[jurumal]

I had the pleasure of learning about and hearing Hapa at CanJam a couple weeks ago. At the Bloom Audio booth, I noticed a visually striking USB cable connected to the new iFi Pro Signature stack. It was the Hapa’s Σmber. In hindsight, the system has Seb written all over it lol. System sounded great as expected.

Welcome to the game, Hapa Audio.

 

[Voxata]

The website seems to be lacking these very cool looking cables. Unfortunately, I also cannot justify spending more on a cable than my headphones

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

I had the pleasure of learning about and hearing Hapa at CanJam a couple weeks ago. At the Bloom Audio booth, I noticed a visually striking USB cable connected to the new iFi Pro Signature stack. It was the Hapa’s Σmber. In hindsight, the system has Seb written all over it lol. System sounded great as expected.

Welcome to the game, Hapa Audio.

Thanks, brother, appreciate your support and kind words.

The website seems to be lacking these very cool looking cables. Unfortunately, I also cannot justify spending more on a cable than my headphones

Outside of the Ember, these are all examples of prior custom orders and examples of what we can do with our builds.

Totally understand where you are coming from, we know they are high-end.

Dreddz C: https://hapaaudio.com/shop/analog-cables/iem-headphones/dreddz-c-headphone-iem-cable-copper/

Ember: https://hapaaudio.com/shop/digital-cables/ember-usb/

 

[Jason Wong]

Head—Fi community

All I have to say is, Holy Smokes!!! I had a busy weekend and didn’t get much of a chance to see the posts here or reply. So when I saw the warm welcome Hapa Audio received from you all I was astonished! Thank you all so much for your interest and kind words.

Review requests:
Sebastien is taking the lead as Hapa Audio’s primary point of contact here on Head-Fi. All review requests need to be channeled to him. If you contact me I will forward your request to Seb and try to answer any specific questions you might have for me.

More on our design philosophy:
I have been working hard on Hapa Audio as a brand for almost 2 years now. Headphone cable development has been a huge priority for me. My main focus on headphone cables was- How do I create the best user experience? Some companies focus on sound quality primarily. A few focus on usability. Hapa Audio focuses on both at the same time.



The cables that we posted a sneak peek of are KnØt. This is a project I’ve been working on for a long time. Each cable is individually handmade and infinitely customizable out of the best quality copper, silver, and other combo ultra thin Litz. The colorful separator material is high quality nylon silk. It is a painstaking process to make these cable by hand.

Not just a pretty face:
I knew coming into this one of my biggest hurdles to overcome with folks is that they would look at my designs and just see a ‘pretty’ cable. Nothing is further from the truth.



A vast amount of research and development went into the design of these cables. The geometry is specifically designed to propagate a balanced signal in an environment that is ideal. Each channel has 4 leads that run in perfect sinusoidal parallel down the entire length of the cable. The left channel geometry is at 90 degree angles from the right channel geometry down the entire length of the cable. This was no small feat to accomplish. On paper the design looked staggeringly difficult. When I built the first set, really not knowing what to expect regarding looks, I was astonished at its beauty. Sometimes design, when brought to life, exceeds expectation. With KnØt that is definitely the case.

All this is of course in the name of sound quality and user experience. The sound quality exceeds every other design I have created to date.

Designed to protect your delicate IEM and full sized headphones:
The cable itself is incredibly flexible and is the only cable on the market that is actually dynamically flexible. This means that the cable can be stretched. This is all due to the design of the geometry allowing the cable to organically stretch when pulled on. This gives the user a feedback of a slight tug rather than the terrifying *JERK* of IEMs being ripped out of your ear when snagged. I did this in order to prevent strain on connectors and your headphones. It’s an indescribable feeling in hand. This design was inspired when I destroyed a custom molded IEM cable that retailed for $1600 a few years back when the cable snagged and flung the IEM right into a rock. While I can’t promise that you will never have this happen even when using Hapa Audio cables, I can say the stretch can help prevent some disasters.


Sorry for the phone photo. For the poster who asked about cinch bead size. They’re very small and handmade of light weight Titanium.

I have not started taking orders yet as I am working on getting the posting for my website finalized. That said, if you are interested in making a purchase please contact Sebastien and let him know some details. I have been actively building cables for the folks at Audiocircle for over a year now and I have garnered quite a bit of positive press over there. Check it out: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?board=45.0

Thanks again for everyone’s warm welcome. I look forward to helping the Head-Fi community get the most out of their listening experience.​

 

[szore]

I don't think it's true that the best wireless gear is competitive in terms of sound. Certainly it's nowhere near the example I provided of the luxury wristwatch, where tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of wristwatch engineering--whether quartz or mechanical--has zero prayer of hanging with any cheapo phone that is constantly being synched to time servers.

A well engineered wire sounds a lot better than well engineered wireless, so the wire is still more than just jewelry.

Check out the PI7, may change your mind about wireless, it did mine!

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Thanks all to those of you who reached out to me about reviews and sales so far! If you PM'd Jason, do PM me separately too!

 

[moorashj]

Do you have any plans to make cables for the dunu sa6 or replacement cables for phones like the hifiman sundara? Thanks

 

[Jason Wong]

Moorashj,
Assuming there's nothing particularly different about a cable, there's no reason why we couldn't make a cable for those. Some IEMs require a bit more engineering with resistors or Pots, for those type of headphones it's a case by case basis.

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Do you have any plans to make cables for the dunu sa6 or replacement cables for phones like the hifiman sundara? Thanks

All you gotta do is know what connection you need and chances are we can make it!

The @DUNU-Topsound SA6 is 0.78mm 2 Pin and the Sundara is dual 3.5mm so neither are a problem since they are so common!

 

[DUNU-Topsound]

Admiring these beautiful cables from afar, @Sebastien Chiu & @Jason Wong ! Such creative artistry!

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Admiring these beautiful cables from afar, @Sebastien Chiu & @Jason Wong ! Such creative artistry!

Love ya guys, thanks for the kind words of support!

 

[rantng]

These are beautiful & definitely more my style. Amazing craftsmanship!

 

[Jason Wong]

@rantng I really appreciate your kind words. Making cables for me is my life's work. The sonics, the look, the feel. All of it must be stunning. Larger than life. I'm really excited for people to finally get to listen to these designs. I've spent a lot of time and effort to bring them to life.

The model in that photo are one of the first builds I completed successfully and they have a special place in my heart and system. The big bead is a hefty Zirconium bead (you can just barely see the crazy rainbow coloration inherent in the metal.) and the two smaller ones are anodized titanium. My beads are made by hand by an artisan in Slovakia. He is one of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. His artistry inspires mine!

 

[moorashj]

All you gotta do is know what connection you need and chances are we can make it!

The @DUNU-Topsound SA6 is 0.78mm 2 Pin and the Sundara is dual 3.5mm so neither are a problem since they are so common!

Can you give me a ballpark price for the sa6 cable?

 

[vsg28]

Got a couple of samples in, here are a choice few photos taken today of the headphone cable (XLR to dual 3.5 mm):

Bonus IEM cable (4.4 mm to 0.78 mm 2-pin):

The photos don't really do the cables much justice, and knowing more about all the materials and connectors used also helps better appreciate them. From the build quality and aesthetics point of view, the only issue I have is the logo on a plastic sticker that feels cheap compared to the rest of the immaculate construction and appeal. I haven't actually plugged these into anything just yet, so time will tell how they end up performing.