Do you intend to use this with your phone or some new DAP ?
Do you expect sound improvement using a balanced cable with this adapter to unbalanced 3.5mm source ? Curious ..
I will be using it with my Axon 7 phone for the time being (the reason why I bought that particular adapter was because it's 90 degrees, and it's reasonably priced ofc). I've ordered cable 125 in balanced, so when I get a good player with balanced output, I can use the cable without having to buy another one. I am thinking of buying an ES100 at some point, or a spiritual successor to it (if somebody makes it), or get an actual good DAP, although that will take a long time for me
. The axon 7 has really good channel separation, so the only step up would be completely differential balanced (dual DACs and so on). No point in dealing with single end anymore. I've just checked crosstalk measurements of the
Chord Mojo/
Hugo btw, out of curiosity
(those devices have only single end outputs), and it blew my mind, that for such an expensive gear, very average (although, totally expected). The only way it can be used without sacrificing stereo imaging and accuracy, is with a separate amp (a good one), using it only as DAC. Anyway, that's a different story.
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And about resistance and adapters and cables and stuff, I believe that in most cases ANY "artificial" resistance (added load) acts like a filter, to some extent
(not very good/conductive cables, impedance adapters, and crossovers - that one is obvious ofc ). Depending on how good the amp is, and if It can offset the "artificial load" with enough "power", you might get better/worse results, but nonetheless, you are always messing with the signal when you do it,
usually filtering very high frequencies. That's why you are "killing the amp noise" when you use the adapters (like my 20ohm adapter with the 27ohm TRN V80). You are also killing your signal, something I've experienced first hand with my DM6 and a couple of phones, using an 80ohms adapter. That's also the reason why even higher impedance adapters like the 80 ohm one "balances" the frequency response to such extend, that it kills the resolution of the DM6. Yeah, the noise is gone, but also a good chunk of the "good signal", because it basically gets "filtered". There must be a ratio between the actual "work impedance" (that of the drivers, which for the DM6 for example is ~20ohms), and the artificial (filter) one (80ohms for example),but I havent researched that yet. All I know is, the 20ohm impedance has very little effect, but the 80ohm pretty much kills the SQ.
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Another interesting thing that I wanted to share a few days ago, is that I tested cable
(060) with my CCA C16
(thanks to a friend that gave it to me for testing), a cable that has very respectable ~206mOhms, vs. the TRN V80's cable (which is #
043 and measured to be ~720mOhms), and... with the NICEHCK cable, didn't have almost any amp noise with the axon 7, while the TRN cable had the noise, almost as bad as the noise I get with the DM6.
The TRN cable also has a very strange characteristic, which introduces some sort of strange distortion, similar to that of a tube amp. There is this "thickness/muddiness" to the notes, and the subbass/timbre is very extended, and soft/warm, as if I have turned on the "tube amp simulation" on my galaxy s7 edge. No Idea why I get this behavior, but the more interesting thing to me, is the question why the lower resistant cable (the $9 #060 NICEHCK) was much cleaner, without amp noise (or at least almost inaudible), while the higher impedance (more filtering) TRN cable had this noise problem. Now, I've talked about "variable output impedance" on phones, as well as how difference of the conductive properties of the surface of the wire changes sound, so this could be due to several things:
1. That difference of ~500mOhms between the cables is enough to put the amp on the axon 7 in even higher impedance mode, which is something I don't think is the case (most devises have 2, one is the lower impedance mode for things up-to ~17ohms, and everything above is in high-impedance mode), but I'm still leaving it as a possible option
(reason why I even entertain this option will be below under the context section, because of the CCA C16 and it's peculiarity);
2. The TRN wire is the most strange wire ever, causing this strange behavior, apparently some sort of cheap SPC, which results in more amp noise (hiss), but that doesn't explain the extended (bigger) bass response, that we don't usually get with typical cheap SPC. So, not really sure what to think yet, but I will find out.
3. The cardinal rule of pure copper vs spc, which no mater the overall resistance of the cable, a silver plated surface will always have more treble extension, BUT, again - the 060 cable was cleaner, the notes/ were fast and precise, with better clarity in the treble, and it had better treble extension than the TRN cable (which kinda sounds rolled off and too smooth, in addition to the thickness and muddiness). It's bizarre. Could be all of these things to some degree.
And now I have to give some context to all of that. So here it goes:
#1 - Device used: Axon 7 in SuperHiFi mode (it's like high gain + DAC filters), high internal impedance (I can't give exact number, because it varies, but it was measured to be around 6ohms in that mode, so - very high, but it also makes the C16 sound amazing, with no recess in the mids, more on that below);
#2 - IEM used: CCA C16 (8BA IEM), rated to be 32ohms at 1kHz, but it was measured to be around ~41ohms at the pins, so - this is the most important point of context - we have basically a
rough idea of the "dip in the impedance" of that IEM (the mids), which is why they get forward with the axon 7 in SuperHiFi (High Gain/impedance mode), to the point it sounds like a totally different IEM (amazing if I might say, even with the hiss problem). The overall sound/behavior is the same with the cables.
#3 - The cables: The TRN V80's
(043) trn spc 4c (black,thick coat) ~720mOhms, and the NICEHCK's
(060) hck ct3 ofc 8c cable ~206mOhms. I've also tried another cheap KZ silver plated cable which I believe is cable
032 (Typical cheap silver plated sound I would assume - sound is thin, treble extension is more - which is exactly what I need with the C16, but unfortunately it's too grainy/fuzzy, and it has the most amp hiss/noise of all the cables, so... I guess, it does it's job as a silver plated cable
, but it's drawbacks are more than it's benefits)
#4 - Music used:
Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again (HiRes 24-96 FLAC) for testing acoustic performance, note thickness and treble;
* * *
Tangerine Dream - Turn Of The Tides (16-44.1 FLAC) for testing the bass/subbass/low-end extension in complex tracks (best example where I hear this "tube-amp like distortion" with the TRN cable).
(Not available on youtube, check the link if you want )
* * *
The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps (16-44.1 FLAC) - Just for bass, hard to notice the "distortion", but good for evaluating bass quantity.
* * *
Here's some pics (sorry about the KZ cable and the mess, it just doesn't wanna behave
):
And also sorry about not having a pic of the 060 NICEHCK cable. I kinda forgot to take one. Ofc, these are just some "initial" ramblings about my experience with cables the last month. Once I get my 125 cable, I will go real insane, testing and figuring out what's happening, but I need that "reference" cable first. It will be very interesting (to me at least).
(Damn, this damned post turned in to a book again...)