[musicman59]

I agree. My DHC pure copper Complement cable made my HD800 sound smoother without loosing and spark in the top end

 

[waterlogic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00lunar /img/forum/go_quote.gif Edit: Done some research, and i guess that the best option for me is hiFace toy with denend rca cable and then dac ref1 and phoenix. Am i right? Anyone knows if i should stick to hiface rca, or should i pick bnc? i won't lie... sq is at 1st place here.

I have both RCA and BNC .

I think BNC is better (at least in my setup) and get a normal 75 ohm BNC shielded cable. It shoud be BNC - especially if you have a DAC with BNC in.

 

[haloxt]

If you're going copper maybe you could ask Kingwa if he can make a cable with his 500 meters of double helix nucleotide internal wiring

. If he agrees, try to get it terminated on one end with 4-pin xlr (most likely have to use neutrik unless you send him something else), and 1 foot Y-cord on the other end so you can solder the HD800 plugs on, or purchase the plugs and send to audio-gd. Just FYI, most people I've read say the wire sounds on the smooth side.

 

[00lunar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you're going copper maybe you could ask Kingwa if he can make a cable with his 500 meters of double helix nucleotide internal wiring . If he agrees, try to get it terminated on one end with 4-pin xlr (most likely have to use neutrik unless you send him something else), and 1 foot Y-cord on the other end so you can solder the HD800 plugs on, or purchase the plugs and send to audio-gd. Just FYI, most people I've read say the wire sounds on the smooth side.

Oy, and what connection is better in audio-gd phoenix? 2 3-pin XLR-s, or one 4-pin XLr? Does it make any difference?

 

[haloxt]

Should go 4-pin XLR because it is more manageable, no drawback except you will need a 1 foot long 4-pin xlr-to-2x3-pin xlr adapter if you want to plug it into a balanced headphone amplifier without 4-pin xlr. If you look at audio-gd's roc amp, it only has 4-pin and TRS, and no 2x3-pin xlr outputs, so another reason to go 4-pin is that future balanced amps are likely to be 4-pin xlr.

 

[Currawong]

It's often cheaper to have a 4-pin terminated headphone cable built than a 2x3-pin XLR one, especially if you have a TRS adaptor made as well.

Ignore the guage of cables. 18 AWG is speaker cable. Headphones don't require the same current speakers do, so it's just crazy to have a cable that thick IMO. My suggestion is to buy two HD-800 cables after you've listened with the headphones for a couple of hundred hours: One copper and one silver, but buy them second-hand, and sell the one you like the least.

 

[00lunar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's often cheaper to have a 4-pin terminated headphone cable built than a 2x3-pin XLR one, especially if you have a TRS adaptor made as well. Ignore the guage of cables. 18 AWG is speaker cable. Headphones don't require the same current speakers do, so it's just crazy to have a cable that thick IMO. My suggestion is to buy two HD-800 cables after you've listened with the headphones for a couple of hundred hours: One copper and one silver, but buy them second-hand, and sell the one you like the least.

Thanks Currawong - You never let people down, eh mate

?

Right, so i'll get myself 22AWG Jena wire, and two XLR's, because i haven't seen in ViaBlue products 4-pin XLR's. And one more thing: I'm guessing, that I won't notice difference between Jena wire, CryoParts wire, right?

Edit:

And what about nucleotide wire? It's fairly cheap, cryotreated, and idk if i should stick to jena labs wire....

 

[00lunar]

Ant thank you haloxt of course

 

[haloxt]

IMO you should decide on cable after you have listened to whatever dac and amp you buy. I think this is especially true if you get something as neutral and uncolored as ref 1+phoenix+hd800, less so if you decide to get one of audio-gd's more musical dacs. You could reterminate your stock HD800 cable to XLR and seeing what you'd like to improve/alter with a cable upgrade, and I highly recommend going 4-pin xlr route since 2x3-pin xlr is not convenient and needs to stop being the standard for balanced headphones.

 

[00lunar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif IMO you should decide on cable after you have listened to whatever dac and amp you buy. I think this is especially true if you get something as neutral and uncolored as ref 1+phoenix+hd800, less so if you decide to get one of audio-gd's more musical dacs. You could reterminate your stock HD800 cable to XLR and seeing what you'd like to improve/alter with a cable upgrade, and I highly recommend going 4-pin xlr route since 2x3-pin xlr is not convenient and needs to stop being the standard for balanced headphones.

Okay, so who makes decent 4-pin XLR's? I haven't seen them as much as the 3-pin ones. Any ideas mate about XLR i should choose?

 

[haloxt]

It's been a while since I looked but I believe there's not much to choose from with 4-pin xlr, the majority of xlr connectors are 3-pin, popular with pro-audio equipment. Here's three from Neutrik, I haven't really tried to find out what different contacts do to sound quality, so you'll have to ask someone else for advice there.

NC4MXX
4 pole male cable connector, Nickel housing, silver contacts

NC4MXX-B
4 pole male cable connector, black metal housing, gold contacts

NC4MXX-BAG
4 pole male cable connector, black metal housing, silver contacts

 

[00lunar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's been a while since I looked but I believe there's not much to choose from with 4-pin xlr, the majority of xlr connectors are 3-pin, popular with pro-audio equipment. Here's three from Neutrik, I haven't really tried to find out what different contacts do to sound quality, so you'll have to ask someone else for advice there. NC4MXX 4 pole male cable connector, Nickel housing, silver contacts NC4MXX-B 4 pole male cable connector, black metal housing, gold contacts NC4MXX-BAG 4 pole male cable connector, black metal housing, silver contacts

Thanx mate. I allways thought, that company makes no big difference, so I guess, that I could go 4-pin Neutrik way. If You had to choose between bulk cryotreated wires, what would you choose? I know, that i should experiment with those, and keep the best one for me, but i can only make one cable for now, and that's why I'm asking those questions about Your pick

I've noticed, that nucleotide wire is cryotreated, and so is jena wire. Nucleotide is 26AWG, and Jena is 22AWG, and I am starting to be confused

Btw. isn't 22 AWG too big for HD800 connectors?

 

[haloxt]

There's some 18 awg aftermarket cables for hd800, so 22 will fit, and I believe double helix nucleotide is actually 24 awg not 26 awg. I don't have enough experience to give you advice on cable sound signatures, but from what I experience and read, cables will often color the sound, possibly in a way you don't like.

 

[IPodPJ]

I believe the newest Nucleotide is annealed 26 awg, whereas the old batch was non-annealed 24 awg.

 

[00lunar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's some 18 awg aftermarket cables for hd800, so 22 will fit, and I believe double helix nucleotide is actually 24 awg not 26 awg. I don't have enough experience to give you advice on cable sound signatures, but from what I experience and read, cables will often color the sound, possibly in a way you don't like.

Well, I'll stick to jena wire. I'm doing so, because Srajan Ebaen (sixmoons guy) was impressed with that specific copper wire. I still am not quite sure if i'm buying the right one for me, or if i should pick cheaper nucleotide (still cryo treating makes me shiver

). Oh well...i should know it soon, and post some feedback.