Sennheiser Cable upgrade

It is magic. That and those cables use better quality wire.

They look nicer and they may be more durable. The sound quality is a subjective thing. You aren't really going to find anything that says they are worth $200. You will have to decide that for yourself.

Agreed. You kind of have two choices: (1) Read the reviews of the various cables that can be found on this forum, and also the posts or threads that question whether there is a significant audible difference from changing out headphone cables, and reach a conclusion based on what others say, or (2) buy one or more headphone cables on 30-day return and try them out and make your own decision based on what you hear. At this point, there is no one "right" answer that is universally accepted or that applies to everyone.

I do not believe that there is one that is accepted by those who would consider themselves "scientists" or "objectivists," and I don't believe that there is even an explanation that is not the subject of numerous acrimonious debates on this forum (and others). I would say that virtually everyone who has decided that such a cable is "worth it" have done so based on what they hear, or believe they hear, and not based on "science" or measurements.

If you do a search, you will probably find many threads where the various points of view are debated back and forth ad nauseum, replete with the usual name calling, hyperbole, inflammatory comments, etc.

I would ask this question in the science forum on this site.

Yes, that's a good point. That's really the best place for such a question, and will increase the likelihood of getting a meaningful or potentially helpful response.

Before you struggle with the question weather after market cables worth the $$, you've got ask if cables makes any difference at all..

Since I started recabling a lot latley, this intrests me.
What I had in mind is something similar to compressed audio source comparison. First you take the lowest possible bitrate and compare it to lossless, figure out what works wrong, then advance to higher bitrates till it becomes transparent.

See, -v5 vbr is pretty much transpaerent to me. Does it mean I rip my stuff to -v5? No. I rip -v0 Why? `cause I'm a purist. Even if I can't tell the difference, I know it's there for a fact, so it'll bug me.

Wouldn't it make sense to do the same with cables? We have to start from scratch.
What do we know for sure that makes a difference? Gouge and lenth, right? Personally I don't care about lenth because we're talking headphone cables here. You can't make them to shirt and it'd be unreasonable to make it to long (500 feet hp cable anyone?).

What else we know about cables that is pretty much a concensus here and doesn't spark to much of a debate?
From what I've gathered it's: High resistance= less bass. Thin wire= higher resistance (am I right?).
So logicaly, using thin wire you'de hear less bass and vise versa..

Should be pretty simple to test isn't it? I thought about stripping some wire from its insulation and lets say, making it 2 ultra thin cooper strands for signal and 2 for ground. If it works ( aka the headphone "works");
Use some uber thick cooper on same hp model and compare the two fvckers directly.

I think I'm gonna do it with my Portapros.

Can't give you any scientific data and I'm not that experienced as far as headfi. I will tell you though at the last meet when I compared my 650's with the stock cable and a new blue dragon, the difference was evident and immediate, at least to me.

Not going to say it does/doesn't. But buying used here, you should be able to sell the cable back off again without losing money. Sometimes it's just more convenient/quicker to hear it yourself. (+ I'll probably be selling a cable or two soon, so it can't hurt for me to encourage buying used here)

hello not sure if this helps or just muddys the water but i have the kimber cable upgrade on my senn 650s and a friend came over with his the other night to see if he could tell the differance, both sets of cables and phones are well burned in and he was astounded by the differance the kimber cable made , not cheap at £195 but as they say you get what you pay for , and its all reletive, if the extra money gives you that tingle when you listen to a song then its been worth it....good luck....steve

True purist would do lossless.

To OP, 580 is similar to HD600 which respond quite well to Cardas, plus it's probably the cheapest option.

No. True purist would go to a live concert. If there is non, he'd hide in the mastering studio and connect his Orpheus directly to the sound-engie gear.

But since we're talking digital here, he'd just rip his CD's to vinyl

p.s
I'm 98.7% purist.

MMMMM digi-> vinyl sounds like it would be tasty