[FredA]

Has anyone gone balanced with these? I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive balanced cable. Right now, I'm leaning towards the ZMF OFC cable. Thoughts?

I have bought a 6 feet occ balanced cable from Dyson audio for around 80usd. With it, my nfb1-amp is able to output 7W under 45 ohms, which makes a difference. Everything was excellent before but i get what seems to be a blacker blackgroud with the balanced cable. The cable is of rather small awg, 28 i think. It is not the most sturdy but it is well assembled. It does make a positive difference difference. It is comparable to the original cable in tonality but only, it is balanced which brings addtional quality to the sound, as said blacker background, which also helps with microdynamics. It needs over 80 hours of break-in time, before which it can sound a little bright.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Has anyone gone balanced with these? I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive balanced cable. Right now, I'm leaning towards the ZMF OFC cable. Thoughts?

I have several balanced cables for my HifiMan HE-560s & HEKs. Cheapest was purchased from Dyson Audio (ebay store):

http://stores.ebay.com/Dyson-Audio

I think I paid $40 for a 1.25m 2.5mm TRRS terminated cable.

For my HEKs, I ended up purchasing a Lavricables silver balanced cable for about $170. I like the added brightness silver adds to those cans.

I see @FredA beat me to this

 

[Stereodude]

Has anyone gone balanced with these? I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive balanced cable. Right now, I'm leaning towards the ZMF OFC cable. Thoughts?

I got this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dyson-Audi...heiser-HD700-Headphone-Cable-2M/112541218065?

Seemed to do the job in the listening I did before having to RMA both sets of HE-560s. It was even wired correctly!

 

[phthora]

I have bought a 6 feet occ balanced cable from Dyson audio for around 80usd. With it, my nfb1-amp is able to output 7W under 45 ohms, which makes a difference. Everything was excellent before but i get what seems to be a blacker blackgroud with the balanced cable. The cable is of rather small awg, 28 i think. It is not the most sturdy but it is well assembled. It does make a positive difference difference. It is comparable to the original cable in tonality but only, it is balanced which brings addtional quality to the sound, as said blacker background, which also helps with microdynamics. It needs over 80 hours of break-in time, before which it can sound a little bright.

I have several balanced cables for my HifiMan HE-560s & HEKs. Cheapest was purchased from Dyson Audio (ebay store):

http://stores.ebay.com/Dyson-Audio

I think I paid $40 for a 1.25m 2.5mm TRRS terminated cable.

For my HEKs, I ended up purchasing a Lavricables silver balanced cable for about $170. I like the added brightness silver adds to those cans.

I see @FredA beat me to this

Thank you both! I found cables for the 560 and my Audezes for less than I thought one cable would cost. I am thinking about springing for the solid silver Facemelter cable. Do you think silver would skew the 560's towards too bright?

 

[antdroid]

Well, I got the new headband from Hifiman way faster than expected. It shipped from NY to Seattle in just 2 days via USPS. I'm going to try to be extra careful with these.

But, now that I have a partially broken spare one lying around, I'm going to try to mod them to use an aluminum yoke. It looks like it's quite doable with something like a aluminum bracelet kit (bend it to the right shape) and drilling a hole for the headband fitting and attach some sort of plug to attach to the cup.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Thank you both! I found cables for the 560 and my Audezes for less than I thought one cable would cost. I am thinking about springing for the solid silver Facemelter cable. Do you think silver would skew the 560's towards too bright?

I’ll try my silver Lavricable and share an opinion tonight.

 

[FredA]

Thank you both! I found cables for the 560 and my Audezes for less than I thought one cable would cost. I am thinking about springing for the solid silver Facemelter cable. Do you think silver would skew the 560's towards too bright?

Depends on the rest of your setup. For instance, i now use a pure silver cable to connect my dac to the head amp. Initially, it was a little too bright but not anymore. It is one thing how the cable sounds brand new and another once fully broken-in. And not all silver cable sound bright initially. In most cases (but there are exceptions) they sound brighter. Ask the seller. Go to dyson audio directly, they have a website.

 

[LCMusicLover]

I’ll try my silver Lavricable and share an opinion tonight.

Too bright? Not for me ... mostly. Brighter? Yes, to my ears. Here are a couple examples:

Joni Mitchell ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire’ from ‘For the Roses’. There are two (or more sometimes) acoustic guitars. Listening via silver it’s clear that one has nylon strings, one has steel. Not nearly as obvious via a copper cable.

Here’s the ’mostly’ part. On ‘Morning Morgantown’ from the same album, Joni’s voice goes very high, and with the silver it gets a bit strident. Well, more strident than with the copper.

Van Morrison ‘Sweet Thing’ from ‘Astral Weeks’. There’s a cymbal or hot hat over on the left of the stage. It’s noticeably more present via silver.

One more. Beatles ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’ from Abbey Road’. Via copper, this track just seems muffled — think Sennheiser veil. Opens up considerably via silver.

Overall, the sound with the copper cable has more prominent mids, which to me makes them seem warmer. Conversely, the brightness of the silver makes them seem a bit more detailed. Also, the silver opens the sound stage a little. Interestingly, the silver in no way reduces the bass.

In all, a small but noticeable difference. I guess whether the silver represents an improvement depends on what your ears like. For me it’s a toss-up. With some music I prefer the warmth of copper and find the brightness of the silver to be a little to much. With other material the silver is just right.

BTW, all these comparisons were done listening via Opus#2 — a somewhat bright source.

Of course the solution for me is the HEK with the silver ... or my Ether Flows. Now that’s a tough call.

 

[gardibolt]

Im starting to think this Adorama sale was a B-stock firesale or something....

Or counterfeit 560s. I asked Adorama for an exchange and they refused and gave my money back instead.

 

[phthora]

Depends on the rest of your setup. For instance, i now use a pure silver cable to connect my dac to the head amp. Initially, it was a little too bright but not anymore. It is one thing how the cable sounds brand new and another once fully broken-in. And not all silver cable sound bright initially. In most cases (but there are exceptions) they sound brighter. Ask the seller. Go to dyson audio directly, they have a website.

I'll be using two very neutral amps. A Violectric for single-ended, and an Audio-gd NFB-1AMP or NFB-28.38 (haven't decided yet) for balanced. The 560s are great with the Violectric, as it makes the treble nicely textured and detailed while eliminating the treble glare of cheap amps.

Too bright? Not for me ... mostly. Brighter? Yes, to my ears. Here are a couple examples:

Joni Mitchell ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire’ from ‘For the Roses’. There are two (or more sometimes) acoustic guitars. Listening via silver it’s clear that one has nylon strings, one has steel. Not nearly as obvious via a copper cable.

Here’s the ’mostly’ part. On ‘Morning Morgantown’ from the same album, Joni’s voice goes very high, and with the silver it gets a bit strident. Well, more strident than with the copper.

Van Morrison ‘Sweet Thing’ from ‘Astral Weeks’. There’s a cymbal or hot hat over on the left of the stage. It’s noticeably more present via silver.

One more. Beatles ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’ from Abbey Road’. Via copper, this track just seems muffled — think Sennheiser veil. Opens up considerably via silver.

Overall, the sound with the copper cable has more prominent mids, which to me makes them seem warmer. Conversely, the brightness of the silver makes them seem a bit more detailed. Also, the silver opens the sound stage a little. Interestingly, the silver in no way reduces the bass.

In all, a small but noticeable difference. I guess whether the silver represents an improvement depends on what your ears like. For me it’s a toss-up. With some music I prefer the warmth of copper and find the brightness of the silver to be a little to much. With other material the silver is just right.

BTW, all these comparisons were done listening via Opus#2 — a somewhat bright source.

Of course the solution for me is the HEK with the silver ... or my Ether Flows. Now that’s a tough call.

Sounds like copper is the way to go for the 560s and silver for the 400i. Buying both will along me to swap and compare as well. Thanks for taking the time to give me some details. Dyson looks like a great company too.

 

[antdroid]

Or counterfeit 560s. I asked Adorama for an exchange and they refused and gave my money back instead.

They are an authorized retailer so I doubt it's counterfeit. They didn't give me an option for exchange either but I think it's because they don't have any in stock. They probably have a large back order list going right now

 

[maheeinfy]

Dyson audio cables are good quality but look basic

Impact audio cables on Etsy has nice braided cables for about the same price.

 

[Rpg2]

My 560s came in and they sound pretty good. Treble sounds slightly off or just different from that of the 400i. Probably just different frequency emphasis they were designed with. I am really liking the sub-bass on these because the 400i is missing the sub-bass with its 2.5mm revision, and the soundstage seems wider to me.

Surprisingly, the V20 with the low impedance amp sounds pretty loud to me (around 25-30 out of 75) since I have lower listening volume. High impedance mode boosts the bass a good bit, but I can't tell if it's from the extra amps being used or the fact that the phone is overall louder in this mode.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Dyson audio cables are good quality but look basic

Impact audio cables on Etsy has nice braided cables for about the same price.

Yes, I’ve bought from Impact before. I originally bought from Dyson to use w/ my Monolith 1060s. $40 for a basic balanced cable was a good deal, an Impact was on hiatus at the time.

 

[Rapid7]

No I haven't and never will now, my one month old HE-560 went back today. The plastic cup supports on one side shattered for no reason. I wont be replacing it again (for a 3rd time), which is a shame as the sound was brilliant.

Same thing happened too mine last week (1 month old), Amazon UK have no more in stock which is a shame as I really enjoyed them. Lucky for me I have the HE-6 & HE400 to fall back on, Amazon have refunded my money so I purchased a set of Audeze LCD2C's didn't want to take the risk of getting another pair from elsewhere and the same thing happening again.