[bangraman]

How far (to a reasonably sane extent) could you go with this? Not any upside down cup kludges, but actually with the cable fitting properly. I haven't seen anyone offering an upgrade. Is anyone?

 

[NeilPeart]

The HD25-13 cable is just like the stock single-ended cable, except it's OFC (like the HD600/650 cables) rather than steel and it terminates to a 1/4" plug rather than the 1/8" plug of the HD25-1 cable. My solution would be to get the HD25-13 cable (it's expensive and can only be had from the German Sennheiser, IIRC) and re-terminate it to 1/8" for portable usage sans adapter - the goodness of copper is a huge benefit for the HD25-1 as I'm sure you're well aware. I still use my HD25-1 with the HD650 cable and therefore, with the 2-sided, reverse-cup system. Since I rarely use my cans portably this is not an issue (and when they are mobile it's usually in a car).

 

[saint.panda]

I don't think any other cable than Sennheiser's very own can fit into the slit inside the headband.

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saint.panda I don't think any other cable than Sennheiser's very own can fit into the slit inside the headband.

That was my main concern. I suppose there's not a huge amount of choice in this respect. Thanks for the comments anyway. I think I'll make my own.

 

[Phil Ramsay]

I've been trying various materials to make my own cable upgrades, with limited success.

All cables have started by taking a stock HD-25-1 cable, and cutting everything off, leaving only the small connectors that plug into the earcup, plus about 1" of the original wire to solder to.

First cable attempt was nice looking and nice sounding, and sturdy but had microphonics problems that drove me nuts. It was made of 4 wire OFC stranded silver coated copper hookup wire in a litz braid. Depending on the size of wire you use, the twisted pair going through the headband slot will probably fit; in my case it was a little loose, so I used a little black electrical tape to keep the wires in place. I added 1/8" techflex for durablility, but the microphonics were quite bad with a portable. I tried it for about a month and disassembled it to re-use parts.

Second cable attempt was same as above, but without the techflex. This completely got rid of the annoying microphonics, but really cut down a lot on durablity. I tried this for about a month too, and liked it while it lasted. By the end of a month it was developing intermitent shorts and it was back to the drawing board again.

Third cable attempt was to try some more straight forward cable for durability and reduced microphonics with hopefully acceptable sonic improvement. I had a bunch of mini Starquad laying about, so I gave it a shot too. First off, the durability / microphonics thing was very successful - not problems at all. Side benefit is that a twisted pair of mini Starquad fits the headband slot perfectly; no electrical tape required for a great fit.

How did the cables sound? It's kind of hard to judge, as each cable has been re-built from the same canibalized connectors, so no A-B compairisons are available, only somewhat colored memory. As best I can remember the litz braided OFC really did sound better than the mini starquad. I believe it's fair to say the mini starquad does sounds somewhat better than the stock steel cable.

Has it been worth it? Maybe. I've learned a bit about what's important (to me), and it's been fairly cheap entertainment. Noticeable sound difference? Yeah, probably enough to notice and care about if you use the cans in a way that warrants it - that is if you listen critically a lot, and have the quiet setting, a reasonable source, and clean music to enjoy the difference.