Audience XLR interconnects not working

Call Audience. Their customer support is fantastic.

I'll second both of the previous comments. Also, consider purchasing or obtaining a multimeter, and checking the cables for continuity from each pin at one end to the corresponding pin at the other end. And also checking that there is no continuity from each pin to either of the other two pins.

Also, your mention of the cables being non-shielded leads me to wonder if continuity is present between pin 1 (ground) at one end and pin 1 at the other end. I doubt that any reputable company would market a cable designed like that, and I suspect that if pin 1 were unconnected you would still hear something, but I suppose an open ground connection could account for differing behavior in your system vs. your friend's, depending on the design of the various components.

Regards,
-- Al

There are some brands that use a non-standard pin out (Electrocompaniet for example) but it's also possible that the ics are either broken or fake. Audience does have great service; I'd send them a an email w some decent pix of the ics.

XLR was originally for studio Mics. They sometimes have Phantom Power on them (used to power the pre-amp in the Mic body and so need for batteries)

This can cause "Ghosting" and the ghost signals can be 180 degrees out of phase with the phantom signal, so the ghost and phantom cancel each other out.

It's a major problem so called "electrical engineers" can't explain.

I don't quite know how to cure it, but surely your friends rig is not haunted with the same problems? Ask him if he had to excorcise the problem, and how?

On my ARC LS 25MKII I have to flip a switch to use the balanced inputs and my ARC VT 100 MKIII also has a switch for balanced or singe ended use, you may have something like that on you equipment.