First, let me state that I do not believe there is a technical difference in the audio quality when changing the cables of your Speakers / Headphones / IEM's. To better understand where I am coming from, I am a Director of Product Management for the worlds largest satellite communications modem manufacture. Unless you have purchased the incorrect cable for the frequency range and distance you are dealing with, the physical cable makes an unmeasurable difference; including bit errors a FEC on the other end is seeing. Also, I do not believe in burn it, for speakers, maybe as they have physically moving parts... A cable is solid state and will not change no matter how many hours you flow electrons over it, unless you consider half life degradation to be a positive thing...
That is not to say I do not believe in replacing your cables...
What I do believe you get with a custom cable is better overall product build quality, better aesthetics, better quality control, and better product support when something goes wrong. I am currently considering purchasing a cable replacement for my SE535's from DHC Cables. I have personally seen the quality Peter puts out as a colleague of mine is an audiophile and owns DHC Cables. At the same time, many of the engineers we are friends with think I am absolutely stupid and falling for "my own marketing tricks" if I purchase a $270 cable.
Here is how I can justify it...
When we build a unit to demo to the public at NAB or Satellite 20XX or CommunicAsia, we build our own cables and connectors. We buy the nicest 3 piece F-Connectors, and 4 Piece N-Type Connectors pairing them with the best cables Belden makes. Why do we do this? Because the overall quality cannot be matched by mass manufactured premade cables.
Does that mean they work better? No. What that means is each cable was painstakingly built by an engineer and run through several QC test prior to getting the stamp of approval. The odds of this cable failing is slim to none. The cables also have better aesthetics than a premade cable as they have high end (Almost chrome looking) connectors, extremely high quality jacketed cabling that screams professionalism, and built to measure.
I compare a custom cable to a nice watch. Do you honestly think a Stainless Steal Zenith Automatic (~$5000) performs better than a Stainless Steal Citizen Eco Drive (~$350)? No it does not. Why do I own the more expensive? Build quality, aesthetics, and wow factor.
Are the above factors important to you? If so you can either build your own cable or buy a custom one. I for one am not going to build my own cable as the cost associated is not worth the effort and time. Please read that sentence again before moving on. The cost associated with buying bulk cable, bulk connectors, equipment like soldering irons and test equipment like power meters and oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers etc... all add up. Now factor in the actual man hours to build a cable, test the cable, package the cable and ship the cable and you can see why it cost a bit more than a mass produced cable.
I also want to say that you should be careful about the highest end cable offerings compared to the lower end cable offerings. All things being the same, the only difference is the cost of the actual cable. The difference in cable cost is usually less than $2 a foot (And that's in extreme cases). At that level, you are paying for marketing.
With all of the above being my opinion and my opinion only... I am about to purchase a DHC Symbiote SE cable from Peter.
Good luck with your search.
