[blargman]

yes another newb question from team newbie.

I see lots of high end phones are pretty high impedance. Yet I see lots of talks of people recabling their phones to lower impedance higher quality cables. Is this the normal standard? Whats to be gained by the manufacturer by using these higher impedance values? Just cheaper cable?

I see lots of talk on audiophile loudspeaker setups using 1000 all silver or gold interconnects. (Yes long strands of silver!). crazy

ppl that spend that much on interconnects really should give at least half what they spend on their interconnects to the United way or something

 

[Carl]

The impedence rating of a headphone refers to the impedence of the driver (which is an inductor). This is fixed. What people change is the impedence, inductance, and capacitance of the cable, which are all negative things to have.

Higher impedence headphones are easier for an amplifier to drive, but have lower volume. Depending on the application how easy it is to drive, or the volume level may be more important.

Silver has a higher conductance (ie, more electrons can flow in a given time) than copper, that's why some use it. It ain't cheap though. Gold has a lower conductance than copper, but significantly higher cost, so using it for an interconnect makes little sense, although it is platted on connectors simply for its corrosion resistance. If you have a very expensive system cables are very much audible, although exactly why and how much is a matter of some debate.

 

[Meyvn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman yes another newb question from team newbie. I see lots of high end phones are pretty high impedance. Yet I see lots of talks of people recabling their phones to lower impedance higher quality cables. Is this the normal standard? Whats to be gained by the manufacturer by using these higher impedance values? Just cheaper cable? I see lots of talk on audiophile loudspeaker setups using 1000 all silver or gold interconnects. (Yes long strands of silver!). crazy ppl that spend that much on interconnects really should give at least half what they spend on their interconnects to the United way or something

"Long strands of silver" does not even explain it. I've heard of cables up to 6-7 grand a meter. Oh, and I'm pretty darned sure no one would make a cable out of gold, period. Just completely nonsensical. My guess is they're just gold plated ends (like you see on a lot of 1/4" headphone plugs).

 

[EdipisReks]

there are plenty of interconnects made of gold alloy. at typical audiophile cable prices gold just ain't that expensive, comparatively

 

[blargman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Higher impedence headphones are easier for an amplifier to drive, but have lower volume.

You sure you got this right? I thought more impedance would make it more difficult to drive, as you would need a higher power source to drive the phones.

My biggest question was, are there aural improvements by lower the impedance of the cables. If so why don't headphone manufacturer's supply decent cables?

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdipisReks there are plenty of interconnects made of gold alloy. at typical audiophile cable prices gold just ain't that expensive, comparatively

Nothing short of 99.9999999999% pure solid cryogenically treated rhodium is acceptable!


Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman You sure you got this right? I thought more impedance would make it more difficult to drive, as you would need a higher power source to drive the phones.

Yes, that way around. With impedence you trade of volume for damping factor.

A good analogy is power and torque you get in an engine. Volume being power and damping factor being torque.

Quote:

My biggest question was, are there aural improvements by lower the impedance of the cables. If so why don't headphone manufacturer's supply decent cables?

Headphone manufacturers do supply good cables. Look at their specs, you'll regularly see OFC copper, litz cables, silver plated copper, Ohno continuous casting, and so forth in headphone cables. You can hardly expect them to have cables that cost as much as the entire rest of the headphone, though, can you?

Oh, and most of the advantages will likely come from lower capacitance and inductance, not impedence.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman yes another newb question from team newbie. I see lots of high end phones are pretty high impedance. Yet I see lots of talks of people recabling their phones to lower impedance higher quality cables. Is this the normal standard? Whats to be gained by the manufacturer by using these higher impedance values? Just cheaper cable?

Higher-impedance headphones are easier to drive by home equipment -- easier in the sense of higher damping factor: they're less sensitive to higher output impedances, and the amps produce lower harmonic distortion with lower current flows. Especially most tube amps don't work well with low impedances, as they can't deliver high currents. The downside is the need for higher voltage for high (enough) volumes, which usually is no issue with home equipment, though.

Portable equipment, on the other hand, is battery-powered and thus can't serve with high voltage. So low-impedance headphones have the better precondition. Unfortunately many portable players have undersized buffer capacitors in their headphone outputs which cause unwanted bass drop-offs with low-impedance loads, so the theoretical advantage has to be relativized.

«Better» cables aren't used because of their lower impedance (in fact they're not different from standard cables in this regard), but because of their special design and the materials used which can lead to a subjectively higher listening pleasure. Whether they leave the original signal more intact than cheaper cables is debatable (and hardly measurable), but (in my experience) there are effective sonic differences, usually in favor of the more expensive aftermarket cables.

I haven't heard any gold cable (gold is said to have a mellow characteristic IIRC), but silver does have its merits, and it definitely isn't in its higher conductivity (which isn't needed), at best its distinct characteristic may be a side effect of it. If so, it might absolutely be the most neutral conductor, but who knows... Cables are still a mystery, and some people even don't hear the sonic differences between them (or refuse to do so for ideologic reasons).
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