U70's also sound less sibilant undamped. I started out damping them, one layer of Arctic Cotton, they were originally just stock black screens on front and back which should at least be attempting acoustical transparency. So added damping, sounded sibilant, so I decided to remove damping and also remove stock black screens on reverse of the drivers. Sounded better. I decided to remove stock black screens on the FRONT of the drivers. They sound more detailed now I think. I need to get YH-1's back from my friend, but U70's sound maybe on par with YH-1's now. I think their blurriness was from the screens, they sound good to me right now. Who knows, maybe YH-1's will surprise still, though, and be ahead by a smidge.
Mundorf Supreme solder received, 1.5 hours later YH-100's recabled with Acrolink 8-core silver plated OCC copper litz braid. I agree with my friend on silver plated occ, it sounds warmer than stock cable. Smoother too? Just as detailed but instruments that used to almost have a grain to them are completely smoothed over to my ears. I wouldn't have called YH-100's screechy before, but Acrolink cable sounds less peaky and less screechy to my ears, not as hot on more than one song with completely different sounds. I swapped from Chinese pads back to Brainwavz thinking the warmer Acrolink cable plays better with Brainwavz, and it is flatter, I didn't hear midrange glare anymore, but there is tiniest hint of higher register "ssss" range glare so I swapped back to Chinese pads. Decided against this move and just redamped drivers and kept Brainwavz pads.
At first I thought treble had less bite and bass was more breathy and less syrupy which in both instances I did not like. Now I'm not even sure what I was talking about, I sort of forget what they used to sound like, been getting into the groove of the new cable. It highlights different aspects of the music, Idk, almost like a different headphone now. Takes getting used to, but they are still nice, maybe even more refined. Here is a new measurement of them:
Blue is the recable with Brainwavz pads and two layers of rear damping (I now have a single donut layer of damping but measures very similarly), Red is stock cable with Chinese pads and no rear damping.
Listening to Amber Rubarth - Sessions from the 17th Ward, YH-100's place her more naturally in front of me than HP-1A's, imho, they have more cohesive center image. But in random tracks like electroswing HP-1A's had like room acoustics and microphone grain that I remember from YH-100's which seems to be missing from YH-100's now, Idk if this is literally like distortion artifacts from the cable or embellishment in what's there??? Listening to Back To The Future soundtrack and instruments sound way more realistic on YH-100's now. There's echoes in Amber Rubarth - Strive that are easier to make out in HP-1A's, I feel, though. It's like midrange takes a step backwards with Acrolink cable, somehow it's more detailed at times, yet low level signals get swallowed up or something, there's like less dynamic range. But then other times YH-100's sound nutso realistic, like moreso than before, could even be a spatial queue or instrument texture, or they just cut deeper into recording than HP-1A's... Idrk, it's like they are different headphones now. Not sure I am completely happy. I was actually listening to Encanto - We Don't Talk About Bruno. I remember thinking this song sounded bland and boring on YH-100's with stock cable, like overly studio'ed and just dynamically compressed, but today with Acrolink cable it sort of came alive, was hearing lots of little things I wasn't before, spatial queues included, it breathed life into the image coloring = more vibrant.
This new cable has microphonics... I'll shift in my chair and the cable rubs on my sweatshirt and creates a fabric vibrational noise throughout earcups during quiet passages. Aye yi yi.
Wow, YH-100's sound really great with perfectly flat EQ now. Brightness seems gone. Bass might be fuller on it's own without bass boost, bass boost sounds a little muddled now, I haven't really been using much bass boost.
-Edit-
I think recable is overall upgrade now comparing to HP-1A, maybe the microphone grain I heard was actually weird cable distortion, HP-1A's sound less realistic which can maybe accentuate certain things which might lend an interesting perspective to the music, but it's not technically "right" maybe. I believe soundstaging is better with recable.
Here is a photo I took, maybe interesting. There are the two separate 4-core braids I made after de-braiding ~1.5' for y-split. Oddly enough, I soldered everything 100% sound and when I did a stereo left-right test they were reversed... I can only deduce the plug is made opposite to every plug I've ever encountered, I just swapped signal wires at the plug and everything is peachy... Okay maybe I messed up designating signal wires on plug side, but whatever...
