Why is detachable headphone cables not a standard feature amongst expensive headphones?

I've thought about this before. It would be welcome by a lot of people I bet. I'm sure there must be some reason for each company on them making the decision

This is actually a good question. Detachable cables are very common with the high end headphones though. (HD800, HE-500, LCD2 etc)

I think detachable cables increase the cost of manufacturing as well as the risk of jack fault maybe. AFAIK the cables of Beyers and German Maestros are pretty sturdy, they may not need a to be detachable.

Anyway I think detachable/single-side cabling is the trend of consumer headphones though I just don't like it..

There's not a huge benefit to it really, I suppose it makes things easier if you mistreat your headphones and the cable breaks, but in 99% cases you'll never have to remove it anyway.

Ultrasone Pro 550/750/900/2900 - all detachable with various lengths and 1/8 - 1/4 plug end.

none of the ety's have detachable cable do they?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bravo4588 

none of the ety's have detachable cable do they?

Only the ER-4 have detachable cables.

Quite simply - detachable cables cost more money.

They are more expensive to make and also insert something that can cause crackling and be unreliable.

So the cheaper headphones tend to have fixed cables - and I certainly consider $200 pretty inexpensive.

As a detachable cable adds cost but does not improve the quality, it tends to be only the more expensive headphones that have one.

Not sure about headphones, but a jack may add considerably to the size of IEMs and being so close to the ear (sweat and everything) it's much more likely to fail.

It should indeed be a standard feature, especially for expensive headphones. I mean, look at the Beyerdynamic T5p for instance. It's one of the most expensive "portable" headphones around and it has such thin non-removable cables. This alone is enough reason for me not to buy them. Not gonna want to send my expensive headphones away just because I accidently damaged the cable. And why doesn't the T1 have removable cables? It's nuts. I guess they want to keep production costs as low as possible.

 Ultrasone Edition - $2700AUD (non detachable cable)

 Grado PS1000 - $2020AUD (non detachable cable)

 AKG K701 - $469AUD (non detachable cable)

I don't think, for the manufacturer, it makes the cost of replacing headphones due to failed cables is less than designing the associated jacks and the potential costs of jack failure. Moreover, being engineering based firms believe in the validity of different cables and the efficacy of changing cables to change the sound profile of a given set of headphones.