[nephilim32]

Snarfarlarkus,

Pronouncing your User Name may be harder than answering your questions.

No, the Copper Venom is not Frank's newest cable.  It came out about the same time as the Silver Poison, just before the Silver Venom, if memory serves.

Balanced wiring tends to sound quieter than single-ended wiring. More important, balanced outputs from amplifiers tend to have more gain than SE output from the same amp, which is what you need with power-hungry ogre like the Hifiman HE-6, not so much with the Sennheiser HD-800.

The gold-plated plugs work fine with copper wires.  The silver pins seems to help if you use silver wires.  Well, they cost so much it helps ease the pain to think that they sound better....

As to which wires, silver or copper, work better, I would answer by repeating what I wrote quite a while back:

==============

... Silver (or high skin-to-volume ratio litz cables) allows better high-frequency transmission which results in better treble reproduction, more details, better sound-stage and tighter bass.  Often this sound could appear (pardon the poor choice of word)  to be more detailed but brighter and thinner. I would like to add two important points in selecting the right cable for the headphones


First, its is not  a simple matter of accuacy or quality, but also that of sonic matching.  I found to the detriment of my pocket book that the most accurate--or arguably the highest-quality cable--is not always the best cable for all headphones.  Quite the contrary.  The underlying assumption here is that our headphone are perfect and accurate tranducers (sound reproducers).  In most cases, that's far from true.  The HD800 for example, one of my favorite pair of headphones, throws an amazingly large soundstage in addition to great inner details and a very tight and deep bass. Alas, the upper registry suffers from a very iiritable harshness and sibilance.  I found that silver or silver/copper cable exacerbates these flaws and make the headphones sound not only overly bright but also thin as though there is hardly any bass at all. On the other hand, when coupled with an arguably less accurate or, as you apty put it, more colored copper cable such as Frank's Copper Venom, you've got...pure magic.  The sound stage remains quite wide but the sibilance and harshness all but disappear and the bass becomes fuller, more impactful and still quite taut.  In a nutshell, we should not select the best or most accurate cable but the cable with the sonic characteristics that best complement those of our headphones.  With Frank's cables I found that the best matches are:  HD800/Copper venom (no silver please); LCD2-3/Silver Poison [or Silver Widow]; HE-6/Copper Venom.


Second, the matching is even trickier than I just described as it goes beyond the cable because after all we listen to the whole audio system: DAC/amplifier/cable/headphones.  It is the sonic characteristics of each component, link in the chain if you will, and how they interact with one another that determine the final quality of the sound we hear.  While the way the amp, cable and headphone sound separately and generally (with a variety of systems) are good starting points, the final combination could still surprise you.  I'll leave the discussion of the amp selection for another place and time.

======

I hope this helps. 

I tell ya, you can add the Bayerdynamic Tesla 1's to that 'ogre power hungry list.' Close to a 1000 OHMS!! Man. XLR is almost mandatory for those cans. Lol

 

[Kiats]

I tell ya, you can add the Bayerdynamic Tesla 1's to that 'ogre power hungry list.' Close to a 1000 OHMS!! Man. XLR is almost mandatory for those cans. Lol

Totally agree: once you feed it enough power, the sound just blossoms!

 

[Justin_Time]

I tell ya, you can add the Bayerdynamic Tesla 1's to that 'ogre power hungry list.' Close to a 1000 OHMS!! Man. XLR is almost mandatory for those cans. Lol

Yep.  
The T1 ranks just below the HE-6 and the AKG K1000 in terms of being power hungry.
You pretty much need speaker outputs for them.
That and gas-guzzler taxes.

 

[atsq17]

I think that you can find amps specially tailored to high impedance headphones. 
 
I am using the Bottlehead Crack amp for my T1 and it sounds amazing. It's not a very high powered amp but it's designed for high impedance headphones. 

 

[nephilim32]

Yep.  
The T1 ranks just below the HE-6 and the AKG K1000 in terms of being power hungry.
You pretty much need speaker outputs for them.
That and gas-guzzler taxes.

Haha I know! Anyhow, I loved your description of power driven headphones. "Ogre Hungry.' Couldn't be more true. A hydro surcharge may be warranted.

 

[nephilim32]

I think that you can find amps specially tailored to high impedance headphones. 

I am using the Bottlehead Crack amp for my T1 and it sounds amazing. It's not a very high powered amp but it's designed for high impedance headphones. 

You can definitely find SS AMPS to do this but just make sure that AMP has a good punch of GAIN settings.

 

[nephilim32]

Totally agree: once you feed it enough power, the sound just blossoms!

Right you are Mr. Kiats. The T-1's are beautiful, but I still prefer the remarkable detail and dynamics of the angled drivers for Sennheiser's flagship, HD 800's. still the best cans I've ever heard, but I'd love to get a copper venom OCC with no silver or silver plating to pair with the Sens. From the testimony of the many on this thread it seams I will hear a difference.

 

[Toxic Cables]

Sorry guys, i know i have been missing last week or two, just busy with orders.
 
I am hoping to clear the majority of orders i have now, other then some Venoms within 2 weeks.
 
I will get to PM's and replies to this thread in the next day or so.
 
Still have some Hifiman cans, if anyone wants one, drop me a PM, these are going cheaper then you will find them anywhere, i need to make space.
 
If you need a cable, get in touch ASAP for standard 6 and 8ft lengths, i have some extra being made, so you could have it withing 2-3 weeks.

 

[atsq17]

  Sorry guys, i know i have been missing last week or two, just busy with orders.
 
I am hoping to clear the majority of orders i have now, other then some Venoms within 2 weeks.
 
I will get to PM's and replies to this thread in the next day or so.
 
Still have some Hifiman cans, if anyone wants one, drop me a PM, these are going cheaper then you will find them anywhere, i need to make space.
 
If you need a cable, get in touch ASAP for standard 6 and 8ft lengths, i have some extra being made, so you could have it withing 2-3 weeks.

 
Hi Frank, 
 
See if you can read a couple of my PMs. It may be too late but I was hoping to see if you can modify my order. Thanks Frank. 
 
I sent you a bunch. Read the last two. Thanks. 

 

[mootang]

Same here frank. I sent a pm to change and add plugs to a cable..aka please take my money

 

[wickson]

9 days, no response. Unprofessional, please respond to my pm.
Thank you.

 

[Paul Graham]

Frank and fellow iBasso owners,
Is there a right angled hirose connector solution that's compatible with the boomslang etc?
I know I found a right angled hirose connector on eBay last year but couldn't find the relevant info to wether it would work or not.
Unfortunately I can't find it now.

Basically looking at swapping my regular Toxic Cables iBasso interconnect kit for a right angled lot. ( iBasso interconnect kit sounds good. Remember I said it first!!! )
So when I get the DX50, My stack will have a smaller profile when intake it out and about with me.

 

[citraian]

I just paid for a Silver Widow for my LCD-3s.
I currently have one on loan from my friend danghe and I just couldn't stop from ordering one. It's superb

 

[meyerovb]

 Some of the cables I saw here are not on the toxic website. Does that mean they are out of stock?

Nope. The website is not congruent with what's in stock, unfortunately. Check Franks profile for all the options.

there are even some that aren't listed in his profile, best bet is to just read every post frank has ever made

 

[inter voice]

  I just paid for a Silver Widow for my LCD-3s.
I currently have one on loan from my friend danghe and I just couldn't stop from ordering one. It's superb

You have made a RIGHT DECISION 

.