Okay, just received my OCC Nucleotide IEM cable and connectors from Peter (pictured below). Placed my order on a Wednesday, he made the cable on Thursday and shipped Friday morning - really impressed by that. It almost made me wonder if the product could match the level of service - my expectations were high ...
So, I get the cable, and immediately do some back and forth testing between the stock and new cable. (I won't say A/B - not that scientific!) Anyway, it's impressive. I immediately felt "closer" to the music, like a veil had been lifted. And remember, this was with no burn in.
Next, I decided to burn it in at least 10 hours with pink noise. Surprisingly, that produced a dramatic difference ... and what's amazing is that 100 hours is supposed to be the sweet spot. (I'm super excited about that!)
Anyway, my rig is probably fairly common here at Head-Fi:
iPod Touch --> CLAS --> Rx/Mk2 --> OCC/Nuc IEM Cable --> JH16's (with OCC mini-to-mini and OCC USB-Dock, both from DHC)
Listened to the following songs through the FLAC player as comparison:
Dog Days Are Over (Florence and the Machine) - Vocals sound unreal. Especially the highs. The whole song just seemed more lively. Wow!
American Pie (Don Maclean) - The piano stood out especially to me here, never heard quite heard all the subtleties of it's sound.
A Love Supreme - Acknowledgment (John Coltrane) - The sax sounded smoother, almost liquid and so immersive. One of my favorites just got a lot better.
Lovesong (The Cure) - What amazed me most was the instrument separation, I could hear each instrument soooooooooo perfectly, it was almost hypnotic.
The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie) - Really noticed how different his voice sounds, also could hear the guitar reverberate in ways that never heard before. Very cool sound.
Overall, I won't pretend to give in-depth analysis of the lows/mids/highs and use other audiophile jargon - I don't think I'm advanced enough for that yet! Lol. Though I'll concur with others that the cables don't seem to "color" the music in the slightest, just help bring it more to life ... if that makes sense.
I guess another way to express that is that I've just never felt closer to the music, I had some extreme moments of just total immersion and bliss, where I got completely lost in all the nuances of the music.
Felt like I was "there" and so close to the artist and instruments, just surreal, and now helps me fully understand what the audiophile "quest" for better sound is all about. I'm sure this is just the beginning, very exciting
Now, in all fairness, I should note that this is not all due to Peter and DHC cables. I'm using very good recordings/hi-res files, CLAS, the ALO amp, JH16's -- all undeniably awesome gear.
Still, what I
will say is that despite all that, something still felt "missing" from the music ... which is exactly what caused me to pursue a better cable.
And now, after trying these cables with minimal burn-in, I feel pretty content that I found the missing link that -- at least with this particular rig -- helps maximize every last drop of sound quality out of it.
Though I'm sure much more awaits on my audiophile journey ..... will def be using DHC cables when I get finally some LCD-2's and maybe the JH-3A, if it's ever released.
Oh ... one more thing: The photos really don't do this cable justice at all -- it's absolutely gorgeous (almost dark gold in color) and the build quality feels excellent. They are a pleasure to look at, wear and handle.
Very, very big thanks to Cifani (the OP of this thread) for recommending Peter, it was a fantastic experience from beginning to end and can't wait until these cables have 100 hours on them
