[liquidzoo]

Finished this up this morning.
 
 

 

 

[joseph0042]

Anyone have experience with replacing the cabling for the UE 900? Does the sound improve creating a custom cable? And is the sound difference between copper, silver plated, and pure silver that large on this IEM?

 

[tintin220]

Quote:

Anyone have experience with replacing the cabling for the UE 900? Does the sound improve creating a custom cable? And is the sound difference between copper, silver plated, and pure silver that large on this IEM?

 
Others may disagree, but I think most of us here know and believe that cables do not make an ounce of difference as far as audible sound is concerned. 
 
There are plenty of reasons to DIY your own cable or buy an aftermarket, not least of which are build and quality, flexibility, and cable length. And looks. Plus, if you make your own, there's a certain amount of pride involved. But it's not going to sound any better. If it does, it's in your head, and an unsighted test will likely prove this.

 

[liquidzoo]

From a purely electrical standpoint, some metals and metal manufacturing processes produce a wire that conducts the signal better than others (there is a whole Sound Science section here, and it seems that it's a hotly debated issue all around).
 
Will you hear the difference?  Maybe, but there is a large chance that it would be all in your head and any real differences in sound are simply imagined.
 
The only way to truly know for yourself would be blind A/B testing using the same headphones with different cables (different headphones, even of the same brand, may produce different results by themselves).

 

[Armaegis]

edit: nope, not gonna take the bait. I'm a material scientist and I'm keeping my yap shut

 

[tintin220]

^^ Exactly. 
 
For further thought, consider your cable like a giant water pipe, except for carrying electrons. In a pipe, if you have certain bottlenecks, kinks, or areas where the diameter suddenly gets smaller, even back in the larger diameter areas, you'll have reduced flow rate as a result.
 
A cable is similar to that since it's not just one giant wire with nothing else. So even if you have infinite purity gold wire (even the audible and measurable differences of that in theory would be debatable), unless your interconnects are also the same material, and they're usually some kind of nickel or gold plated copper or brass*, there's a bottleneck. Then there's solder; 99% of builders use some kind of 60/40 or 63/37 tin/lead solder. Some might use silver solder. But there's another bottleneck. And this is just in the cable itself, not considering all the bottlenecks in up/downstream components and ICs. 
 
As an interesting note, some people believe rhodium plated plugs sound unique or exceptional compared even to gold plating. The truth of this design implementation is entirely that rhodium is extremely hard and durable, unlike gold or silver, which can theoretically start to wear away after enough mating cycles. Rhodium actually is a lot less conductive. 
 
*Every now and then, you even find a manufacturer cheating and using iron or steel for their plugs. Yuck.
 
====
 
 

edit: nope, not gonna take the bait. I'm a material scientist and I'm keeping my yap shut
 

 
Smart man. I think this thread is fairly safe. I've definitely been trolled out of a few others.

 

[KimChee]

Love that wooden plug!  Also the cable looks great!
Quote:

Finished this up this morning.
 
 

 

 

[KimChee]

Ahh, looks like I posted at the right/wrong time.  I found that the hybrid cable with the SPC Viper and Scorpion wire, increased the bass a bit too much, it also increased the midbass.  I like my JH16 because it has emphasis in the lower/sub bass.  I don't know if this was due to the extra wires or what, but it was too much.  As a basshead who also enjoys high end sound I never thought I'd say that.  So I took the 8 wire cable apart and made this 26awg Scorpion wire, and I'm happy again.  Clearly I have too much free time on my hands...Now I have 18 feet of Viper SPC wire, and 12 feet of Scorpion wire, with 24 feet of Mogami wire coming in..what to do next..any suggestions guys?
 
 

 

[liquidzoo]

Quote:

Love that wooden plug!  Also the cable looks great!

Thanks!
 
Now comes the hard(ish) part...taking apart my DT770s to mod/rewire them as well.

 

[tintin220]

Updated photos actually using a half-decent camera this time. 
 

 
 

 
 
(Baby 3.5mm to 3.5mm interconnect now connecting my O2 to my y2: http://www.head-fi.org/t/616331/o2-amp-odac/1470#post_9443736)

 

[jrhill]

Hi Telecaster,
 
Where do you get that 100 x 40#  OFC Copper in Silk wire?  and the cost?

 

[joseph0042]

Anyone ever used tempoelectric.com? They have 24 gauge .9999 silver wire for 2.50 a foot including a sleeve color of your choice.

 

[cute]

Quote:

Anyone ever used tempoelectric.com? They have 24 gauge .9999 silver wire for 2.50 a foot including a sleeve color of your choice.

 
Is that stranded silver wire, or solid core?

 

[joseph0042]

Quote:

 
Is that stranded silver wire, or solid core?

 
I think it is solid core. I don't see strands in the images they provide. Which is better for diy?

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

 
I think it is solid core. I don't see strands in the images they provide. Which is better for diy?

Stranded for headphone cables.