Toxic Cables - The Appreciation Thread - Page 164

I hope you have some nice cables for them.  

Just got  a pair of HD800's delivered today as well. Have 30 days to decide on whether I want to keep them.

 

Listening now on my PC and really enjoying them. Will burn them in a bit more and then try them on my main system later.

 

If I decide to keep them it will be interesting working out which balanced Toxic cable would suit them best, got 2 silver widows ordered for my HE6's and LCD2.2's but maybe not the best choice for the HD800's?

 

Any thoughts?

Edited by nigeljames - 2/12/13 at 6:21am

 

Will let you know once I receive the SW for my HD800s. 

Venom rc4 maybe?

 

Looking forward to it,assuming I still have the HD800's by then.

Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?
Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…
Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.

That you don't take rush orders while others are waiting is a great MO, IMO.

Edited by goodvibes - 2/12/13 at 10:29am

All you dedicated Toxic Cables fans have convinced me - I just added a HD-650 SPC cable to his workload. And just to give you an idea of what type of businessman he is (without going into too much detail), I asked a question about a certain service which turned out he didn't offer, and he actually recommended a competitor who does! How often do you hear that? However, that didn't really matter because I knew once I had read through this thread I was going with Toxic.

Thanks Frank - price ammended

Thanks,  just getting up to the 15 post qualification for creating a classified :-)

Some *bad* pictures as promised of the NFB-10

 

 

A shot of the Viper wire!

I can't see why you would not keep the HD800 even if you have the HE-6 and LCD-2!  Unless of course you have a pair of Stax 007 or 009 or you like a huge amount of bass.

 

I kept all three because they do different things and suit different music.  The HD does not have the bass of the HE-6 or the immediacy of the LCD-2 but it gives you the inner details and gigantic soundstage that no other headphones I am familiar with can give.

 

This leads me to the cable suggestion:  the HD800 has serious sibilance issue and some stridency in the treble when driven hard that are quite annoying.  These cans are a very poor match with most silver cables, even Frank's superb Silver Poison, which tend to let through even more treble and tighten the bass, both negatively impacting the HD800.

 

I got by far the best results with Frank's Copper Venom.  This cable tames the HD800 sibilance with the added benefit of a fuller bass , which the HD800 could certainly use.  I also got the best results when the HD800 is paired with a tube-hybrid amp like the RWA Corvina or to a lesser extent a very smooth solid-state amp like the V200. Finally a simple mod shown elsewhere on this forum--a judicious damping of the the peripheral area inside of the HD800 ear cups--eliminates the problem completely albeit with a small loss in the soundstage size, which the HD800 can afford.

 

When hooked up to the RWA Corvina via  Frank's Copper Venom, I find the HD800 to be my best all around headphone, especially with long listening sessions, among some pretty stout competition (Hifiman 500/HE-6, Audeze LCD2/3, Grado PS1000 and Beyerdynamic T1).

 

I hope this brief discussion is of some use to you in your cable choice and I also hope you keep the HD800..