Branded high end iem cables use neotech up-occ wires, or similar quality branded wires.
From hificollective (UK), which stocks many reputed branded wires:
"Neotech specialise in UP-OCC wires, a high purity process for refining metals. Thus their product is a step above the rest. We offer pure copper and pure silver multistrand and solid core wire in Teflon sleeving. For all your wire needs."
Let me show you extracts of a private conversation with an experienced and wise head-fier (I got permission to post it here, while keeping him anonymous); they verse about cable 125 (extreme low resistance), and then, DIY cable made with VH Audio solid copper litz, and cables using neotech wires (165, frozen up-occ copper, 174 up-occ silver99%gold1% alloy [AgAu], 175 mix of AgAu and frozen up-occ copper litz, and DIY mix of AgAu with Cardas 23awg copper litz teflon sleeved); all paired with Campfire Solaris.
I thought his word is far more interesting than mine, because I haven't bought any of the very expensive boutique cables, and he has more accurate ears to discern subtle details.
"I remember talking to another member who owned extremely expensive kilobuck cables from Effect Audio. He bought cable 125 on a lark and was extremely impressed saying that he felt it didn’t disappoint coming from his high end cables."
...
"Your observation of conductivity not being the be all, end all metric is very interesting too. I found it interesting how differently cables 125 and 165 measured and yet you feel they perform similarly.
The guy owned Horus, Leonidas, and Janus among other things. Super expensive cables. I would never pay $1000 for a cable. That’s just insanity. But he did say he was surprised at the performance of cable 125 and said he didn’t feel disappointed coming from his boutique cables so that says a lot about how insane the markup is.
But yeah I was mostly interested in cable 165 due to the quality Neotech wires."
...
"I actually own two other cables that use genuine litz wire. I own a pure silver OCC litz cable from Norne Audio the Norne Therium and also a PlusSound Echo+ that uses type 6 UPOCC litz copper wire. Both cables sound notably different from my modified cable 125 (I just switched out the stock plug with an Oyaide platinum/palladium plug) while listening with Solaris. The Norne silver litz cable sounds very smooth with a bit of spotlighting on the upper mids. It sounds flatter in terms of depth, and noticeably dryer than cable 125. Depth is easier to perceive on cable 125, and it sounds meatier from top to bottom in direct comparison. The PlusSound Echo sounds very different from cable 125. Cable 125 sounds thick and organic, but still very clear, whereas the Echo sounds lean and analytical. Cable 125 reminds me of my Stax setup, whereas the Echo makes my Solaris sound like the old Sony house sound (Ex600, SA5000) which was much leaner, and more analytical compared to the warm, bass elevated sound they currently pursue.
...
That's the one thing that bothers me with cables really. I honestly don't notice the effect of cables as much on the majority of IEMs, but the impedance swings of the Campfire IEMs make cable rolling much more noticeable to me than anything else in my collection. I can actually hear/perceive differences between the Superlitz, Plussound Echo, Norne Therium and cable 125 because of this. Really curious to hear cable 165 now."
...
"The Norne and cable 125 feel close, but cable 125 has fuller lower frequencies as the sound stage and especially the depth feel more pronounced on cable 125."
"As for the PlusSound, the bass is quite a bit tighter, and leaner, and that has an effect on airing out the stage and making the midrange frequencies more pronounced. The sense of depth is even more exaggerated on that cable, and attack doesn't feel as blunted as on cable 125 which is more laidback in comparison. I'm guessing the PS cable must have a high degree of impedance or something vs. cable 125."
...
"Cable 165 with Solaris, there seems to be a slight bias towards low end frequencies. Bass is tighter than ALO's Superlitz and cable 125, those cables have more bloom and body to sub, mid and upper bass. Drums and bass lines sound and feel very nice with 165. With some tracks where the mix is thinner, it's a very nice cable IMO. Bass extension/amplitude is probably the best on 165. The body and note size of upper bass on VH is bigger than 165, but there's not as much emphasis in the mid and sub bass with VH, so drums don't feel as punchy as 165, but this gives mids and treble more room to breathe on VH, so it feels more balanced to me. You get more of a feel of the air around notes, and the harmonics in notes, Solaris sounds very open with it. You definitely still get very good slam on VH when the mix calls for it. I'm not sure if it's cause 165 is new and hasn't had much time on it, but it does feel noticeably more fatiguing than the VH Audio. Crazy thing about VH is that it's extremely transparent but never feels fatiguing to me. I can listen for extended periods of time to rough recordings and it's fine."
...
"The silver/gold neotech wire is supposed to be quite impressive after looking it up."
"Seemed like quite a bargain as the cost of the wire alone was close to $300 at about $16 per foot. I'm honestly sort of kicking myself for not picking it up."
Me: "is this the silver/gold neotech wire you mean?
https://www.hificollective.co.uk/wires/neotech-AG-GD-silver-gold-wire-teflon.html"
("New from Neotech, the UP-OCC 99% silver & 1% gold wire multistrand is the daddy of wire. Clear PE sheathed.")
"Yeah that’s the Neotech silver/gold wire. It’s referred to as AG/GD I guess. I found a lot of posts about it on speaker enthusiast forums. There's actually a guy in the cable DIY thread who made a headphone cable out of this wire. He seems to have a lot of experience with Neotech wire in general. He talks about the Neotech silver/gold wire here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/diy...comments-thread.676402/page-596#post-15004389
and here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/diy...comments-thread.676402/page-596#post-15011526
Sounds like it's a pretty impressive wire. A lot of what I've read about this wire seems to mention its ability to portray depth a lot."
...
"Sounds like an interesting wire, from a technical standpoint, but I'm always concerned about synergy, and find that copper tends to have the most qualities I desire. The build of materials would be very expensive, but I would imagine that a cable made out of components similar to my VH Audio cable using this silver/gold wire would likely sell for like $1000+ so I guess, it's not too bad considering the raw cost of materials puts you in the "midrange" of cables at about $325 or so."
"Oh finally I wrote that guy in the DIY thread about the Neotech AG/GD and he wrote me back. Seems the Ag/Gd may be god like after all, he thinks it's quite a bit better than the wire used by Effect Audio and even PWAudios's 1960."
"He tells me that the silver/copper hybrid cable he's made is really good, and has that oomph that is missing from the pure AG/GD cable."
"Saw your posts in the cheap IEM cable thread. WOW. The price for a ready made cable is outstanding! Unbelievable price for both 4 and 8 core."
"I have the cable built and have burned it in for 200+ hours just in case. I think the AG/GD cable sounds amazing in terms of midrange, space and detail. The sense of depth, openness and portrayal of transients is probably the best I’ve encountered so far, and it’s pretty much effortless in conveying the finest details however, I came to the conclusion that I feel it’s lacking body, decay, and ultimately realism. It’s a bit thin sounding, and lacks body/sustain in midbass and deep bass for me. The extension is quite impressive and listening to something like a glissando on a bass, it sounds effortless but yeah, it lacks some oomph/dynamics/emotion for me."
...
"So I ordered 23.5 AWG" (Cardas copper litz 23.5AWG)
"I think this cable is the one man. The OCC copper/AG/GD combo is honestly incredible. Amazing end to end extension, gigantic open stage, and hardly any sacrifice to the detailed, open sound of pure AG/GD."
"I don’t have the same issue with note thinness and lack of bass sustain compared with the pure AG/GD cable. The low end is full and tight. The sense of groove and prat is outstanding now. I think the sense of separation and depth is even improved. I’m not sure if this is due to the shielding of litz or because the improved low end is filling in the sound stage. I’m not sure how this Cardas wire compares to Neotech but I find it interesting that Cardas makes their own wire that’s stranded and bundled in a golden ratio spiral like Effect Audio."
"This hybrid cable is currently so dynamic and engaging to listen to. Totally hits all the right spots for me!"
Sorry for the brick.
But this shows another enthusiast of AgAu (wire of 174) mixed with copper litz (Cardas), a man with trained ears and large experience, together with some comments comparing expensive boutique cables to these.
I'm a confessed enthusiast of cable 175 (AgAu + frozen up-occ copper litz mix), but also of up-occ pure AgAu (cable 174), copper (cable 171), and copper+spc (cable 177), depending of what I'm pairing them with.
