Rob[atSound-Rehab]

bitflipper
But another commonality occurred to me ...

it's the same ears listening, isn't it ??? 

I borrowed a second set of ears, so as to mitigate that variable.
 
I'm going back to my previous cable brand. I refuse to pay $90 for a mic cable, I don't care if they're NASA surplus. Fortunately, Sweetwater sells a mid-priced brand (Pro Co) that I've used for years with zero issues.

it doesn't sound like the issue you're having, but I had an issue of my wifi router that was close to the speaker and was causing crackles.  Took me an hour plus of moving speakers, cables, etc before I grabbed the router and moved it from 1 ft away to 4 ft away... prob solved.

bitflipper

Rob[atSound-Rehab]

bitflipper
But another commonality occurred to me ...

it's the same ears listening, isn't it ??? 

I borrowed a second set of ears, so as to mitigate that variable.
 
I'm going back to my previous cable brand. I refuse to pay $90 for a mic cable, I don't care if they're NASA surplus. Fortunately, Sweetwater sells a mid-priced brand (Pro Co) that I've used for years with zero issues.

I bought a whole bunch of cables last year and started getting intermittent connection problems. I finally got sick of all the issues and resoldered all the connections. All good now. That'll teach me to try and save those few bucks on cheaper brands. I'm retired so I shouldn't have been so lazy buying cheap; should have just built the cables myself.

I just built four 10 foot mic cables and used Neutrik connectors.  Neutrik is rated high but I can't say I like them, there is no way to make a "mechanical" connection before soldering - just lay the wire in the pin and solder.  I'm from "old school" where "proper connection" was to have a mechanical connection before soldering.  Same way there is no mechanical cable "strain relief".
 
(NC3FXX and NC3MXX connectors).