More than likely you will lose nothing. XLR is allegedly designed for longer cable runs in any case.

Agreed. Allegedly, with XLR you can go more than 500 feet with no appreciable loss.

Look at some fairly affordable Monster Bal Cables from the likes of Musician's Friend. Their quality is very good without spending nutty money on some supposedly high end bal wire.

I bought the cable I ran in my walls (XLR) from BetterCables. I had used it before and it worked well enough compared to the Nordost Frey I was also using. My longest runs are over 80'.

bluejeans cable is another well made inexpensive cable with no voodo.

And those XLR wires where labeled for in wall use? MAke sure the ends are like Nuetrik or Switchcraft...CUS, I've seen and used off wall swag no brands and the connectors could be made to non standard specs, makes for ill fitting connections.....In that respect there is a difference in connectors from top quality Nuetrik, Switchcraft to no name Chinese junk. That is no voodo or magic that's reality and just physical mechanical facts. The difference in price is nill for some high qulaity well made or so no name ill fitting, porrly finished stuff. It's a physical thing, not pace, rhythm,sonic blah blah. But ill fitting connectors can cause problems. Similar to using grossly oversized RCA plugs that are heavier than teh pre amp like some magic voodo wires are...

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And those XLR wires where labeled for in wall use?

I'm not sure. I didn't really run them through the walls as much as up cross the ceiling, then down one side of the wall and out through an outlet cover hole I had made specifically for the cables. I don't use any patch panels or patch cables, just direct connections from the device in the electronics closet to the monoblocks and subs sitting near the speakers. I'll post a pic below (the cable is coming out of the wall socket).

The cables are never in any confined spaces or squeezed against anything, they are in the open ceiling and then the open space between the walls, so I'm not worried about heat issues and fires. I left string in the run, that way I can always change cables later if I want to.

When I was an instrumentation technician at Douglas Aircraft, we routinely ran 100 foot microphone cables (XLR with balanced 2-conductor shielded cable) in a high-EMF industrial environment and made essentially noise-free recordings on our Nagra tape recorders. You will have no problem doing what you suggest (keep in mind that microphone signals are far lower in amplitude and far more sensitive to interference than audio interconnect signals...).

Balanced cables (XLR) using a differential design, even of 50 feet or more, are absolutely free of the noise-pickup and ground-loop problems that plague unbalanced cables of even six feet or less. Balanced cables inherently have a very high noise-rejection and are the ONLY way to go for high-end or pro audio applications. Unbalanced (RCA) cables are an elcheapo design that is fundamentally flawed and has no place in true high-end applications, since the shield is forced to carry the signal return current and introduces extremely high noise levels in even short runs in many instances.

You do not need special cables to acheive perfect results in long cable runs; all balanced cables give flawless results every time. Any claims for expensive premium-quality balanced cables are nonsense.

Audio-Technica makes an excellent line of fully assembled balanced XLR cables that can be used for audio interconnects, microphones, or instrumentation at a very reasonable price. MCM Electronics has these (mcminone.com or 1-800-543-4330). They will give you excellent performance.

#35-1343 is 30 feet and costs about $20 per cable.
#35-1341 is 20 feet, #35-1340 is 10 feet. 50 feet and 100 are also available.

Or you can use Gotham Pro (Germany) AES cable or Belden Brilliance AES cable at about a dollar a foot and make your own, which I do, and which acheive the same excellent performance (Neutrik, Deltron, and Bogen are all good XLR connectors to use, among others).

All AES-rated cable has a soft-tough flexible rubber jacket (I use the Gotham because it is very high-quality tough stuff and comes in a cool mint-green color that goes with my green carpeting; it comes in 5 or 6 colors). Gotham costs about $200 for a 100-meter spool of cable; #10401 is red, #10407 is mint, #10402 is light grey, etc. (See price sheet at gothamaudiousa.com) (redco.com is a dealer that sells the gotham in purple at under $1 per foot...other colors??...call them)

Balanced forever!!!

Ditto, Audio-Technica XLR cables are great at a very reasonable price. My friend runs them in 25 foot length from his DCS stack to Mac amps with great results.