[bigshot]

At least the Easter Bunny brings you eggs and the Tooth Fairy puts a quarter under your pillow. Magic cables do absolutely nothing!

 

[dpastern]

   
This is a pointless conversation. (((
You were born with ears on your head, and they either hear or not. Scientific data has been entered in your head much later. Than you know music? Using what tools? Using graphs? Music is the hologram on the screen?

 
What scientific data?  There's no verifiable data that shows cables affect sound quality.  None.  Zero.  Null.  Bloody bugger SFA.  
 

  Cool! ))
I have nothing to say, but the reality is the opposite of what you are talking about.

 
No, it isn't.  What you're experiencing is psycho-acoustic suggestions.  A placebo.
 

  I believe in 'magic cables'.  I'm just not so sure about the Easter Rabbit or the Tooth Fairy.

 
hahaha, well said!

 

[castleofargh]

  At least the Easter Bunny brings you eggs and the Tooth Fairy puts a quarter under your pillow. Magic cables do absolutely nothing!

don't be so hard, they can effectively reduce the signal accuracy, that's not nothing ^_^.
just by parting ways with the cable specifications. like using a headphone cable with tens of ohm, or a 2ohm coax cable when your gears expect impedance matching at 75ohm. there are a lot of ways to make the cable sound different. just no positive difference, only possible degradation.

 

[Vacheron]

what id like to know from the believers is what specific material used to wrap around the cable increases the sound quality. If you were listening to the audio and you unwrapped that magic material would the sound drastically change? Why isnt this magic material more widely known about?

 

[bigshot]

 
don't be so hard, they can effectively reduce the signal accuracy, that's not nothing ^_^.
just by parting ways with the cable specifications. like using a headphone cable with tens of ohm, or a 2ohm coax cable when your gears expect impedance matching at 75ohm. there are a lot of ways to make the cable sound different. just no positive difference, only possible degradation.

Can you link to places where cables like that can be purchased?

 

[castleofargh]

  what id like to know from the believers is what specific material used to wrap around the cable increases the sound quality. If you were listening to the audio and you unwrapped that magic material would the sound drastically change? Why isnt this magic material more widely known about?

only dragon scales can protect against everything. it's common knowledge.
 imagine the guy that has a lot of electronic, lives between cellphone antennas, TV towers, and high voltage cables, just below the ozone hole so he takes most of the cosmic storms in the face, while the neighbor is a fastfood chain with 10microwaves running all day long on the other side of the wall. only dragon scales can save you from the parasite noises.
 

 

 
don't be so hard, they can effectively reduce the signal accuracy, that's not nothing ^_^.
just by parting ways with the cable specifications. like using a headphone cable with tens of ohm, or a 2ohm coax cable when your gears expect impedance matching at 75ohm. there are a lot of ways to make the cable sound different. just no positive difference, only possible degradation.

Can you link to places where cables like that can be purchased?

can't really say, I don't suppose the guy would advertise selling the wrong impedance or capacitance on purpose. each time I read "proprietary something" only to look special with no precision on what it is, I suspect a radical parting with the logical recommended cable specs.
I remember a short opportunity with the uber cable, the change in loudness compared to another cable was so obvious my jaw went right to the floor. and of course with the 1+2 that would change FR from the most minimal impedance change, it was like a different IEM.
what was that cable? IDK. silver it says, more than the default cable that was already silver... and something special but what? I really can't say, except that it was big, heavy, and really didn't feel like you would want to use it at all. I couldn't find any meaningful information. but one thing is sure, the sound did change a great deal with a non flat impedance IEM.
 
they all most likely play with the diameter of the cable the size of the insulation, or run the same cable back and forth, or run 4 or 8 cables joined together... all those stuff are "audiophile" improvements that really just are an attempt at changing the cable properties. to me a good cable is a cable with the same specs as a cheap one, but done with more care, maybe sturdier, not uber fragile like the uber cable, and using maybe better plugs than the cheap stuff. just like with an amp or a DAC, it's when it does sound different that it's bad.

 

[bigshot]

I just think it's amazing that 99.99% of the cables out there are all functionally identical, yet still cable believers keep talking about the ones that sound different, and the cable skeptics keep talking about the .01% of cables that actually do sound different when used in uncommon combinations of equipment. The focus of the discussion is on the exceptions, not the rule. That isn't particularly helpful to people that just want a wire to connect their player to their amp. There really shouldn't be miles and miles of discussion. A wire is a wire.

 

[skeptic]

Can you link to places where cables like that can be purchased?

Here you go:

http://www.teoaudio.com/liquid_cable.php

Doc and crew were mocking these on the bottlehead boards. Based on what can be gathered from the mds sheets, they evidently have lower conductivity than lead. http://www.teoaudio.com/files/LiqCable-MSDS.pdf

/guffaw

 

[Greenears]

  ...
 
Is it a case of if I hear a difference it's because I want to hear a difference, or is there really going to be an audible benefit to going with better cables?
 
What say you?

 
No.

 

[Rearwing]

I found that the connectors on the HD600 were not as positive a fit as the replacement HD650 cable that I got for them. So for that reason alone, I can justify purchasing additional cables.

 

[Koukol]

Over in the Pono DAP thread a lot of people say putting balanced cables on your HPs sound a lot better.
Would that be a "worthy upgrade" for my 650's?
 
I'm asking everywhere because if I have an affordable one made I won't be able to return it.
 
Also, I'm hoping copper will sound close to silver as I'm not rich.

 

[dpastern]

  Over in the Pono DAP thread a lot of people say putting balanced cables on your HPs sound a lot better.
Would that be a "worthy upgrade" for my 650's?
 
I'm asking everywhere because if I have an affordable one made I won't be able to return it.
 
Also, I'm hoping copper will sound close to silver as I'm not rich.

 
I'm about to find out (I have ordered some new 4' cables to replace the stock 3M long cables so I can use it with my DAP on the run) and I'll let you know.  It wasn't cheap, but I needed a new cable, and the gentleman has terminated it in a mini 4 port XLR, and provided 2 adaptors for me - 1 x 3.5mm unbalanced and 1 x 2.5mm TRRS balanced to suit my purposes.  It'll look good and be very well built and suits my purposes better than the stock 3M cable that Sennheiser provides out of the box.  It won't sound any different, but I knew that before I made the decision to purchase it.

 

[Koukol]

 

  Over in the Pono DAP thread a lot of people say putting balanced cables on your HPs sound a lot better.
Would that be a "worthy upgrade" for my 650's?
 
I'm asking everywhere because if I have an affordable one made I won't be able to return it.
 
Also, I'm hoping copper will sound close to silver as I'm not rich.

 
I'm about to find out (I have ordered some new 4' cables to replace the stock 3M long cables so I can use it with my DAP on the run) and I'll let you know.  It wasn't cheap, but I needed a new cable, and the gentleman has terminated it in a mini 4 port XLR, and provided 2 adaptors for me - 1 x 3.5mm unbalanced and 1 x 2.5mm TRRS balanced to suit my purposes.  It'll look good and be very well built and suits my purposes better than the stock 3M cable that Sennheiser provides out of the box.  It won't sound any different, but I knew that before I made the decision to purchase it.

Thank you, DP!
I look forward to your opinion.
 
BTW~I'm also wondering if an adapter can be made where I take the 1/8 mini plugs (for the Pono DAP) and adapt it to a 1'4 inch plug for my HP amp?
Is that similar to what you ordered?
Since my amp isn't balanced I don't know if this will work.

 

[dpastern]

 
Thank you, DP!
I look forward to your opinion.
 
BTW~I'm also wondering if an adapter can be made where I take the 1/8 mini plugs (for the Pono DAP) and adapt it to a 1'4 inch plug for my HP amp?
Is that similar to what you ordered?
Since my amp isn't balanced I don't know if this will work.

 
yeah, I'm pretty sure you can get an adaptor done - that should be pretty easy - just a 1/8" to 1/4" adaptor.  You don't even have to do anything with the cable.  Tandy etc should have such an adaptor.  What I've ordered is very different - my cable terminates into a single female mini 4 port XLR.  I then have 2 adaptors - one male mini 4 port XLR to 3.5mm stereo adaptor, and the other is a male mini 4 port XLR to 2.5mm TRRS balanced stereo adaptor.  So, when I'm at home, I can use the balanced setup (since it's a lot more delicate than a 3.5mm plug, I'm loathe to use it when travelling to and from work), and when I'm on the fly, travelling, I can use the standard 3.5mm setup.  
 

 
Dave

 

[bigshot]

you can get a 1/8 to 1/4 cable at monoprice.com for a couple of bucks.