Best Aftermarket Cable for the Sennheiser HD 650
Apr 17, 2013 at 3:59 PM Post #16 of 41
 I do not hear a lot about the Zu Mobius Mk.II but I really like it. It has a low noise sheathing, aluminum connector body's, with press-sinter Elkonite copper pins, solder-free coldforged pin termination's. It is lighter than the first version, tougher, flexible, less microphonic. Blaa Blaa.. More detail's on the web site.
 
 The bass on my 650's went from wooly to tight and way better definition. I was wondering if the 650's could do better than one note bass..They can, and overall the timbre and texture now sound more natural, with greater resolution over the stock cable. The bass is fast when called for and the high's extend out nicely. I just upgraded my equipment and I hear even more details with this cable. For me, it just sound's like the right cable for the HD650's and I'm satisfied. If I were not then Zu has a 60 day return policy. Oh yeah, it's American made at that.   Web site at Zu Audio for more detail's.
 
Jul 16, 2013 at 4:53 AM Post #21 of 41
As long as your cables are copper, the only thing you may hear is more/less transparency.  Stay away from silver or a mix.
 
Jul 16, 2013 at 5:29 AM Post #22 of 41
For the HD650's it has to be silver, copper would just be more of the same because the stock cable is copper.
 
When I have my HD650's a few years ago I tried the copper equinox cable and the Moon Audio Silver Dragon Mkii.
The Equinox made very little difference but the Silver Dragon was a significant improvement.
 
Toxic cables are excellent in all areas, build quality, sound quality etc and would be my recommendation ( I have 3 myself ) but have a very long wait time of about 20 weeks!!
Toxic do not have a return policy, unless faulty, but due to the wait times you would esily sell it at near new price.
 
Jul 20, 2013 at 10:15 PM Post #23 of 41
I took a gamble on a set of cyro treated 14gauge copper braided cables with a Furutech TRS plug from ALO Audio.  Very happy with these.  It's a more subtle upgrade than upgrading your DAC or amp but it is noticeably better than stock.
 
Jul 15, 2014 at 2:56 PM Post #24 of 41
Im abit discomfortable with stock cable of HD650. I like the smooth and neutral dark sound but sometimes I want to wash my ears and remove fiber.. virtual one
Is it worth to upgeade cable or should I go to another headphones? Im ysing matrix x-sabre + matrix quattro amp
 
Jul 28, 2014 at 1:30 PM Post #25 of 41
Edit:
 
I can appreciate a bit of criticism. And respect the right's of others to disagree. I have cleaned up this post so not to offend anyone with my colorful metaphors. This thread is for those who seek the 'Best Aftermarket Cable for the HD650' and are looking for opinions from people who have actually heard the cables they suggest. I don't believe there is a best but there are a few like the Toxic Silver Poison and Zu Audio Mobius that sound quite different than the stock cable. And some would say they sound better but to each his own.
 
To the poster below:
 
I disagree with John Dunlavy.  He sell's his own line of cables and he's only one in a sea of other's opinion's not my own. Have you heard or spent time with either of the cables above? If you had you might want to spout some cablecilism your own self.
 
Aug 3, 2014 at 10:10 AM Post #26 of 41
If you want shorter/longer/prettier cables, many stores do sell reasonably priced ones (e.g. monoprice, bluejeans and pretty much all professional studio equipment vendors.)

If you want better/different sound, buy a better/different headphone.. or DAC .. or amp.

You can of course join the legion of cable fanatics here (btw I call them Cableciles) who "strongly advise" you to spend $1000 to buy a cable for a $400 headphone.  Believe them and have all the "fun" you want with your own cash or you can listen to John Dunlavy, one of the best acoustics engineers and speaker builders who ever graced the face of the earth: cable nonsense.
I highly recommend you read those two links but since it is quite a lot, here is the short version. Sound differences in cables have 3 possible reasons:

1. Badly built cables. Cables may be too thin, made of cheap aluminium alloys, have flimsy connectors, bad insulation, etc.. also includes cables which contain extra electronics: cheap volume controls, resistors, zoebel networks, misplaced ferrite cores, etc.

2. Placebo/imagination.  Your ears are far from perfect and your eyes and brain strongly influence what you hear.

3. Marketing shills (also known as damn liers). For example take this guy above me, he is a completely normal and sincere dude who writes page-long chains of metaphors about cables .. cause that's what normal people do .. go poetic for pages about wire.{/sarcasm}

  P.S.
Pls don't bother answering with more cablecilism, I got better things to do.
 
Dec 30, 2015 at 12:15 PM Post #27 of 41
audio-omega said:
  I used to have Enigma Oracle, Zu Mobius v1 and v2 cables.  All of them sounded better than the stock, music was brighter and faster with tighter bass.  Zu Mobius v2 was the best, vocal was more forward and the headphones didn't sound so dark with it.  The cables responded better to Ray Samuels HR-2 amplifier than Musical Fidelity X-Can v3.  Having said that, I wouldn't have bought those cables if I knew Sennheiser HD800 was coming, however part of this hobby is getting there.    
Click to expand...


Is Zu v2 discontinued now? I cannot find it on their site.
 
Jan 2, 2016 at 10:36 PM Post #30 of 41
After finding that speaker cables were basically no different (and staying with Nordost Gold Flatline Mk II simply because I cut and terminated them to my needs for a biamped magneplanar set up), I haven't bit on the spendy stuff for my HD600s.  Instead I got a very modest New Fantasia OFC cable of 6' length to meet my desire for a shorter cable than the HD650 ones I had been running on my HD600s.  Works for me :)
 
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