superjohny
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
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Disclaimer: there is no technical stuff in this thread , just purely my journey to find my ultimate cable from Charles.
Background context:
Growing up and living most of my time in Australia, having a hifi hobby is very expensive, we don't have too many shops and products to audition before buying and unlike America where you can purchase and return if you don't like, we can't.
So it's pretty much for us based on review and blind buying.
So the strategy for me has been buying top of the range gears, they might not be the most suitables but you cant really go wrong with them, I have owned tralucent ref1+uber cable, LA7000 with Jena Labs cable, focal utopia with dana cable and recently EE Odin.
Problem:
Because Odin was so expensive, blind buying is going to be very costly, so I read all the reviews on the forum and youtube, I saw someone comparing Odin on the same level of utopia. So I bought it but it wasn't quite so after receiving it to pair with Cayin N8, I used to own SP1000 with utopia/Dana. More over, although there was some wow moments, it didn't give me the satisfaction i was hoping for. So i thought maybe i need to change the cable like i did for utopia and every other ones. I then researched only to find out the stormbreaker cable was technically a 1960s and worths $1k, somewhere close to my budget for a cable. I was stuck, looked like I might have to sell and realise a loss.
While in HongKong:
So I have then moved from Australia to HongKong, found myself in a heaven where there are so many audio shops to audition rigs and cable makers. Facebook even recommended me lots of local hifi groups to join.
So i posted something in English in a group and someone was teasing me being a Chinese but speaks English. The group owner told me to ignore those rude comments and also inviting me to visit his workshop. It appears he is a DIY cable person and owns a small workshop. So I brought my Odin and N8 there for some audition and spent 4 hours there. The owner, Charles, showed me various cables from entry level all the way to his flagships ones (he has got two series tailored for different listening experience.) Charles didn't specifically tell me the order of his cables and was simply asking me which one did I prefer. But I figured out half way. I have to say, even his entry level cable competes with the stormbreaker cable.
The listening experience got better and better with each cable but the ultimate satisfaction emotion came with his two flagship cables. And I swear I never had those listening experience before, not even with utopia + dana.( but i suspect i wasn't doing utopia justice with only sp1000). With the stock Odin cable, I was having hard time focusing on the vocal because the bass just bloated into the mids and vocal seems to be quite far. With his flagship cable(apologies I really dunno how to interpret its name), it was soooooo smooooooth and easy to listen and enjoyable, and yet the bass doesn't interfere with mids. Now I can so much focus on the vocal yet enjoying the bass. And talking about bass, man, it takes Odin's bass texture to an extreme and it was fast, vast,deep and hard. It also created so much involvement and bit of airiness. And the most magic thing is everything was so clean and layered that I can enjoy both at the same time. I took no doubt and purchased the bass heavy series. The other one I would regards it as mid extreme version.
So the next day, I went to those big audio shop and did some comparison, I went straight to those $2000 - $3000 range cables from whiplash and etc. To be honest, they were great too and comparable to Charles's flagship cable, but i'd still prefer Charles's because of that unique airiness and bass texture. And what's more, it's only half of the price!
So I think I am done with my cable search and find my ultimate cable satisfaction.
Below is his facebook group and anyone is interested can straight reach out to him, although never seen him use english...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/178956043913703
oh, lastly, with Odin stock cable, i was having issue picking over BTR5 or N8 seriously, this little bluetooth thing is amazing!
But when i swap for Charles's cable,I can finally tell the difference and pick N8 over BTR5.
Background context:
Growing up and living most of my time in Australia, having a hifi hobby is very expensive, we don't have too many shops and products to audition before buying and unlike America where you can purchase and return if you don't like, we can't.
So it's pretty much for us based on review and blind buying.
So the strategy for me has been buying top of the range gears, they might not be the most suitables but you cant really go wrong with them, I have owned tralucent ref1+uber cable, LA7000 with Jena Labs cable, focal utopia with dana cable and recently EE Odin.
Problem:
Because Odin was so expensive, blind buying is going to be very costly, so I read all the reviews on the forum and youtube, I saw someone comparing Odin on the same level of utopia. So I bought it but it wasn't quite so after receiving it to pair with Cayin N8, I used to own SP1000 with utopia/Dana. More over, although there was some wow moments, it didn't give me the satisfaction i was hoping for. So i thought maybe i need to change the cable like i did for utopia and every other ones. I then researched only to find out the stormbreaker cable was technically a 1960s and worths $1k, somewhere close to my budget for a cable. I was stuck, looked like I might have to sell and realise a loss.
While in HongKong:
So I have then moved from Australia to HongKong, found myself in a heaven where there are so many audio shops to audition rigs and cable makers. Facebook even recommended me lots of local hifi groups to join.
So i posted something in English in a group and someone was teasing me being a Chinese but speaks English. The group owner told me to ignore those rude comments and also inviting me to visit his workshop. It appears he is a DIY cable person and owns a small workshop. So I brought my Odin and N8 there for some audition and spent 4 hours there. The owner, Charles, showed me various cables from entry level all the way to his flagships ones (he has got two series tailored for different listening experience.) Charles didn't specifically tell me the order of his cables and was simply asking me which one did I prefer. But I figured out half way. I have to say, even his entry level cable competes with the stormbreaker cable.
The listening experience got better and better with each cable but the ultimate satisfaction emotion came with his two flagship cables. And I swear I never had those listening experience before, not even with utopia + dana.( but i suspect i wasn't doing utopia justice with only sp1000). With the stock Odin cable, I was having hard time focusing on the vocal because the bass just bloated into the mids and vocal seems to be quite far. With his flagship cable(apologies I really dunno how to interpret its name), it was soooooo smooooooth and easy to listen and enjoyable, and yet the bass doesn't interfere with mids. Now I can so much focus on the vocal yet enjoying the bass. And talking about bass, man, it takes Odin's bass texture to an extreme and it was fast, vast,deep and hard. It also created so much involvement and bit of airiness. And the most magic thing is everything was so clean and layered that I can enjoy both at the same time. I took no doubt and purchased the bass heavy series. The other one I would regards it as mid extreme version.
So the next day, I went to those big audio shop and did some comparison, I went straight to those $2000 - $3000 range cables from whiplash and etc. To be honest, they were great too and comparable to Charles's flagship cable, but i'd still prefer Charles's because of that unique airiness and bass texture. And what's more, it's only half of the price!
So I think I am done with my cable search and find my ultimate cable satisfaction.
Below is his facebook group and anyone is interested can straight reach out to him, although never seen him use english...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/178956043913703
oh, lastly, with Odin stock cable, i was having issue picking over BTR5 or N8 seriously, this little bluetooth thing is amazing!
But when i swap for Charles's cable,I can finally tell the difference and pick N8 over BTR5.
