[ServinginEcuador]

tosehee,

Why not start with cutting your stock cable and adding some decent XLR connectors? This will give you a big boost over the 1/4" jack when using the Phoenix, and will give you the time to wait and read the reviews of various replacement cables like the Lawton Audio, APureSound V3, and whatever else is released in the meantime.

My stock cable with really cheap Neutrik XLR connectors sounds great. And that was done by my rather paltry soldering skills. Getting a decent pair of connectors and having them soldered onto your cable would be very cheap and totally worthwhile.

 

[tosehee]

I have never done soldering myself, so while it might be an easy in the end, it's not something that I'd like to venture into right now.

I was thinking getting the phone from headphone.com with the cabl re-terminated with balanced. That would put the cost by $160 or so.

That made me thinking about simply upgrading to APuresound since 8ft cable is about $300. That's another $140 on top of what I originally was thinking of, or $300 on top of stock SE cable.

The reasoning behind is that, I may like stock reterminated, but in the end, I probably want to try out more exotic cable option like V3. That would cost me initial $160 + $300 which is $460 instead.


Quote:

Originally Posted by ServinginEcuador /img/forum/go_quote.gif tosehee, Why not start with cutting your stock cable and adding some decent XLR connectors? This will give you a big boost over the 1/4" jack when using the Phoenix, and will give you the time to wait and read the reviews of various replacement cables like the Lawton Audio, APureSound V3, and whatever else is released in the meantime. My stock cable with really cheap Neutrik XLR connectors sounds great. And that was done by my rather paltry soldering skills. Getting a decent pair of connectors and having them soldered onto your cable would be very cheap and totally worthwhile.

 

[tosehee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karlosak /img/forum/go_quote.gif While I agree that the stock cable is impressively built, the high resistance is rather troubling. I measured about 1.1 Ohm on every conductor. A cheap thin copper wire is about < 0.1 Ohm/m.

I believe this is reported by cable company. Can't remember which at the top of my head.

In any rate, is it worth it the premium of the cable? I don't know.. How much is the question basically, but these HD800 cables cost from $300 to $1400 so far...

I am speechless with that price.

 

[Karlosak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2bwire /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is your meter actually rated to measure that low? Many multimeters are not very accurate when it comes to very low resistances. There's also contact resistance, resistance from the probes, etc.

Trust me, my friend has a precision ohmmeter. I first noticed it on my el-cheapo Mastech when doing XLR 4-pin retermination. Or you can look here, although this seller has, in my view, lost his credibility quite some time ago (cough, cough... VOICE cable): Stefan AudioArt Home

I don't think it's something to be bothered about, although no matter how long or thin cable I throw at my multimeter, I never get such a high resistance. I'm quite interested what could be at play here... Any ideas?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosehee /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have never done soldering myself, so while it might be an easy in the end, it's not something that I'd like to venture into right now.

Put in a request here for someone to solder your cable for you. If you paid postage both ways I'm sure someone with some skills would volunteer to do some simple soldering for you.

 

[tosehee]

With the cost of shipping and all the hassle, it might just worth to go through the headphone.com directly.

I am mainly interested in sq upgrades from stock to APuresound v3. If the sound is good enough, I might as well just order from headphone.com directly with balanced cable option.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and inputs.

 

[feifan]

tosehee, when I do upgrade to balanced, I'll be purchasing a new balanced cable that's plug compatible with the HD800. But I'll definitely keep the stock SE HD800 cable as is, unmodified. I think it's excellent, and raises the bar extremely high for all aftermarket cablers, both SE and balanced.

With this in mind, I'm wondering, like you, who produces the best HD800 balanced (ready to use) cables at reasonable prices, say, in the $200-$350 range.

 

[tosehee]

APuresound V3 is definitely one of them. How better compared to stock cable is a subjective question that probably differs depending on who answers it.

For now, I am leaning toward Currawang's advice. I think I will go with the stock cable re-terminated to balanced from headphone.com directly.

 

[sunneebear]

Cut the original 800 cord about 2 feet from the TRS connector. Install 3 or 4 pin XLR male/female on all open cable ends. Now you have a 800 balance cable with SE adapter.

You can get another 2 feet of good copper cable and make a 3 to 4 or 4 to 3 pin XLR adapter depending on what you put on the original cord.

Now enjoy music on any amp.

 

[Sherwood]

Definitely reterminate to 4 pin XLR. Headroom charges more for this simple operation than many people on here would. It really is nothing too terrible.

You should also commission a 4-pin to dual 3-pin adapter, so you can use them with any balanced amp.

 

[Greg Secrist]

I'm new to the cable forum.   Rather than reading through all of the past threads, could someone please provide a single, straightforward answer?    The question is, has anyone posted a really good "go-to" procedure for sourcing the material and then building one's own HD800 balanced cable(s)?    And it should be for both the dual XLR cables (2x3pin XLR, left+right) AND/OR the single 4-pin XLR.    I'm pretty handy, just looking for a way to build a brand-new from stock parts without having to butcher the SE TRS cable that came with my HD800.  Thanks!  Greg