I don't know about Meze but other headphones with a balanced cable sound as if the player of a higher class is used as compared to the non-balanced output of L&P L3 player. Hope I made myself understood. Another question is if it is worth the money and everyone should decide it for yourself.
Do you guys think the Meze 7N copper balanced cables ($150) are worth the extra cost over the basic balanced ($100)? I'm hesitant to spend too much on cables but the 7N ones seem much more premium. This will be my first set of balanced cables. I realize most of the change in sound quality will be from utilizing the balanced output on my DAP rather than the cable itself.
Honesty, you will hear as much of an improvement with balanced as you would the cable being 7N OCC copper. In other words, the extra cost is worth it! All of my cans have OCC copper cable upgrades, and I will never turn back!
I thought that I had posted this a few days ago. I ordered a balanced cable from Amazon .ca.
It is made by Sukira. It is supposed to fit the Meze 99 and Denon AH-D7200's.
It is $159.00, which is the cheapest anywhere, that I could find. I looked at the cheap Meze. It is $99.00, plus shipping, conversion and border costs. I figured it would be at least $160.00 - $180.00, all in. And then I would have to buy a 2.5mm/4.4mm adapter. I figured it would cost WAY more than $200.00 to go with the "cheap" Meze cable.
My last cheapie cable via Amazon was a KK unit for my Sony Z7's and the difference was HUGE! But I think that most of that extra detail was coming from using the balanced output on my Sony ZX-300.
To answer my own question, yesterday night being so excited from listening my classics with the xCan for the very first time I decided and I changed for a first time in my life the pads to a headphone. Probably this is known to all of you by now, but to my surprise while the pads seemed like a first generation pads in terms of size initially, after installing them they somehow inflated and seem really big now!!! Definitely new generation pads! The other one in the picture below are the old ones that now seem small in comparison! So I had the fantastic revelation that pads are shown different on aa headphone...
But what was really suprising to me is how good the classics sound with the xCan. An unbelievable combination. Yesterday, I felt in love once again with my Classics as I was increasing the volume more and more I was expriencing no distortion, no problem with bass a closed headphone competing right away with my big open cans.
I am seriously now considering to buy at some point also the noir, one classics seems not enough, especially not if it keeps performing like that.
Only, one small complaint if it sounds so good making you jump up and down from joy, I would prefer something in velour pads because it is inevitable that your ears will sweat a lot.
To answer my own question, yesterday night being so excited from listening my classics with the xCan for the very first time I decided and I changed for a first time in my life the pads to a headphone. Probably this is known to all of you by now, but to my surprise while the pads seemed like a first generation pads in terms of size initially, after installing them they somehow inflated and seem really big now!!! Definitely new generation pads! The other one in the picture below are the old ones that now seem small in comparison! So I had the fantastic revelation that pads are shown different on aa headphone...
But what was really suprising to me is how good the classics sound with the xCan. An unbelievable combination. Yesterday, I felt in love once again with my Classics as I was increasing the volume more and more I was expriencing no distortion, no problem with bass a closed headphone competing right away with my big open cans.
I am seriously now considering to buy at some point also the noir, one classics seems not enough, especially not if it keeps performing like that.
Only, one small complaint if it sounds so good making you jump up and down from joy, I would prefer something in velour pads because it is inevitable that your ears will sweat a lot.
EDIT: Nvm, sold them to a member for the cost of shipping earlier this year. Funny, I have pads that pretty much have the same thickness at the originals but are wrinkly on the inside. I think the difference is no foam pads on the earpads. I'll get a picture tonight, worth a shot for someone to try if they want.
I changed my pads on my neo since they are still like new on my classics. In my neo the old pads were somewhat deformed and that was partially my fault. I placed them in their case in the wrong direction and where pushed once and deformed and never returned in their previous form.
Also, first time I have replaced pads and since I am inexperienced I would have done that first on my neo pair to learn how to do it properly. Now the pads on my classics seems smaller but still maybe are the same pads. The pads look different actually placed on the headphone I tend to believe now.
In both cases, I never heard classics or neo sound better than in combination with xCan.
Neo with balanced and classics with s-balanced . This is because paradoxically enough my custom balanced cable shown also in picture above fits only neo not my classics!!! The left side of the cable does not fit my classics!!! It is so tight the margin of error for the cable is zero.
So yes the picture above with the balanced cable is for Neo, my classics have the original shipped pads and the original cable. Nevertheless sound fabulous with xCan.
I changed my pads on my neo since they are still like new on my classics. In my neo the old pads were somewhat deformed and that was partially my fault. I placed them in their case in the wrong direction and where pushed once and deformed and never returned in their previous form.
Also, first time I have replaced pads and since I am inexperienced I would have done that first on my neo pair to learn how to do it properly. Now the pads on my classics seems smaller but still maybe are the same pads. The pads look different actually placed on the headphone I tend to believe now.
In both cases, I never heard classics or neo sound better than in combination with xCan.
Neo with balanced and classics with s-balanced . This is because paradoxically enough my custom balanced cable shown also in picture above fits only neo not my classics!!! The left side of the cable does not fit my classics!!! It is so tight the margin of error for the cable is zero.
So yes the picture above with the balanced cable is for Neo, my classics have the original shipped pads and the original cable. Nevertheless sound fabulous with xCan.
Thanks for the clarification! It makes sense. And yes, the margin of error on the Classics is insane! I was actually impressed you managed to get the plugs decent looking as mine are simply bare leads with heat shrink, and even then it was sooo bloody hard to get the soldering small and neat enough yet able to still hold the weld so I can actually plug them in! When the plugs arrive tomorrow so I can balance some cables up, I am thinking of leaving the cable plugged in to the Classics when swapping heads as I don't want to re-do them as well. But hey, it is sooooo worth it! Sure, balanced only marginally improves upon crosstalk thus adding an tad extra detail, but it's the principal dagnabit! I am doing it because I can!
Classics with unbalanced since I used the original 3m cable from Meze. I meant from the s-balanced output from xCan but since the cable is unbalanced is actually unbalanced I think. Sorry, but I am not expert with all that.
The Classics sound even better with a balanced cable coming out of my ZX300. However, they are so easy drive that I can't use the high gain switch in balanced mode. But in regular mode at 70, out of 120, they sound awesome. The balanced port is a huge difference on this player vs SE.
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