Control/Dimming 5-wire cable with 3 pin XLR

Hello. What’s the better practice when using 3-pin XLR connectors with 4-wire plus shield cable? Should wires 4 and 5 be soldered to pins 2 and 3, or simply left disconnected? I’ve come across cables of both varieties. What are the advantages and disadvantages for each method?
Obviously, 5 pin XLR is the standard, but I have some fixtures which only have 3-pin connectors. Thanks.
 
Cap them off.
Adding wires to other pins could mess things up. DMX512 is something like radio over copper, don't mix signals!

Ideally (to me) one should use 5 pin connectors and adapt to 3 pin when needed. That way you have maximum flexibility, preserving the second pair. Afterall, what will the next show need?
 
Should wires 4 and 5 be soldered to pins 2 and 3, or simply left disconnected? I’ve come across cables of both varieties.
For lighting, wires 4&5 disconnected, but capped so as to not engage with anything. Hopefully the cable(s) you saw with 4&5 connected to 2&3 were audio cables: star-quad, a debatable practise.
 
FMeng (who does this for a living) is right; John is wrong.

So far as I know, nobody was claiming it "sounded better". They claimed it *rejected common-mode noise better*, which it does, and which John was explicitly not concerned with... (though of course, it only does *that* if you wire the pairs correctly).
 
If wiring a two pair DMX cable to 3-Pin XLR, capped off conductors is a good idea, as with using the second pair into the terminals. Worst idea would be to just cut them off... Conductors can float and short with cable stretch in causing gremlins in the system.
 

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