Good evening, everyone.
I just spent a moment comparing, with my Kennerton Thekk headphones, the 3 cables I have at my disposal:
- 2 m Kennerton stock cable, delivered with my Thekk, with a smooth, black sheath, still rigid, but with a more pleasant and softer contact than the old stock cables that equipped the Odin and Vali.
- Custom Kennerton cable, Litz wire, 2 m 50, black, nylon sheathed, twisted, ordered with my Thror.
- Pierre's Vectura C cable, also made of Litz wire, 2.50 m long, beige, nylon sheathed, twisted, offered by Pierre for my birthday.
Listen with the Thekk, but also a little bit the Thror, on the Viva 2A3 amp.
The cable I like the least is the 2 m kennerton stock cable, delivered with my Thekk, because:
It is a little too short (20 to 30 cm to short so that it is not stretched on my sofa)
It is the least pleasant to touch (although it has improved significantly compared to the first Kennerton stock cables) and it is still quite rigid, although a little more flexible than the first Kennerton stock cables.
It is the least transparent in the treble and sounds a little more cluttered than the other two cables.
So, a Kennerton Custom Litz wire cable or Vectura C Litz cable , for the Thekk?
In fact, it depends on your tastes and especially on what you expect from these cables.
For the Thror, I prefer the Vectura C cable, which gives a better presence in the high treble for a headphones that has less presence in the high-treble range than the Odin, and which has a significant level of presence in the medium, but also at the hinge frequency of the upper-mids and lower treble at 3.5 KHz.
For the Odin mk2, I also prefer the Vectura C cable, also for its better presence in the high treble, even if the Odin has a peak presence in the midle treble, and also to "degrease" a little its bass and give more legibility to the mids and the high mids of the Odin.
For the Thekk, well, I'm going to surprise you (after surprising myself) I'll put the two cables at the same level of transparence but with a different tone: the Custom cable from Kennerton (transparent and neutral) and the Vectura C cable from Pierre (just as transparent, but brighter and more colorful in the treble).
It all depends on what you're looking for.
If you are looking for a certain brilliance in the treble, which is also accompanied by an increase in clarity, legibility and aeration of the sound, well you have to take Pierre's Vectura C cable ; but with the Thekk, there may be a problem with this Vectura C cable which can reinforce whistling (sss) (if present), which are comparatively more present with the Thekk than with the Thror due to a small peak in the high frequency, around 8-9 KHz, a little more pronounced.
Thekk on the other hand attenuates the 3.5 KHz presence peak of the Thror, but it has the same presence peak as the 8-9 KHz Thror, which can be perceived as a little more present than with the Thror, especially with the Vectura C cable.
If you are looking for the highest tonal accuracy, without highlighting the treble (and the 8-9 KHz peak of presence of the Thekk), then the Kennerton Custom cable will be better suited than the Vectura C cable.
I used 3 CDs to test the best tonal accuracy of the Kennerton Thekk headphones with these two cables: the mixed voices of the female trio L.E.J accompanied by a cello (acoustic or electric); the voice of Nolwenn Leroy (folk women singer) and the accompanying guitar in his latest album Folk, and the Folk guitar of Paco De Lucia and his famous "Entre Dos Aguas".
To my ear, all these female voices, and the two acoustic guitars, as well as the cellos, sound more fair (true), have better timbre and less colourful in the treble with the Custom cable from Kennerton than with the Vectura C cable from Pierre.
With the Thekk, the Folk guitar is comparatively too bright and the cello sounds a little too high, and the female voices are a little too clear with the Vectura C cable versus the Kennerton Custom cable.
I think that a sound engineer will be more satisfied with the sound of the Thekk with the Custom cable from Kennerton than with the Vectura C cable, because tonally perceived as more fair (true), and the Thekk is also perceived tonally as more fair (true) than the Thror, if we ignore this small peak of presence in the treble at 8-9 KHz, also found with the Thror, but perceived more easily with the Thekk, especially with a cable highlighting the treble as is the Vectura C.
After that, this result is not surprising, considering that the Thekk is the pro version of the Thror, and that it has been "tuned" to be the most fair (true) tonally, using, I suppose, Kennerton's Custom cable (their best cable at their disposal).
The Vectura C cable is comparatively more colorful (especially in the treble) than the Custom cable from Kennerton, more neutral, but this coloring of the Vectura C cable in the treble brings a flattering brilliance to the ear (provided it does not fall on the Thekk's 8-9 KHz presence peak, otherwise, beware of whistling, if present), by also reinforcing the impression of definition and aeration of the sound.
In short, if you want to get the best sound with your Kennerton Thekk headphones, you may need to invest, in addition to the stock cable, with, for example :
- A Kennerton Custom cable made of Litz wire and/or the Vectura C cable from Pierre (in addition) (according to your taste of the day: neutrality or brilliance?).
- A very good amp, whether it's the one listened to by Franck T (Questyle CMA Twelve Master) or I also imagine a Chord Hugo 2 and Chord Hugo TT2, not to mention the top of the pyramid, most probably the Viva 845 amp, which would be perfectly adapted to the Thekk to make it sing at the highest level, if possible with a neutral and transparent cable, as envisaged above.
