TheSloth
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
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Myo kindly offered to send me his personal balanced GFT cable for the Sennheiser 580/600/650 headphones, which was obviously an offer I couldn't refuse. I would have taken pictures of it, however his photography is so much better than mine that I recommend you take a look at it in his photo gallery.
This was not a production model, and differs cosmetically from the single ended GFT that was sold to head-fi'ers. As far as I know, no balanced GFT was sold and Myo has no current intentions of selling them in the future.
So why am I writing about it? Myo was particularly interested in two aspects of this cable in my set up. The first was it's synergy with a high-end balanced HeadRoom amplifier - Myo's test amp is a HeadRoom Micro with Desktop Module (through a single ended adapter which he also sent me). The second was how it compared to the Balanced Equinox cable, arguably the best production balanced cable for the 650's. The only other balanced cable I have heard is the Cardas, which I disliked almost immediately.
I won't focus on design qualities here, as for a one off cable they hardly seem relevant. It suffices to say that it's beautifully put together, though a little stiff - this was corrected with the production GFT's. I should note that my Balanced Equinox cable is 15' long which allows me to sit comfortably on my couch, whereas the 10' length of the GFT meant I had to sit in a rather odd position to listen to it - hopefully that didn't subconsciously affect my impressions. The other fundamental design differences are that the GFT uses 650 connectors whereas it looks like the Equinox uses 580/600 connectors, and the GFT uses Vampire XLR's whereas the Equinox uses Neutrik XLR's. They seem to use a similar gauge of wire overall.
I was immediately surprised to hear such marked differences between the cables. They produce a very different presentation. The GFT is certainly more forward sounding, with to my ears a very slightly emphasis on the upper midrange. The bass is clean and tight. In essence it reminds me of the Cardas cable somewhat, however without any of the glaring midrange and overly lean bass that I disliked so much. The Equinox on the other hand seems to emphasise the lower midrange, giving a lot of prominence to the soundstage and ambience, occasionally at the expense of a little focus. The GFT makes the opposite trade-off, sometimes giving up a little soundstage and ambience for immediacy and clarity.
Myo asked me to listen to and compare instrument separation, which was not difficult as most of my listening material was choral/orchestral. It's very hard to pick a winner here due to the different presentation. I think the edge has to go to the Equinox by a hair. The up front sound of the GFT somehow makes you more aware of the source of the sound, in essence the position of the driver relative to your head, which positions all instruments quite close on a similar plane in 3D, although the clarity means that of course there is no difficultly in separating instruments from one another in your head. With the Equinox, it's harder to pinpoint the driver in the same way, allowing more space for instruments to occupy different locations in a larger 3D space. (I hope that made a bit of sense, talking about soundstaging and headphones is away messy...). Having said all that however, it all depends on how you perceive what you are hearing. I can imagine that many people will prefer the clarity of the GFT for pinpointing details and instruments. I happen to know the scores of the music I am listening to, so I know what's going on anyway and so tend to hear it no matter how euphonic the reproduction is.
After spending many hours listening, I'm not sure I could live with the GFT as my only cable. The 650/Equinox/Balanced Home sound has become too ingrained as my reference. To me, it's just a stock 650 taken to the max. The GFT changes the presentation significantly, and in fact my first feeling was that it pushes it a little closer somehow to the K701. For some that might be ideal and for that reason it is a great shame that he no longer makes this excellently thought-out, designed and built cable.
Myo told me that he voiced the GFT to liven up the 650's somewhat. As single ended headphones, I have to agree with him that they need a little waking up, and indeed I enjoy this cable more through it's single ended adapter than as a fully balanced setup. In this particular balanced setup however, I find that the mid-bass is so much cleaner, and the overall presentation so much more 'alive' that they no longer need that shot in the arm.
__
I was going to end there, when I realised that part of the point of sending it to me was my HeadRoom amp, and what is the most recognisable feature of a HeadRoom amp but it's crossfeed, something I seldom use. I flipped the switch, and, WOW. The slightly forward presentation of the GFT, combined with the mellowing effect and added soundstage of the crossfeed was just to die for. I wish I hadn't tried it out, because now I really don't want to send him back this cable. The crossfeed usually doesn't work particularly well with the Equinox because it already has so much emphasis on soundstaging already. But with the GFT it just seems to be the perfect blend of strengths. So overall I suppose I now consider there two reference cables for two different purposes - Equinox for stereo use, GFT for crossfeed adjusted stereo.
My sincerest thanks to Myo for trusting me with his personal cable.
This was not a production model, and differs cosmetically from the single ended GFT that was sold to head-fi'ers. As far as I know, no balanced GFT was sold and Myo has no current intentions of selling them in the future.
So why am I writing about it? Myo was particularly interested in two aspects of this cable in my set up. The first was it's synergy with a high-end balanced HeadRoom amplifier - Myo's test amp is a HeadRoom Micro with Desktop Module (through a single ended adapter which he also sent me). The second was how it compared to the Balanced Equinox cable, arguably the best production balanced cable for the 650's. The only other balanced cable I have heard is the Cardas, which I disliked almost immediately.
I won't focus on design qualities here, as for a one off cable they hardly seem relevant. It suffices to say that it's beautifully put together, though a little stiff - this was corrected with the production GFT's. I should note that my Balanced Equinox cable is 15' long which allows me to sit comfortably on my couch, whereas the 10' length of the GFT meant I had to sit in a rather odd position to listen to it - hopefully that didn't subconsciously affect my impressions. The other fundamental design differences are that the GFT uses 650 connectors whereas it looks like the Equinox uses 580/600 connectors, and the GFT uses Vampire XLR's whereas the Equinox uses Neutrik XLR's. They seem to use a similar gauge of wire overall.
I was immediately surprised to hear such marked differences between the cables. They produce a very different presentation. The GFT is certainly more forward sounding, with to my ears a very slightly emphasis on the upper midrange. The bass is clean and tight. In essence it reminds me of the Cardas cable somewhat, however without any of the glaring midrange and overly lean bass that I disliked so much. The Equinox on the other hand seems to emphasise the lower midrange, giving a lot of prominence to the soundstage and ambience, occasionally at the expense of a little focus. The GFT makes the opposite trade-off, sometimes giving up a little soundstage and ambience for immediacy and clarity.
Myo asked me to listen to and compare instrument separation, which was not difficult as most of my listening material was choral/orchestral. It's very hard to pick a winner here due to the different presentation. I think the edge has to go to the Equinox by a hair. The up front sound of the GFT somehow makes you more aware of the source of the sound, in essence the position of the driver relative to your head, which positions all instruments quite close on a similar plane in 3D, although the clarity means that of course there is no difficultly in separating instruments from one another in your head. With the Equinox, it's harder to pinpoint the driver in the same way, allowing more space for instruments to occupy different locations in a larger 3D space. (I hope that made a bit of sense, talking about soundstaging and headphones is away messy...). Having said all that however, it all depends on how you perceive what you are hearing. I can imagine that many people will prefer the clarity of the GFT for pinpointing details and instruments. I happen to know the scores of the music I am listening to, so I know what's going on anyway and so tend to hear it no matter how euphonic the reproduction is.
After spending many hours listening, I'm not sure I could live with the GFT as my only cable. The 650/Equinox/Balanced Home sound has become too ingrained as my reference. To me, it's just a stock 650 taken to the max. The GFT changes the presentation significantly, and in fact my first feeling was that it pushes it a little closer somehow to the K701. For some that might be ideal and for that reason it is a great shame that he no longer makes this excellently thought-out, designed and built cable.
Myo told me that he voiced the GFT to liven up the 650's somewhat. As single ended headphones, I have to agree with him that they need a little waking up, and indeed I enjoy this cable more through it's single ended adapter than as a fully balanced setup. In this particular balanced setup however, I find that the mid-bass is so much cleaner, and the overall presentation so much more 'alive' that they no longer need that shot in the arm.
__
I was going to end there, when I realised that part of the point of sending it to me was my HeadRoom amp, and what is the most recognisable feature of a HeadRoom amp but it's crossfeed, something I seldom use. I flipped the switch, and, WOW. The slightly forward presentation of the GFT, combined with the mellowing effect and added soundstage of the crossfeed was just to die for. I wish I hadn't tried it out, because now I really don't want to send him back this cable. The crossfeed usually doesn't work particularly well with the Equinox because it already has so much emphasis on soundstaging already. But with the GFT it just seems to be the perfect blend of strengths. So overall I suppose I now consider there two reference cables for two different purposes - Equinox for stereo use, GFT for crossfeed adjusted stereo.
My sincerest thanks to Myo for trusting me with his personal cable.
