Hifiman he 500 !!!!! different cables which one?
Apr 25, 2013 at 9:45 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

musicmaddy

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hi
i have been looking at buy the hifiman he 500, however im  not sure where to buy them because i have seen different sites show the hifiman he 500 coming 1 spare velour earpad. one with 1 pair of velour and 1 pair of pleather earpads. and also the cable changes from a white twist one to a black thick monster cable.
 
i also remember reading that the white twisted cable was bad. will this affect the music ?
i was just wondering does it matter which cable i get? 
 
Apr 28, 2013 at 1:32 AM Post #4 of 14
The white twisted cable is (I'm pretty sure) silver. It's annoying because you can hear it as it rubs against itself or against other things e.g. the zipper on your jumper. I'm not sure if there's a proper term for it. It doesn't affect the music but it is a big enough issue for people to change the cables.
 
Apr 28, 2013 at 2:24 AM Post #5 of 14
The white twisted cable is (I'm pretty sure) silver. It's annoying because you can hear it as it rubs against itself or against other things e.g. the zipper on your jumper. I'm not sure if there's a proper term for it. It doesn't affect the music but it is a big enough issue for people to change the cables.


The cable is SPC (silver plated copper). The term would be microphonic.
 
Jun 22, 2013 at 9:48 AM Post #6 of 14
hi
i have been looking at buy the hifiman he 500, however im  not sure where to buy them because i have seen different sites show the hifiman he 500 coming 1 spare velour earpad. one with 1 pair of velour and 1 pair of pleather earpads. and also the cable changes from a white twist one to a black thick monster cable.

i also remember reading that the white twisted cable was bad. will this affect the music ?
i was just wondering does it matter which cable i get? 


So which one that you eventually get ?

I'm curious of upgrading the cable of my HiFi man HE 500 (Silver braided wire).
 
Sep 4, 2013 at 4:28 AM Post #7 of 14
I'm very curious to know if there's a readily available, affordable replacement cable for the HE500s, as I know that there's a bunch of people that don't like the silver cable much. I find it hard to get comfortable with such a stiff and noisy cable, there must be an alternative?
 
Nov 14, 2013 at 8:18 PM Post #8 of 14
I too did not like the stiffness of the HE-500 cable and the harsh microphonics drove me crazy. Every time I moved my head with the music I heard the cable hitting something and the noise was very noticeable. I also wasn't exactly pleased with the sound signature even after burning them in for three weeks so I went searching for alternatives that would be very flexible, non-microphonic, and sound better than the silver coated stiff copper wire that came with my HE-500's.
 
I discovered that Moon Audio carried everything I would need to make my own cables in their DIY section including extra HiFiMan connectors in case I screwed mine up.
 
First pick a cable; I chose their Silver Dragon V2 Bulk Headphone Cable @ $18.00/ft. which uses 4 x 99.998% Ultra Pure Silver 24AWG Teflon insulated stranded conductors. The cable is red in color and I think it looks great against the black HE-500's. They include Black Techflex with the cable which makes it look burgundy but it added microphonic noise which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place, so I removed it. I only needed 5 feet, so it was less than $100. BTW, I tried the Cardas 4X4 cable @$20/ft and was disappointed, the Silver Dragon V2 blew it away . If you really want to save some money and use copper instead of pure silver try  Mogami W3106 or Mogami W2534 Neglex Quad Mic Cable from a variety of sources online for less than $2.00/ft. It doesn't sound like the Silver Dragon but is pretty close and far better than the OEM cable.  I added another set of HiFiMan connectors and then searched for a suitable plug.
 
If you want to stick with a 1/4" plug and go whole hog, the Furutech FP704 (G) ($18.75) is the Cadillac but is large and quite heavy though it looks great and is incredibly well made and very easy to work with. You could also use the recording industry standard, the Neutrik 1/4" Stereo Plug for just $5.00, also very well made, easy to solder to but lighter in weight and smaller in size.
 
If you primarily use an amp or DAP with a 3.5mm headphone jack you might want to consider terminating your cable with a 3.5mm plug. The Switchcraft 3.5mm Stereo Plug ($8.00) will accommodate the thicker cable size, is well made and easy to solder to. In case you are wondering, the Neutrik 3.5mm Right Angled Stereo Plug is too small without modification to use with this cable. I then finished my cable by using some heat shrink tubing which I bought elsewhere for like $0.60 a foot in different sizes and now I have great sounding, highly flexible, good looking, sturdy cables for my HE-500. BTW, I used a small piece of red heat shrink tubing over the base of the right headphone connector to distinguish it from the left one.
Hope this post is helpful.
 
Here is a picture of the Silver Dragon V2 Headphone cable with a modified Neutrik 3.5mm  Right Angle Stereo Plug (5' long)

 
 
Here is a picture of the Mogami W2534 Neglex Quad cable with Furutech FP704 1/4" Stereo phono plug (4' long)

 
Nov 14, 2013 at 11:33 PM Post #9 of 14
I too did not like the stiffness of the HE-500 cable and the harsh microphonics drove me crazy. Every time I moved my head with the music I heard the cable hitting something and the noise was very noticeable. I also wasn't exactly pleased with the sound signature even after burning them in for three weeks so I went searching for alternatives that would be very flexible, non-microphonic, and sound better than the silver coated stiff copper wire that came with my HE-500's.

I discovered that Moon Audio carried everything I would need to make my own cables in their DIY section including extra HiFiMan connectors in case I screwed mine up.

First pick a cable; I chose their Silver Dragon V2 Bulk Headphone Cable @ $18.00/ft. which uses 4 x 99.998% Ultra Pure Silver 24AWG Teflon insulated stranded conductors. The cable is red in color and I think it looks great against the black HE-500's. They include Black Techflex with the cable which makes it look burgundy but it added microphonic noise which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place, so I removed it. I only needed 5 feet, so it was less than $100. BTW, I tried the Cardas 4X4 cable @$20/ft and was disappointed, the Silver Dragon V2 blew it away . If you really want to save some money and use copper instead of pure silver try  Mogami W3106 or Mogami W2534 Neglex Quad Mic Cable from a variety of sources online for less than $2.00/ft. It doesn't sound like the Silver Dragon but is pretty close and far better than the OEM cable.  I added another set of HiFiMan connectors and then searched for a suitable plug.

If you want to stick with a 1/4" plug and go whole hog, the Furutech FP704 (G) ($18.75)is the Cadillacbut is large and quite heavy though it looks great and is incredibly well made and very easy to work with. You could also use the recording industry standard, the Neutrik 1/4" Stereo Plug for just $5.00, also very well made, easy to solder to but lighter in weight and smaller in size.

If you primarily use an amp or DAP with a 3.5mm headphone jack you might want to consider terminating your cable with a 3.5mm plug. The Switchcraft 3.5mm Stereo Plug ($8.00) will accommodate the thicker cable size, is well made and easy to solder to. In case you are wondering, the Neutrik 3.5mm Right Angled Stereo Plug is too small without modification to use with this cable. I then finished my cable by using some heat shrink tubing which I bought elsewhere for like $0.60 a foot in different sizes and now I have great sounding, highly flexible, good looking, sturdy cables for my HE-500. BTW, I used a small piece of red heat shrink tubing over the base of the right headphone connector to distinguish it from the left one.
Hope this post is helpful.

Here is a picture of the Silver Dragon V2 Headphone cable with a modified Neutrik 3.5mm  Right Angle Stereo Plug (5' long)




Here is a picture of the Mogami W2534 Neglex Quad cable with Furutech FP704 1/4" Stereo phono plug (4' long)




Wow, that does looks great and wonderful :)
I have spent USD $250 into one single cable for HE-500 SPC 8 braided and can't wait to hear the audio quality difference.

I guess yours is not that expensive in total.
 
Nov 15, 2013 at 12:19 AM Post #10 of 14
Thank you!
You can make them for yourself as well. The Silver Dragon cable cost me about $110 and the Mogami cable as you see it cost around $40 and comes in 10 different colors! Using a Furutech plug added $19 to the price. I am replacing the Furutech plug with a [Neutrik NP3RX-B Stereo Right Angle 1/4 Inch Plug w- Gold Contacts & Black Shell] because being right angle it won't stick out as much from my Lyr amp and it only costs $8.00 so if I made the cable with the Neutrik plug to begin with total cost would be $29.00 including shipping of the parts. It does take time to properly strip the cable and then the individual conductors, heatshrink the two separated headphone wires and then solder it all together with a good silver content solder but it's fun. I prefer the sound character of Mogami to Canare but they both are widely used in professional Audio. I'm sure you'll enjoy your cables. 
 
Nov 21, 2013 at 3:02 PM Post #11 of 14
Wow, that does looks great and wonderful :)
I have spent USD $250 into one single cable for HE-500 SPC 8 braided and can't wait to hear the audio quality difference.

I guess yours is not that expensive in total.

What did you get? What's the comparison with the original he-500 spc cable?
 
Nov 28, 2013 at 12:40 AM Post #12 of 14
What did you get? What's the comparison with the original he-500 spc cable?


well, not yet, the lead time is 3 weeks and another delivery time frame took another "few weeks" from USA to Australia :-/
 
Jan 3, 2015 at 10:12 PM Post #13 of 14
What did you get? What's the comparison with the original he-500 spc cable?


I'm using the BTG audio Sunset custom cable http://btg-audio.com/webstore.htm#!/Sunset-Headphone-Cable/p/17894638/category=2706350

So far it's been a good experience for me listening to my HE-500, there is no more micro phonics effect plus the sound is almost the same with the stock cable.

The only reason that I am happy with this cable is the copper colour and its flexibility to fold and wear while on the move.
 

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