Trebuchet HiFiMan Balanced Cable
So a bit of background here. I absolutely despised the stock cable which came with my HE-500 and started searching for a replacement and exploring DIY options. My He-500’s are paired with the Schiit Gungnir and Mjolnir and I quickly zeroed in on wanting to try a pure copper cable to balance the SS Mjolnir and avoid stiffness of silver cables. I have no issue with investing in quality gear but was quickly turned off by many of the cable vendors which not so subtly implied that anything less than Teflon coated, extra soft temper, .9999 silver cables with ebony wood Y splitter fell squarely in their “budget” line. I was just about set on DIY, priced the cable, terminations etc. and set about reading up on litz braiding as I wanted a braided, unshielded cable.
Before placing my order I decided to practice braiding with wire I had on hand. Have you ever tried to perfectly braid 5 feet of cable? So back to looking for someone who could make a cable with the components I wanted, at a reasonable price, and not have to wait a month or more for delivery. That’s when I stumbled on Zynsonix. More about Zynsonix below:
Run by Bryan who is an avid DIY’er – check out his blog at diyaudioblog.com – I reached out to Bryan with my objectives and was immediately put at ease. He responded immediately with suggestions based on my objectives and not once did he try to upsell me.
Don’t be misled by the pricing. I found similar spec’ed cables at 3X the price.
So how do they sound? Clear and transparent with a bit of the edge removed from certain treble heavy tracks which bothered me with stock cables. HE-500’s cannot in any way be described as sibilant but there where a few tracks where the treble was just not pleasing to my ear as noted below. A/B testing is a bit of a PITA but here are a few tracks I compared:
Tracks:
Pros
Cons
- Teflon over UP-OCC: Ultra Pure Ohno Continous Cast Copper
- Viablue Y Splitter
- Switchcraft 4 pin XLR
- Ordered 5 ft length
So a bit of background here. I absolutely despised the stock cable which came with my HE-500 and started searching for a replacement and exploring DIY options. My He-500’s are paired with the Schiit Gungnir and Mjolnir and I quickly zeroed in on wanting to try a pure copper cable to balance the SS Mjolnir and avoid stiffness of silver cables. I have no issue with investing in quality gear but was quickly turned off by many of the cable vendors which not so subtly implied that anything less than Teflon coated, extra soft temper, .9999 silver cables with ebony wood Y splitter fell squarely in their “budget” line. I was just about set on DIY, priced the cable, terminations etc. and set about reading up on litz braiding as I wanted a braided, unshielded cable.
Before placing my order I decided to practice braiding with wire I had on hand. Have you ever tried to perfectly braid 5 feet of cable? So back to looking for someone who could make a cable with the components I wanted, at a reasonable price, and not have to wait a month or more for delivery. That’s when I stumbled on Zynsonix. More about Zynsonix below:
Run by Bryan who is an avid DIY’er – check out his blog at diyaudioblog.com – I reached out to Bryan with my objectives and was immediately put at ease. He responded immediately with suggestions based on my objectives and not once did he try to upsell me.
Don’t be misled by the pricing. I found similar spec’ed cables at 3X the price.
So how do they sound? Clear and transparent with a bit of the edge removed from certain treble heavy tracks which bothered me with stock cables. HE-500’s cannot in any way be described as sibilant but there where a few tracks where the treble was just not pleasing to my ear as noted below. A/B testing is a bit of a PITA but here are a few tracks I compared:
Tracks:
- Naked and Famous - Young Blood: Keyboard intro was borderline sibilant with stock cable. Now crisp and clearly articulated.
- Elbow – Grounds for Divorce Live at Abbey Road Clear spacing of guitar, vocals and chorus and oh man when the Orchestra comes in at 1:15 ….
- Vast – Pretty when you Cry – Vocals floating over gorgeous rolling bass line.
- Van Halen – Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do) – Guitar intro is still razor sharp.
Pros
- Goldilocks zone on weight/resilience. It’s unobtrusive while still feeling quite substantial and snag/kinking resistant.
- Pure copper pairs well with SS Amp
- Less than 2 week turnaround for custom cable [and would have been quicker but Bryan let me know in advance that he was out of stock on Viablue splitter]
- Very competitive pricing for cable customized to requested specifications!
Cons
- In hindsight wish I had gone for another foot or so for reach
- Viablue Y splitter serves a purpose but perhaps slightly overkill for unshielded cable. It’s super lightweight so not objectionable at all from functional perspective.
