Are you trying to preach to me?
I've done a enough recables to trust my own ears. And I thought I was bad. I don't think i've ever proclaimed my experience are facts.
If you haven't tried over half a dozen varieties of wires and headphones, then you haven't really tried hard enough! Many, many wires do sound the same. I've never been this fortunate and I wish this was the case.
Have you tried Canare? It's a high capacitance wire and it will turn any of your very warm headphones into a muddy mess. It seems this has been my experience with the 598, Sextett, DJ100 and HD-650.
If you go to any forum for people who runs studios, it's pretty common knowledge that a lower capacitance wire (Belden/DHC) will sound brighter than one with a higher capacitance (Mogami/Canare).
People say there is no way the high end could be effected on such a short length of cable, but it sure doesn't seem that way.
What's interesting is that the wrong wire can ruin a headphone's signature. Try the Double Helix or Belden 1192A with the HD-598. It makes the mids too far forward and fatiguing. This is after a week of use. I switched back and it was perfect.
My idea as to why cables changed the sound was A) higher quality copper B) thickness of wire and C) Capacitance (shouldn't matter with short runs, but is there proof of this?). Could be a combination of many things.
SOME headphones don't change much with a recable.
BTW there was someone on here that had actual measurements of silver wire making a difference with the HD-650. People seemed to not want to believe it. That's silver and not plain old copper though.
For a cable to actually make a difference, why does it have to change the signature? This I don't get. You can often retain the signature and just clear up the sound and make a headphone more detailed. I kept the same signature with my 598 recable, which is what I wanted.
One thing i've noticed is that without a very revealing DAC/Amp, it's much harder to determine the difference between cables. Don't ask me why.
It seems to me that non-believers of cheap wire might not have tried enough recables, different types of wire or are just trying it with Speakers. I can't hear a difference with speakers and interconnects are a lot tougher.
I don't care if someone believes it's all non-sense, but some people are just so dead-set in their beliefs and refuse to even try new things. I actually was one of those who believed wires made no difference at all..probably about 4 years until I recabled my KSC75.
I've probably recabled a dozen headphones with all different sorts of wires and none of them retained the headphone's natural signature. Maybe the CA-0363 with the HD-598 and DJ100, but that's about it.
I would say the biggest difference was in the level of detail and how bright or warm a headphone was. Soundstage is effect too, but's probably due to the change in treble.
Here is one last question someone can answer for me. Why does a lower capacitance wire such as DHC appear louder at the same volume level than a stock cable? It's measurable with a sound meter. It's almost like someone cranked up my volume. No kidding.
Thought this was my imagination at first..
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Indeed, good for me, and I'm glad you had you share of fun.
But seriously, cables differ in resistance... and looks. There is nothing more to it. Measure both, and unless there are two resistors soldered somewhere inside (or the cord is way too long), there shouldn't be a huge difference in ohm. If they are close or identical, they sound the same. If the resistance differs quite a bit, like a 75 Ohm-adapter-cord people use on the ETY ER-4P to convert them to Er-4S, it actually sounds quite a bit different... you can measure these results and reproduce them with ease.
