3There is some debate as to the origin of the abbreviation XLR. John Watkinson says that it stands for eXternal, Live, and Return, hence my story above... Wikipedia says it’s a part number from the Cannon Electric catalogue – “X series Latching Rubber” (Cannon made the original XLR connectors (in fact, some people still call them Cannon connectors)). Additionally, is a group of Zen-like people who ask “why does it have to stand for anything?”