[olblueyez]

Rules: This thread is not for the discussion of scientific data or theory related to audio cables. This thread is for impressions only.

I have impressions for 2 650 cables and 2 sets of IC's.

The first is a set of Soloz Audio Resolution Series Elite 12 Conductor OFHC IC's at 3 feet, made by Jacob at Soloz. They are made of copper and my set had the standard chrome/gold RCA's. I ordered them from Jacob because he made me a nice mini to RCA that I liked before I sold it to headphoneaddict. I cant remember how long they were but I believe they were 6 feet. They were amazing to look at, litz braid silver coated wire, very pretty indeed. I wish I could say I enjoyed listening to them as much as I did looking at them. Reference point is 2 sections of stranded copper from an upper level AR component cable. The Soloz cable added a distinct tilt "UP" to everything. The bass still had adequate impact but the weight of the bass was reduced to a point of wanting to put overly warm tubes in my raptor. The problem with overly warm tubes is they almost always cause the highs to roll off. The highs, although different than the AR cable, had some similarities, the highs were compressed and distorted as though I were using an amp with inadequate power. My last gripe with this cable was noise, this thing picked up more noise than a pocket AM radio! Not really but the noise level was way too high for a handmade cable costing over 100 dollars. This noise may have been the cause of the loss of dynamics and distortion in the highs, I am not sure. My lesson learned here is this: Shielding is important. I was looking for dynamic and smooth, any other trait's I wanted could be added or taken away with tube rolling.

New is the King Cobra. I decided on something more commercial since the DIY journey had not worked out. I decided it would be copper and well shielded. The King Cobra has 3 solid core copper runs and since mine has RCA's it has one for positive and 2 runs for the return. The KC also has a directional shield that is attached to the connector at the source end to draw noise away from the amp. This set is 2 meters. I remember the day I plugged them in and put my headphones on, my jaw hit the floor. I had no idea a cable could "enable" my amp in such a positive way. The entire presentation sounded extremely natural, not tipped and thin like the Soloz cable. "Where's the Bass"? Its right here with me thanks to the KC interconnect. Weight and impact in perfect proportions and smooth. Much more dynamic and clear highs came with the newly found perfect bass and all that wrapped in a cable that is impervious to all noise except maybe a cell phone 3 inches away accessing the network. All the other electronics in the room have no affect on this great cable. The icing on the cake is the red and black braid between the two molded connectors. Good stuff. I highly recommend this to anyone who wans a cable that is natural and dynamic with out undue coloring.

The Apuresound V3 headphone cable is next on the list. The cable was very attractive and I had ordered it with the Nylon and futuretech. The Nylon is great stuff and although I know it doesn't add much to the price of the cable I think its worth a lot of money. The nylon is so much easier to handle and doesn't make a peep when it rubs against something, it was silent. One of the 650 connectors was extremely hard to insert and remove from the headphones. The V3 is silver coated copper

, I know, I know, WTH. Anyway, it was very uncolored, to the point of causing everything to sound bright or tipped and unnatural, the bass was ruined and the over all presentation was thin and etched. I would recommend this cable for someone with a "too" warm system like a Heed+650's. I just did not like the sound offered by this cable but over all it wasn't too bad sounding, just not life-like with my rig.

Last but not least I got the Equinox to replace the V3. Construction is similar to the stock V3 except the quality of the Sennheiser connectors is soooooooooo much better than the plugs on the V3. both plugs seated properly and with an equal and proper amount of pressure. I got the Techflex on this one and it sucks. Its stiff and microphonic. Thats ok though, you just need a bit of care as to how you use it. I was over whelmed when I tried this cable. I didn't know what to expect. This cable solved all the problems built into the OEM cable without adding other less than ideal traits. Not even one drawback to the way this cable sounds. The OEM unit gives you a muddy bass with a lack of impact and too much weight. The OEM cable is extremely recessed in the mids and I firmly believe the OEM 650 cable is responsible for the "VEIL" associated with the 650 headphones. The Equinox has the perfect balance between bass weight and impact and allows the mids to come forward so vocals sound very clear and crisp. The 650 is a perfectly balanced headphone with the Equinox. I am still stunned at how SAA was able to make a cable that addressed problems with the 650 without creating more problems. Its a shame more people don't take stock in stories like this, I have seen people buy and sell 650's based on the veil or use amplification that is too bright or go silver. The problem with the two silver cables I had is that they ruined just as much as they fixed when it came to the sound offered.

Anyway, I thought maybe people could also offer up some experiences for everyone so we all can read some impressions without being harassed.

 

[spanimal]

Much appreciated - gotta try to obtain these ICs and 650 cables without resorting to credit cards and postage.

 

[spanimal]

My cable journey started a couple of months ago.

A pair of QED Audio 1 was thrown in free when I purchased my MF headamp. A pair of Belkin Pure AV was thrown in free when I bought my Pioneer Elite player. I used the QED straight to amp originally and grew accustomed to my setup with HD650. Sounded fantastic - so impressed with Senheisser that I bought 595 to compliment and use for portables. 595 was largely inferior to 650.

I then rearranged my furniture, sitting the amp further away from the source. Eventually I stopped listening to my headphones - I felt that the initial joy was not there and that it was all a waste of money.

Whenever I listened, I was reaching for the 595s and the 650s felt too soft and smooth and muffled, I felt I wasted money on 650 when I started to prefer the 595. I could'nt understand how the familiar 650 was now inferior to 595, could it be burn in? Its all sounding like a waste of money.

Before I started selling everything off I thought about a possible reason behind my negative experiences. By now I had a cheap switchbox to switch sources and a mix of cables - Belkin to switchbox and QED from switchbox to headamp. Switchbox gave me extra length and switching to Ipod without changing cables. I removed the switchbox and used the QED direct - how it was originally and I listened. The 650 had life immediately restored, exactly how it was - far superior to the 595 in everyway. I tried the Belkin direct this time, 650 veiled and recessed, the 595 sounding more forward, compensated and was better. Bottom line was that the QED was a far superior cable for both headadphones. It was dynamic thruogh the entire spectrum with an extended treble. This absolutely went against everything I understood about cables and minimal signal loss with all cables.

I then proceeded with a week long shootout of all my cheapish cables. The winner was a cheap cable I chopped in half and soldered my own connections to many years ago when I had a rotel amp, cambridge audio CD player and Tannoy speakers - which I "upgraded" to surround sound from. This cable had a warmth and bloom to the midrange in addition to the dynamics of the QED, with a slight sacrifice of treble detail. Tied in second with the QED was a cheap 3 meter Phillips cable that had this warmth but little less dynamic and more reduction in treble detail. The rest including the Belkin was not up to standard.

Realising that my hearing is far superior than I believed, I joined head-fi to interact with others that have learned these immediate differences. I also bought a K701 headphone, a CA Dacmagic, and a new netbook to store lossless files for the DAC. This time I demanded the retailer throw in a reputable cable - He threw in a Chord Crimson cable - on the package was a 5 star rating from a Hi Fi magazine.

The Chord Crimson had only slightly less lower midrange bloom than my DIY combined with the detail and treble extension of the QED - Its the cable I now use. Out of curiosity I then researched these 2 cables and indeed the same magazine rated the QED 4 stars with its very good treble performance - mirroring my experiences. We could not placebo the same conclusion. I remember the young salesman enthusiastically looking at the cables on the wall before picking out the QED as he must have known it would match my HD650 and amp I bought from him - He knew what he was on about - young Tim at Lenn Wallis Hi Fi, you are an asset to the industry.