[Orpheus]

welp... there you have it... your very own Equinox, except at their cost. ...yes, it probably took them about the same amount of money in materials... i guess it would be the labor you'd be paying for. but anyway... the specs are pretty much the same... star quad cable, good copper, silver solder... i'd be surprised if you find a significant difference between the physical design of the canare cable vs the equinox.

...and if you wrapped it in techflex... i don't think anyone could tell the difference. ...that's not to say yours doesn't look great the way it is.

job.

 

[markl]

FWIW, here's my experience with the HD590 (vs. the HD600) and the Equinox cable:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=18629


Cheers.

Mark

 

[Dreamslacker]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus welp... there you have it... your very own Equinox, except at their cost. ...yes, it probably took them about the same amount of money in materials... i guess it would be the labor you'd be paying for. but anyway... the specs are pretty much the same... star quad cable, good copper, silver solder... i'd be surprised if you find a significant difference between the physical design of the canare cable vs the equinox. ...and if you wrapped it in techflex... i don't think anyone could tell the difference. ...that's not to say yours doesn't look great the way it is. job.

Frankly, my cable doesn't look that great. The pictures aren't so clear, you see. The white portion is actually textured as I wrapped the teflon threading tape spirally around the cable. I'll be getting techflex soon (didn't have time to get it on Saturday).

Currently, I'm using Canare L-2T2S cable instead of the star quad which I can't find locally. The difference being that the L-2T2S has more strands per conductor and it's 1 twisted pair only.

I seriously think that the labour cost that Stephan Studioart charges is too much. Probably about 100% profit assuming they pay their staff well for intensive labour.
Considering that they're using a Neutrik ¼" plug and an additional 3.3 feet (1m) L-4E6S (Which is US$0.01 cheaper than L-2T2S per foot). Their cable should be about US$10 - US$15 more than my cable in materials cost.

Quote:

Originally posted by markl FWIW, here's my experience with the HD590 (vs. the HD600) and the Equinox cable: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=18629 Cheers. Mark

Nice... Don't tempt me to upgrade my HD-570's!! STOP IT!

 

[Orpheus]

welp, then when you have some time, order some star quad from www.markertek.com

there's an extra thin version of the l-4e6s that they carry, though i forgot the model number. you might like it more. but it's a little thinner gauge, and you're not using a pair of cables like i suggested....

but if you want a copy of the Equinox, just get that star quad... then you'd have a $180 cable for less than $20.

 

[Dreamslacker]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus welp, then when you have some time, order some star quad from www.markertek.com there's an extra thin version of the l-4e6s that they carry, though i forgot the model number. you might like it more. but it's a little thinner gauge, and you're not using a pair of cables like i suggested.... but if you want a copy of the Equinox, just get that star quad... then you'd have a $180 cable for less than $20.

You must be talking about the L-4E5C cable. Well, I'll see if I can lay my hands on them locally. I shoud be able to get them if I look hard enough but the pricing is in no way as cheap. I'm already paying ~US$0.50 more (than Markertek) per metre (3.3ft) for the L-2T2S.

Although the total cost should be below US$15 even with techflex. Maybe up to US$20 if I order a Neutrik ¼" plug.

I don't like the idea of 2 cables because that will be way too heavy for my liking.

 

[Irons82]

OK, after 4 hours of labouring, my fruit of labor is done. It looked great

. However, I didn't do a good job on the 2.5mm plug. FYI, the Nectec 2.5mm plug DOES fit my HD495. I would imagine it should fit just fine on the HD595 (which should be on my door in 1-2 days). The fit was VERY tight on the 2.5mm plug with just one cable. It would take lots of experience and patience and very steady hand to fit 2 cables, all of which I lack

. Well, I was rushing on the 2.5mm so the connector was kinda crooked. I shoved it into the HD495 connector and destroyed it in the process. It was ailing before, the crooked connector finished it off

Anyhow, I would have to redo the 2.5mm connector end and wait for the HD595 to arrive before having any conclusion. Meanwhile, I have no headphone

 

[Dreamslacker]

Alright.... I just went to this shop I love over here and THEY carry Canare cables!!! AND NEUTRIK stuff! Unfortunately, they only have Neutrik ¼" Mono plugs, not the stereo plugs.
But I've also been lured by their AKG, Beyer Dynamics & Sennheiser headphones.... argh....

Took a listen for the HD590's.. Way too fatiguing for me. Just that 20s of Eagle's Hell Freezes Over album was enough to kill my brains.. The music was somewhat too "impactful"?? Almost smacking my cranium around.

The soundstage and clarity of the Beyer DT-531's was good though. Sound like what I like in a pair of headphones. I guess I shall be looking at their DT990's and the Sennheiser HD600's in December.

OTOH, I converted a friend into a headphone-philiac. He bought a DT-431. Didn't get the DT-531's cos he said he didn't want an amp. That's what they all say anyway.... Now I'm getting bugged to build him one.

I managed to get Canare L-4E5C cables from the shop. That's the thinner, 4 conductor cable. Got some techflex as well. I've just built the new cable and will post pictures tomorrow once again..

This cable sounds a slight bit clearer & the guitars have more "twang" than the L-2T2S. However, the cable is also very slightly more bassy.
Braiding and 2 white conductors connected to ground. One of each of the blue conductors used for left & right.
Length: 1.5m (~5 feet); Black (I wish the shop carried red)
Connectors are the same as those used in the L-2T2S cable.

10cm of rubber striped off for more flexibility at the headphone end. Braiding covered with teflon threading tape and then techflex.

 

[Irons82]

You know, I'm thinking...Why bother with the tiny little 2.5mm plug? Why couldn't we have both end of the cable 6.3mm plug and use a high-quality adapter. That way, the cable is a lot more versatile, not to mention much easier to make too. What do you think

 

[Orpheus]

well, see, you're going through all this time consuming and tedious trouble to construct the ultimate repalcemend chord right? why compromise your masterpiece with a adapter. first of all... it's ugly. second of all, it's just another piece in the signal path, which is bad... might as well just keep your stock cable then. do you realize that people get hard-ons (can i say that?) when they're holding some 99.999999% pure copper cable or whatever.... your adapter just reduced that purity by a couple decimal places i bet.... you just lost like 1000x the purity right there! (just an estimation... you can do the math yourself if you want.)..... anyway, you get the idea.

 

[Irons82]

gosh...you audiophiles are odd.....

 

[Dreamslacker]

As promised. I've just took an hour to make a new cable. Scrapped the one I did last night because it was too short and not too comfortable.

This time, the cable is 2.5m long; I striped off 1m of rubber insulation and wrapped it in PTFE threading tape. Techflex covering over the PTFE portion.


My entire setup:

HD570's with the cable:

1m of Techflex (or equivalent):

The 2.5mm sub-mini plug against the stock cable's:

The red 2 conductor cable with the black 4 conductor:

PS: This will be the last set I'm building for the HD270/HD570 I have. Intending to upgrade to Beyers or the HD600's in December....

 

[Orpheus]

...is that tape near the plug?... and how come there's only techflex half the way?... probably should have used heatshrink instead... it'll last longer.

but looks nice man. glad you made it work.

irons: you don't mean me odd do you? heh he... must have met me before. but i'm just saying, if you don't care about stupid small nuances like that, then there really isn't any reason for you to make a replacement cable. your original cable works fine the way it is.

 

[Dreamslacker]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus ...is that tape near the plug?... and how come there's only techflex half the way?... probably should have used heatshrink instead... it'll last longer. but looks nice man. glad you made it work.

Thanks.

I techflexed only half the cable since that's the portion that needs to be flexible. (the rubber insulation is removed in that 1m). Also, techflex is expensive. Nearly the same price as the Canare cable.. LoL....

I heatshrinked the 2.5mm plug but covered it with the PTFE glass cloth adhesive tape because the plug was a little loose when plugged in and would sometimes lose connection with the headphones.

Padding it with the glass cloth tape solved the problem. The PTFE also reduces friction there and the cable swivels freely of the headphone.

Update:

Removed the tape and replaced it with 3 layers of heatshrink. Now the cable cannot swivel freely of the headphones but the connection problem is solved.

Used the 2 white for left, 2 blue for right and the braiding for ground in the cable for those who are interested.

 

[D-Audi]

dreamslacker -
what headphones are those?

 

[D-Audi]

nm, just saw they were the 570's....and you liked them better than the 590's?