Headphone cable appreciation thread; show your love for headphone cables.
Aug 6, 2010 at 12:43 PM Post #31 of 101
I la-la-love my cable upgrades. Allow me a moment to tell you why.
 
I was previously using a stock iPod with the standard line out with the Koss KSC-75. I must say that things were not as great as I would like. My amp was a C-moy, but according to the threads I have been reding lately that is 100% adequate.
 
I upgraded the cable from the stock tinsel wire to one made of a 4*4 braid of 28ga pure (9 nines) silver with each strand individually insulated with a layer of castor bean oil in a teflon sheath. This was not an inexpensive cable requiring the construction of cuistom wires, and 1200 hours of construction effort on my part.
 
I am happy to say that the effort and cost was worth it! Everything is better! The highs are higher, the lows are lower and the mids are right there in the middle where they belong on ever song. I can not adequately express my joy with this wire. I took a moment to compare to someone who claims to have a real system (lolerskates, f'ing amateur) with HD800, a differntial (balanced!) tube amp, and a DAC that he says is adequate for studio use. what a joke his system is. Im sorry, but niothing is the same as my otherwise inexpensive system with the money where it matters - in the cables. when I listen to this poor sap's system the mids can go anywhere in the soundstage - forwards, back, up down.. wow, they belong in the middle. sorry he got played. the highs are generally behind the mids, and line up with the snare drum although vocal sybalance is locked with the voices again, im sorry but its wrong. On my system the highs are in your face where they belong. The bass, all I can say is mneh. its there, and we measured his system down to low single digit frequencies but its not the same as mine. with the song "smack my b11ch up" by prodigy the bass on my system totally masks everything else when it comes in. I mean come on, its meant to blow you away like it does.
 
:)
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 12:50 PM Post #32 of 101
My headphone cable. It is more for the pro-audio market with Proel cable and neutrik/rean connectors and prices far lower than 'audiophile' cables. No sonic benefits, but it looks good and is far tougher than the standard cable. It resists coiling and is very flexible. There are benefits to aftermarket cable.
 
          
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 2:10 PM Post #33 of 101
I like the Etymotic made mylar cables used on the Mc5... memory free and durable.
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 6:31 PM Post #34 of 101
You anti-cable guys are a desperate lot.
 
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This is a thread for headphone cable appreciation.  This isn't a thread for you to lay your anti-cable manure down and I made that point clear in the OP title.  I've asked the mod's to step in.
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 8:34 PM Post #36 of 101
My Opinion of Aftermarket/Custom Cables... I'll try to be unbiased.
 
They Can:
1. Be more durable than stock
2. Look very nice
3. Be less prone to tangling
 
They Cannot:
1. Enhance the sound of attached eqpt.
2. Alter the frequency response of a headphone
3. Increase sound-stage.
 
I appreciate them for what they can do, and don't pretend that they make a difference in the sound qualities of my gear.
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 8:59 PM Post #37 of 101
Quick question: when cable manure contacts anti-cable manure, are they annihilated, releasing gamma rays?
 
Unfortunately, instead of the expected gamma ray burst, just a black hole develops.
 
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Aug 6, 2010 at 9:11 PM Post #39 of 101
They Cannot:
1. Enhance the sound of attached eqpt.
2. Alter the frequency response of a headphone
3. Increase sound-stage.
 
The above is not unbiased.  Do you own any custom headphone cables?  This is strictly an appreciation thread for headphone cables you do own.  What this thread isn't, is a bang on cable thread or a post your anti-cable bias' thread.
 
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Aug 6, 2010 at 9:30 PM Post #40 of 101
First answer: I used two overly expensive custom cables at CanJam... both where 2" long, one cost $200, and the other was $100. I have also made speaker cables from extension AC cables, and used vacuum sealed copper wire with gold plated contacts... I have not been paid or threatened to use or say anything about any of these, thus I would say I am being unbiased when I say what a cable can and cannot do.
 
Further more, I listed three things I can appreciate in a cable, and three things I cannot... 3 to 3 equals 1:1 = 50/50 = Fair = Unbiased; I am not overly positive or negative in this regard.
 
Thirdly, I have posted about cables I own and even like... my second comment (previous to this one) was to introduce some reason into an otherwise argumentative thread.
 
Lastly, If my reasoning with you seems to be a post of "anti-cable bias" then get the moderators to delete it... thereby censoring the content of this thread, which could easily be read into as bias on your part. I have felt frustration at trolled and derailed threads before too... It's part of the internet, but if it where me, I wouldn't get into a Catch 22 over whether someone is biased/trolling/hating or not... I would simply kick back and listen to the music.
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 9:41 PM Post #41 of 101
This is a thread about appreciation of your headphone cables, not your speaker or LOD cables.  And yes, there's a bias in this thread as the title indicates.  Wasn't trying to hide it.
 
thus I would say I am being unbiased when I say what a cable can and cannot do.
 
Not when you write in the fashion that you did;
 
They Cannot:
1. Enhance the sound of attached eqpt.
2. Alter the frequency response of a headphone
3. Increase sound-stage.
 
The above is an opinion, not a fact and when presented as a fact, shows one's bias.
 
You anti-cable guys crack me up as you do your "I'm not bias." dance.  If you don't hear a difference, I'm happy for you.  If you don't have any custom headphone cables to rave on, I'm good.  But as the OP title says, this thread is for the purpose of showing appreciation for your headphone cables.
 
I would simply kick back and listen to the music.
 
I can't.  Why?  Too busy re-ripping the whole music library into WAV files.  But FWIW, one can post and listen to music at the same time.
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Aug 6, 2010 at 10:06 PM Post #42 of 101
WAV? Why not use FLAC?
 
Maybe there really is a difference with different cables but there are other things which I'm certain matter more, like using lossless instead of lossy for instance.
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It's very likely that the difference you are hearing is placebo, I generally trust my ears but I have been a victim of the placebo effect myself.
 
I'd love to try some really expensive cables one day just to see for myself, but they would have to be someone else's. . .
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 10:30 PM Post #43 of 101
WAV? Why not use FLAC?
 
Cause I haven't had time to find out about FLAC yet.  Right now, I just want to get a decent selection of tunes back onto the HDD.  So far, since last night and today, I've ripped twenty-nine discs.  Only thirty more to go.
 
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Aug 6, 2010 at 10:40 PM Post #44 of 101
Every cable I have ever tried I can ascribe sonic attributes to.  Some are fantastic, some aren't.  But they all do have very real effects on a systems final sound. Cardas is my most recent friend.  It simply brings my system to a musical paradise.  Other fantastic cables I've used came from Kimber, CablePro, and ALO.
 
Aug 6, 2010 at 10:44 PM Post #45 of 101


Quote:
You anti-cable guys are a desperate lot.
 
mad.gif

 
This is a thread for headphone cable appreciation.  This isn't a thread for you to lay your anti-cable manure down and I made that point clear in the OP title.  I've asked the mod's to step in.


That is the most truth I've ever seen crammed into such a short sentence.
 

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