami. I'll happily post it on YouTube along with an admission of my utter incompetence if you post a video of yourself listening and correctly identifying 2 of the recordings made with the Mogami and explaining the differences."

Don't know why you are challenging me to some test. I never said that I could hear the difference between random cables of short length in a blind test. I just refuse to suggest that "No One" out there is capable of hearing a difference. As an example I mentioned that I know I can hear things that many of my clients can't hear due to years of critical listening. That isn't me saying I can tell the difference between one cable over another at random. I even said that the OP would do just fine with less expensive cables. There have been many good suggestions posted in this thread. Let's just tone down the attitude tho.