[Skylab]

The Taboo and its 6W of power agree with the LCD2. It has opened the sound stage up significantly. No longer is it small and compressed. It is wide and deep and no sign of any stress with demanding music. The amp is certainly a contender and as it burns in I feel it will only get better. I am glad I  ordered it and will keep posting impressions and get some pictures up in the next few days.

 


That's good news that you're liking the Decware Taboo. No doubt that Planars like Power!

 

[sunneebear]

Been seeing the words ER4 being tossed around a bit.  Why?  Other than the pretty smooth mids, it has none of the claimed 20Hz. and really poor treble 16Khz. 

 

[grokit]

Mr Green I believe you're up.

 

[sunneebear]

Grokit, whats the gauge of the Double Helix OCC you ordered?  
 
I was and still am to a point a disbeliever in boutique cable.  I thought that studio grade cable from Canare, Mogami and Belden can match any boutique brand.  A few hundred dollars for a few feet of snake oil is just insanity.  But before I went out to spew my disgust I had to put my money were my mouth was.  I ordered 24ft of the biggest baddest cable I could find.  The ALO 18AWG OCC Triple Pipe Cryo.  This cable has three bunches of 144 strands totaling 432 strands.
 

 

 
Yes its a monster of a cable but damn it's so smooth and natural sounding.  Sounds like all the signal without a spike anywhere.  Music just flows effortlessly.  It's like the perfect sounding cable.  But I stopped using it as often as when I just made it because its  just too stiff and heavy.  I just can't imagine the monstosity of a cable that ALO made by braiding it.  Leaving it like me is much more flexible and it still a nuisance.  Skylab, not a peep.
 
I might try the Double Helix next.  Actually it would have been first but three times I emailed DH and got no reply.  How rude.

 

[grokit]

Wow, a 24' ALO cable, that is a monster. I just got Double Helix's Molecule cable, and I'm pretty sure it's it's 24awg but I never thought to check. I just know that I liked the used one that I picked up at the F/S forum and decided to match it for the LCD-2 since they share the same amp. Anyways check the order link; it's a little confusing to get to it, but it's just point and click from there. 
 
I selected the silver cable initially just to check out the market price and I received an e-mail promptly with a quote of $30/foot so I switched to the OCC which is what I wanted all along. They term it "DHC Nucleotide custom stranded OCC copper wire" for whatever that is worth.
 
Your ALO cable looks like the same wire that Ken used for the XLR to speaker tap adapter he made for my HE-6, it's very nice but a bit on the heavy side. But I suppose that is how you want it if it's 24' long!

 

[sunneebear]

Sorry.  24ft strand.  I cut it into four pieces and made a 6ft cable.
 
So what does the HE-6 sound like with that cable?
 
Sorry folks for the slight derail but I just thought some might have liked the extra info on cables for their rig.

 

[jamato8]

Kind of looks like the old Monster cable from about 25 years ago though Monster was a larger gauge and would turn green in a couple of years. Was pretty at first. 

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

Yes its a monster of a cable but damn it's so smooth and natural sounding.  Sounds like all the signal without a spike anywhere.  Music just flows effortlessly.  It's like the perfect sounding cable.  But I stopped using it as often as when I just made it because its  just too stiff and heavy.  I just can't imagine the monstosity of a cable that ALO made by braiding it.  Leaving it like me is much more flexible and it still a nuisance.  Skylab, not a peep.
 
I might try the Double Helix next.  Actually it would have been first but three times I emailed DH and got no reply.  How rude.

Peter's on vacation right now for the Holidays. I've always gotten fairly quick responses from him. I'm sure he'll get back to you soon.
BTW the DHC cables are indeed 24awg.

 

[grokit]

Well I am just using the stock headphone cable with it, but when I switched to Ken's adapter (I had cut the HE-6 stock TRS adapter up for speaker tap use originally), I literally had sparks flying into my ears for a couple of days. It was kind of scary but I think somehow it was related more to static electricity than current from the amp.

It settled down after those first two days but it was shocking to say the least and just shows how conductive the ALO wire is. As far as sound goes the stock HE-6 cable is also OCC just thinner guage so if anything there was a slight increase in volume but it sounds great both ways.
 
There is a picture of the DH Nucleotide wire here, it is 24awg. Besides the Molecule, they also have their higher-end Clone and Compliment lines.

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Peter's on vacation right now for the Holidays. I've always gotten fairly quick responses from him. I'm sure he'll get back to you soon.
BTW the DHC cables are indeed 24awg.

Peter got back to me three days ago with the silver quote, so he is keeping in e-touch.

 

[SP Wild]

Yeah, my positive experience with the Norse OCC has me converted, I wish to replace all my headphones with detachable stock cables with OCC.  There is no going back to stock cables...OCC is the real deal IMO.

 

[zmorris]

Quote:

I received mine a few weeks ago and have had some time during the holiday to get fully acquainted with it. Overall I'm satisfied with these headphones, however I noticed some flaws that should be pointed out:
 
1. The JMoney pads are extremely firm and made of lower quality, rougher leather, in my opinion, than the MDR-R10 pads, which fit perfectly on the LCD-2 (after removing the two brass fittings) and are of the same diameter, 4.4". If you're able to find a replacement pair, I suggest making the switch. They're both attached with sticky adhesive tape.
 
2. The mini-XLR plugs are bulky and get in the way in regards to head mobility. I can't look down or turn my head side-to-side without the plugs hitting my collarbone, so I plan to switch the cable and connect it directly to the terminals without the use of the mini-XLR plugs. Luckily, after removing the two nuts and wires from the terminals, the male end of the mini-XLR and metal reinforcement piece, which are attached together, can be unscrewed from the wooden frame with a pair pliers and cloth (to avoid any scratching). Also, albeit very short, the stranded wires connecting the mini-XLR to the terminals look pretty generic, and if I'm going to upgrade the cable, I'd want them to go directly to the terminals.
This should also somewhat reduce the weight of the headphones.
 
3. I'm still trying to get used to the strong clamping tension of the headband and haven't yet found a way to relieve the pressure. Bending it doesn't seem to help and I do not want to damage it. Let's hope Audeze will offer/sell customizable user-upgradeable headbands in the future.
 

 

 
Okay, so I've figured out how to permanently loosen the tension in the headband. For anyone who's interested, I first unscrewed the four screws on each side securing the headband, then used a heatgun to carefully remove the foam padding. Afterwords, I applied heat to the headband using the heatgun and while wearing gloves, bent the headband to a more comfortable position which fit the contour of my head. If you remove phones and leave the headband by itself, you'll immediately notice why the headphones give such a tight fit. The headband should be bent while it's slightly hot and pliable so it will hold its shape after it's cooled down. After it had cooled down, I re-applied the foam padding, re-attached the screws, and that was it. The headphones are much more comfortable now.
 
EDIT: Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/JsHFV

 

[vrln]

Norse Audio flagship cable arrived. One third of the ALO price Did some initial testing and to be honest I´m not qualified to evaluate it much because I also switched to SE to balanced on an amp that is known for far worse performance in SE mode (Phoenix). But I will say that the sound is amazing, soundstage opened up as expected (balanced), everything is smoother and there´s not even a hint of harshness in the sound. When it comes to full size headphones, I´m done with this hobby for the near future (if Sennheiser ever does a HD 850 without the spike I´ll check it out). 
 
The cable has by far the best packaging I´ve seen in anything cable related that I´ve ever ordered, has almost zero microphonics (the stock cable is horrible in this regard, you have to touch at least 4 of the 8 cables to get a sound with this) and it´s very flexible and light. Last but definately not least, the wood splitter is awesome and overall it´s up there with the three times as expensive ALO cables in looks. Very satisfied, can recommend this to others as well.
 
Here are some pictures:
 
 


 
Nicely packed eh? The actual cables...
 

 
And finally...
 

 
One last picture of the Y-splitter...
 

 

[Frank I]

 
Quote:

 
That's good news that you're liking the Decware Taboo. No doubt that Planars like Power!

That 12BH7 tube really made a big difference over the 12AX7 JJ tube Steve sent with the amp. Thanks again Rob for the tubes. The power difference has made demanding music play without clip0ping and they play to really loud levels much louder than I could ever listen too but the soundstage is so much bigger and deeper and the bass is really tight and deep. The SB83 tubes are interesting and also sound very good but the tube nut in me is saying to swap and I will try the Golden Lion EL84 next and look for some Sylvania as you suggested.

 

[Frank I]

 
Quote:

Norse Audio flagship cable arrived. One third of the ALO price Did some initial testing and to be honest I´m not qualified to evaluate it much because I also switched to SE to balanced on an amp that is known for far worse performance in SE mode (Phoenix). But I will say that the sound is amazing, soundstage opened up as expected (balanced), everything is smoother and there´s not even a hint of harshness in the sound. When it comes to full size headphones, I´m done with this hobby for the near future (if Sennheiser ever does a HD 850 without the spike I´ll check it out). 
 
The cable has by far the best packaging I´ve seen in anything cable related that I´ve ever ordered, has almost zero microphonics (the stock cable is horrible in this regard, you have to touch at least 4 of the 8 cables to get a sound with this) and it´s very flexible and light. Last but definately not least, the wood splitter is awesome and overall it´s up there with the three times as expensive ALO cables in looks. Very satisfied, can recommend this to others as well.
 
Here are some pictures:
 
 
 

 
Nicely packed eh? The actual cables...
 

 
And finally...
 

 
One last picture of the Y-splitter...
 

The question is it more heavy than stock or less or the same weight. I like the look and the price Trevor is charging for them and look foward to some comparison from both balanced and single ended users to see what differences there are from stock. Beautiful work Trevor did with the cable.