Well, first let me laid the background of where I'm from so you can put my comments in perspective. As for headphones, I have the HD800, LCD2, and JH-13, among others, in general these are rather revealing cans by most people standard, meaning that they can reveal upstream source with relative ease. And i have these cans for over 1.5 years, 6 months, and almost two years respectively so I am very familiar with their sound. For the LCD2 and HD800, I use copper as my choice of cable, especially for the 800 because of their brighter upper. My cable of choice are the ALO 8 wire 18 awg Chain Mail UPOCC (LCD2) and the Stefan Audio Arts Voice (HD800). These are high end coppers cables so I am very familiar with their characteristics. By the way, with the 800/Voice combo, I never experience the sibilance problem that some 800 owners have observed and reported.
Then I have the JH-13 and for the JH13 I originally had Stefan Audio made me a customer cable with their Equinox line of cable which is a copper cable, then I bought the Whiplash TWag v1 cable which is a nice high end silver cable, then I bought again the ALO 22 awg chain mail 4 wire UPOCC cable which is a nice copper cable. Up to about a month ago, I was using these cables for my JH13 and I have compared them side by side multiple times in exactly the same system, same source, same recording, same passage. At least on the JH13, the different characteristic with each of these cables are very easily discernible. With the Silver TWag, the sound is clearer and brighter with the mid and treble, more transparent, just a cleaner and closer sound yet with a slight touch of dryness in the upper. The bass is tight and clearly and nicely there. And when I switch to the ALO copper, I immediately noticed the impact of the bass. The other aspect is nice and warm and a touch dark when compare to the TWag. But the bass of the copper reaches to my bone w/ visceral effect as oppose to the TWag that reaches to my skin. The difference between the two in the bass department is so clear that I can tell them apart in a blind test which I did. Then a month ago, I walked into an audio store and I saw the Crystal Piccolino for the JH13/16. I also had the TWag and ALO with me at the time. When the manager offered to let me hear the crystal cable, I gladly accepts as I have been wanting to try this famous cable to see what all the hype is all about. I was a skeptic and think they are just hype and "how can an iem cable worth that much" type of an attitude. After I put the crystal on my jh13 and in no less than two minutes I was in shock, then I break out a silly smile in disbelief. I was in shock not because it sounded very good but because the Crystal has the bass of my ALO and even better the treble of my TWag in the same cable. I really didn't expect to have both characteristics in one cable. The second surprise I found is that the cable is VERY VERY smooth. As you know with silver cable sometimes you get that bright clear feeling that you can develop listener fatigue because of that sharpness. But the crystal give me that smooth feeling that even at high volume the listening is very pleasant is just simply amazing. Apparently, the manufacturer attribute the characteristic to the gold filling in the space of the silver. Because of the smooth, close, natural, warm but transparent character of the mid and upper and with the LCD2 like bass in the low end, listening to the JH13/crystal combo gives you a sense of a personal audition with the artist. Very enjoyable.
So when I say shortcomings in the previous post, I really mean it relatively. If I never listen to the crystal I would not have known that the best of both worlds can be had at the same time and I could be very happy with either the ALO or TWag, but once you have tasted the sweetness, you may be listening with one but your mind is with the other
Now I am in the process to made a crystal LCD2 cable.
