Anyone who knows me will know that I've never been much of a 'cable guy'. Coming to IEMs from full-size cables, I always felt cables were more about look and feel, and as long as they were well made and not too jangly, they were much of a muchness. In truth. Even though I eventually had some bespoke cables made for my full-size headphones, I hardly ever heard much of a difference between them, truth be told, even with transparent headphones like the HD800.
Fast forward a few years, and I've done a full 180 on cables. As I climbed up the IEM ladder, I couldn't help but notice subtle but very audible differences between the cables I mixed and matched between my IEMs. The effect was often unpredictable, smoothing out some frequencies, sharpening up others, leaving some untouched. I experimented with materials, quickly realising that not all copper was copper, and that copper, silver and the mix of both had a very definite effect on the sound, though in mostly unpredictable ways.
Eventually I settled on a combination of copper and copper-plated cables (PW Audio Anniversary No. 5 and No. 10) for my two IEMs, based mainly on the look and feel (I loved the thick, 8-wire PW Audio No. 10
@xenithon first showed me, with its gorgeous hex-style hardware, and had to have it). It was soon joined by the No. 5 8-wire which I figured would tame some of the excesses of my new favourite IEM, Fourte. As an aside, it turns out the number of wires also makes a sonic difference - who knew?
That's about as far as I ever expected to go, because let's face it, the changes - when they're there - aren't 'night and day' like so many other parts of the chain, and even if they're more than just subtle, there was a limit to how much I was willing to spend on a cable, having blown beyond my budget on flagship IEMs. Sure, PW Audio makes a series of legendary cables with dates for names, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever plan on owing one, let alone two.
By matter of coincidence, two things happened that changed all that. First, I was introduced to a genius called
@doctorjuggles (not his real name), who was not only a fellow ex-South African, but happened to makes cool looking and sounding cables, some of which I got to try myself courtesy of xenithon. Then, when visiting said xenithon a few months back, I finally got to hear what a true summit-fi cable sounds like with my own IEMs (the 4-wire 1960s that happens to accompany a famous little bird). I honestly didn't expect much beyond small refinements, and really only had half an hour to try it, but that was all the time I needed to understand exactly
how a cable can
fundamentally improve the overall sound of an IEM. The blackness of background, clearly increased dynamics, reduced glassiness and overall impact the cable imparted on the Fourte, compared directly to the cable I'd been more than satisfied with before, was ear-opening to say the least.
There and then I knew, if I wanted to hear the Fourte at its very best, I needed to get that cable - or at least one very much like it. And since the 1960s (and 1950s) are the only IEM cables I'm aware of that use genuine Cardas wire to achieve their sound (the brainchild of one P Wong), I had to figure out a way to get my hands on one without remortgaging my house...
...which brought me back to the first happy coincidence, doctorjuggles. Because, as it happens, the good doctor had previously made cables using the self-same genuine Cardas wire, and as a bonus, they cost significantly less. Until I had a crazy thought: what if the doc could make me a Cardas cable with only two wires? I mean, a 2-wire Clear Light cable already exists (in the form of PW's 1960s 2-wire), which is made from thinner wire than the Cardas Clear.
Following a quick check with the doc that he would a) be wiling and able to try it, and b) could actually get stock of Cardas wire (which is notoriously costly to acquire since Cardas doesn't sell the bare wire), I bit the bullet and placed my order. If it worked, it would be the world's first 2-wire version of a Cardas Clear IEM cable. It was a risk, sure, but even the doc was excited to make this thing, if only to see if he could. And boy, could he!
The rest of the story is one of how we decided on the various aspects of the cable design (more doc deciding and me, the cable noob, nodding in agreement). For one, Cardas Clear, once stripped down to the thin grey-skinned cable, is not very robust. In fact, it's quite frail. So between the doc and I we decided to use Paracord to reinforce it, much like Cardas did with its own Clear Light headphone cable. At that point, my OCD demanded that both cables look and feel the same - after all they were going to be a power pair. So I asked doc to put a second layer of Paracord over the Clear Light, making it identical in look and feel to the now-Paracorded Clear, and also the first Clear Light cable I know of with a double Paracord skin.
Let's just say this was probably the toughest part of the build, but I'll let doc, if he wishes, regale you with stories about trying to Paracord over wire that refuses to be Paracorded. Thankfully, no cable is a match for doc's ingenuity, and so, after a brief war of wits, the 'world's first' 2-wire Clear and SuperParacord Clear Light cables came to be.
As you'll see from the photos, the only difference between the cables, other than the 'secret sauce' George puts into his Clear and Light wires, is the colour of the hex hardware. In fact, many of the design cues on these cables were inspired by PW's classics, but I daresay doc improved on them!
The next few days will see me immersed in discovering these two amazing cables. I can already tell you the ergonomics are something you have to experience for yourself; these are more supple, lighter and more comfortable than any other IEM cable I've ever had the pleasure of using. A HUGE thank you to
@doctorjuggles - Sir, you are a genius and a gentleman, and none of this would have been possible without you. A thank also to
@xenithon for your relentless support and encouragement, and to my partner-in-crime for the Cardas build,
@saltyfr0g, for joining me on this journey.
it's mostly hilarious to me because it never stood a chance to see any use but still damn lmao
