scootermafia
MOT: Double Helix Cables
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2008
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It's plain and simple that the stock HD650 cable wire an an example of stock cable wire (30+ gauge enameled ofc) does not sound as good as 24 gauge OCC copper. I wouldn't have bought thousands of meters of the stuff if it didn't bring a smile to my face. No machine can tell the complete picture on this, your ears can interpret sound differently than any machine. I'm pretty distrustful of potential placebo effects and I don't buy or make things just to entertain my eyes and mind, it didn't take long for me to have these feelings regarding occ copper wire but it did take a while to become 100% certain of it.
My point is that the recable will sound better and better, the more of the stock wire you remove. This wire is put there for its compactness, cheapness, and ease of rapid assembly. It's not easy or quick to dink around 24 gauge PE insulated wire inside the earcups.
PE or teflon insulation has a lower coefficient than whatever plasticy stuff is on stock wire, OCC copper is more pure than OFC from chemical and structural analysis, 24 gauge in terms of size is a popular sweet spot being not too big or too small for interconnect/headphone wiring, and the stranding is very fine (in theory, stranded wire sounds closer to solidcore the finer the stranding). It's not simply for looks. I don't have the means to provide hard physical data for this, but people have been enjoying OCC copper for a long time, including people that have no stake in whether the copper is evaluated favorably or not. In any case, it's not an expensive mod to replace all the internal wiring in the SRH840. Buy up about 4 feet of Lee's Cryoparts TWCu copper and give it a shot anyone that's curious, for $30 it's more fun than a trip to the Outback Steakhouse.
Try at a meet whatever you consider to be the best, most acclaimed headphone upgrade cable, vs. a stock HD800 or HD650 cable. If you really hear no difference, then you really are not a cable believer. Regardless of what numbers a machine can provide, it's very obvious to the ears.
It is very possible that the quality of the insulation and the wire not being as horribly small (32 gauge) is more important than OCC copper, however I didn't start hearing what I liked from HD650s until I started screwing around with some inexpensive Neotech 24 gauge occ.
My point is that the recable will sound better and better, the more of the stock wire you remove. This wire is put there for its compactness, cheapness, and ease of rapid assembly. It's not easy or quick to dink around 24 gauge PE insulated wire inside the earcups.
PE or teflon insulation has a lower coefficient than whatever plasticy stuff is on stock wire, OCC copper is more pure than OFC from chemical and structural analysis, 24 gauge in terms of size is a popular sweet spot being not too big or too small for interconnect/headphone wiring, and the stranding is very fine (in theory, stranded wire sounds closer to solidcore the finer the stranding). It's not simply for looks. I don't have the means to provide hard physical data for this, but people have been enjoying OCC copper for a long time, including people that have no stake in whether the copper is evaluated favorably or not. In any case, it's not an expensive mod to replace all the internal wiring in the SRH840. Buy up about 4 feet of Lee's Cryoparts TWCu copper and give it a shot anyone that's curious, for $30 it's more fun than a trip to the Outback Steakhouse.
Try at a meet whatever you consider to be the best, most acclaimed headphone upgrade cable, vs. a stock HD800 or HD650 cable. If you really hear no difference, then you really are not a cable believer. Regardless of what numbers a machine can provide, it's very obvious to the ears.
It is very possible that the quality of the insulation and the wire not being as horribly small (32 gauge) is more important than OCC copper, however I didn't start hearing what I liked from HD650s until I started screwing around with some inexpensive Neotech 24 gauge occ.