[itsmejulieeye]

I looked about & can't see a review of this Add On Cable anywhere really so I guess it's time someone left 1

The Cable sells on Ebay & now also on Amazon I believe too now & is made by a guy who goes by the Ebay name of "Sunricky" I think.
There seems to be now 2 Variants of the Baldur MKIII Cable now ;
A newer Purple/ Violet Coloured 1 & The Dark Bronze Coloured 1 which I Myself bought & have been using it pretty much non stop for about 3-4 weeks with a lot of hours usage put in.
The Cable cost me including delivery from HK £87 all in.
There is no fancy packaging or anything it arrives in a jiffy bag & the Cable itself is sealed in a resealable small thin plastic bag.
On 1st impressions it looks pretty well made with only 1 flaw that I noticed which did turn out to be a problem but easily fixed/ solved... It doesn't have the same memory wire like the standard 535 or 535Ltd's do... It only had some thin see through plastic Sheaf's over the parts that hang over your Ears so tended to keep falling off your ears or just being annoying really.
I fixed this problem by just using x2 rubber gel ear hooks coloured black & fitting the Cable into them so now the Cable stays on your ears np's at all.

Now to the actual sound of this Baldur MKIII Cable ;
I would recommend a long burn in time otherwise it's going to sound pretty harsh when 1st listened too.
At 1st I was thinking what a huge mistake I've made in buying this Cable TBH...
I'm glad to say though that after it finally burned in (probs around 40hrs worth, maybe even longer, sorry wasn't counting) I began to hear what can only be described as "That sound you get when you upgrade a component to your Hi-Fi system", you know like a major difference in sound quality?

I use this cable with my Shure's with x3 Sources & with all 3 sources it added some much needed Clarity/ Larger Soundstage/ Speed/ It just made the 535Ltd's into my own little version of Audio Heaven if that makes sense.

I was going to have a set of Custom Silver Cables made up for me or have a go at making them myself but before doing so I wanted to give this Cable a go & I'm so so glad I did

Now it's not all great as with some things there's a price or a compromise to make with using this Cable compared to the Stock Shure's 535Ltd's Cable & it's this ;
It only makes badly ripped music sound even worse, bad in with this cable = terrible out IMHO.

I Consider this a small price to pay myself as it's mostly my own CD's ripped to Flac that I listen to from my 3 sources & it's even showed me a couple of CD -> Flac rips I have either the rip wasn't done great or the CD itself was poorly recorded

If you have some 24/ 192 Hi-Rez recordings them I'm sure you would love this cable as it seems to come into it's own the better quality the music is, good in = brilliant out.

Quality wise the Cable seems built very well & I don't expect any issues with it TBH But I believe the guy "Sunricky" offers a lifetime limited warranty of some sort.

Better explain what my 3 sources of sound input were then ;
Musical Fidelity M1CliC Streamer/ DAC --> Solid Silver Custom Cable --> Objective 2 Headphone AMP --> IEM'S.
Colorfly C4 Pro (128gb microSDXC card fitted) --> IEM'S.
Astell & Kern AK120 (128+64gb microSDXC cards ftted) --> IEM'S.

I can truely say that this Cable has pleasantly Suprised Me by just how good it's turned out to be.

Something tells me also that this is genuine Nordost Cable the guy uses as all my big Hi-Fi uses Nordost speaker cable & there is a similarity that can't be ignored with the speed & timing giving the same type of signature.

I hope this helps then anyone who was maybe like me very unsure of this cable. I decided to take the gamble & buy it & I'm so greatful I did.

Oh 1 final thing is that the Cable's not the bendyist in the world & is slightly stiff, but not overly so I can assure you that it still usually moves to where you need it to go if say your out & about on your travels with it, just remember that my suggestion of fitting Gel Type Ear Hooks is advisable

Overall score of 10/ 10 I consider the small price of only £5. For the Earhooks still couldn't even cost it's great sound quality 1 Single point deduction.


J.

 

[skingg]

Can you link a picture to what one of those rubber gel ear hooks look like?

 

[itsmejulieeye]

Can you link a picture to what one of those rubber gel ear hooks look like?

Hi,
Sorry for the late reply.
Simply search on EBay the words gel Earhooks = it should give you results.
380468243568 = on EBay.co.uk is the item number of an example.

I bought x2 pairs from a Chinese seller, sorry I can't find a link right now The chinese seller did them in coloured Black, White or Red & was something like £5 for x2 pairs...

My only other tip would be to maybe do as I did with the varies hooks I use with different cables & Secure the fit so the cable never pops back out with a very very thin 4milimetre thick insulating tape at the middle & both ends as thicker cables can tend to pop out easier

Hope this helped, sorry was late in replying.


Thx J.

 

[skingg]

Hi,
Sorry for the late reply.
Simply search on EBay the words gel Earhooks = it should give you results.
380468243568 = on EBay.co.uk is the item number of an example.

I bought x2 pairs from a Chinese seller, sorry I can't find a link right now

The chinese seller did them in coloured Black, White or Red & was something like £5 for x2 pairs...

My only other tip would be to maybe do as I did with the varies hooks I use with different cables & Secure the fit so the cable never pops back out with a very very thin 4milimetre thick insulating tape at the middle & both ends as thicker cables can tend to pop out easier

Hope this helped, sorry was late in replying.


Thx J.

No problem! I'll look them up right now, thank you!

 

[skingg]

My Baldur MKIII (purple) has been in use for some 10 hours or so with the Cayin C5 amp and I'm still getting this 'harsh' sound. But I'm just listening while letting both of them burn in naturally, hopefully it gets better soon! Earhooks presumably arriving by next week. 

 

 

[Kimball Corson]

I basically agree with the starting post.

I recently purchased the Zee's Baldur MKIII cables for both my Shure Bronze Se535's and my Westone W4r's. Break in is required for both. I guesstimate 80 hours minimum; 20, to start to hear definite differences. The sound settles down, integrates and balances across the audio spectrum much better and a certain harshness disappears. The interesting thing is the sound of both IEM's recabled is much more similar after break-in, but with a bit more mid and upper bass on the W 4r's. The cable seems to accentuate the best features of both IEM's in each IEM. Very interesting result. The 535's sound more like improved W4r's and the W4r's sound more like improved 535's. The improvement to each IEM is definite (but to those who claim cables don't make a difference and I must be delusional, the conflict is easily resolved -- just don't buy them and stick with your opinions and cheapo lamp cord equivalents -- it's your loss).  

What I hear on the 535's is a bit reduced forwardness and accentuation in the upper mid range and better balance of that range with the rest of the spectrum. That aggressive upper mid range is reined in a bit and better integrated with the upper and lower frequencies. On the w4r's, the upper mids are also no longer so veiled and recessed and mid-bass bump is smoothed out a bit and better integrated. Dynamics are also improved on the W4r's which has more of an orchestral balance and perspective. On balance, the 535's are improved the most and sound more like closely miked live music from smaller groups  Soundstaging and instrumental spacing is improved on both. I can now use each without any equalization which is a shocker especially for the 535's. Fine tuned equalization can help but really is not necessary to reach good listenability. If pushed to the wall on the wall, however, I will say I still slightly prefer the W4r's for the bit more mid and upper bass, but I listen more to the 535's, and classical music so what do I know here. Deeper bass is good on both.
 
The Zee's MKIII 's are exceptionally well made as IEM cables go. The fit, shaping, weight and comfort is superior. Well recommended unless you want to spend much more and lug a good head amp around, which I am not willing to do.

 

[itsmejulieeye]

Hi,
Sorry for the late reply to this old thread
My healths not been so good so I barely check forums now etc...

I have 1 thing to add to my original review of the Baldur MKIII Cable & it's this ;
This cable improves with age more so than even my previous burn in (Longtime Record) required which was some pretty thick Silver Custom made Silver RCA/ Phonos that seemed to take forever (probably around 200hrs & I swear I'm not kidding !)
So for my Shure 535Ltd Reds I use the Baldur MKIII Cable mostly + now & then my Custom made Silver cable from an eBay retailer named "dtses14" great guy who will make you pretty much any custom Silver Cable you'll ever need...

Now the thing is that in theory the Silver cable should out do/ perform the Baldur MKIII but it honestly doesn't it's like 1 cable does 1 thing slightly better than the other & then the other cable comes right back & pow does 1 thing better than that 1 did...

I guess what I'm really saying is is that sometimes you can have & use x2 different cables with your Headphones & enjoy both equally
I love the "dtses14" guy's Silver cable for it's typical Silver openness/ more air'y & truthfulness No Colouring/ ruining your sound)
But ;
I love "Sunricky's" Baldur MKIII cable for it's typical Nordost sense of attack/ speed & dare I say it but an ever so much slighted tighter Bass with again (very little messing with the signature of your sound).

The funny thing is that my main large HiFi has all Nordost speaker cables throughout (x5 runs due to running 5 Linn PWR AMPS in Active mode to 2 sets of Linn speakers set up in a stereo standard way).
But again ;
Every single RCA/ PHONO cable is a custom made Silver 1...

I now have some unneeded used silver speaker cables + again some now unneeded used nordost RCA/ PHONO cables.
I somehow prefer the Nordost Speaker cable over the silver (Fact tested with some blind A-B testing till MY partner said enough it's clear you prefer the Nordost speaker cable) I think they were angry at the time it took hehe.
But I again somehow prefer my Custom made Silver RCA/ PHONO cable over the nordost (again after long A-B blind testing). Partner reluctantly helped hehe.

I did try the system running in all Silver Mode + all Nordost Mode for a week each (Long after everything was well burned in) yet strange as it is the Nordost won the Speaker cable battle & the Silver won the RCA/ PHONO battle, that combo just provided the best Synergy/ Match to my ears & most friends whom I managed to bore with.
Only thing I left out was that my Digital Coax cable is a Nordost since IMHO a Digital Cable just needs really good RFI/ Sheilding etc, so I didn't notice much difference although I did try a QED Reference Coax in it & IMHO no effects different. Digital Optical wasn't used for testing but for the record it's a QED something or other (shows you how much I value Optical not knowing the Cable I use LOL).

I apologise for going off topic into "Big/ Main Hi-Fi Land" talk but I thought it might help explain better my point.

You can search for years for that magic sound, that extra edge & out of the blue I got x2 Improvements/ enhancements I equally liked not just in Earphone Cable but in Hi-Fi Cable also.

The Baldur MKIII is a great Cable & Mr "dtses14's" Custom Silver Cables are Superb too !
I honestly couldn't pick 1 over the other that's why I use both

Also while I was ill I listened & enjoyed my Music helped by A: Decent Daps/ HiFis + B: Decent Speakers & Headphones (Shure 535Ltd's + Sennheiser IE800's C: Excellent Cables (Solid Silver + Nordost).

I now spend less time searching for "The Latest Hardware/ Toys" & more time Enjoying Listening to my ever growing number of Flac rips/ HD downloads & I believe there's too many people just keep on chasing that "The Next Best Thing" when in fact they should slow down & keep their Toys Longer to enjoy them more

Enjoy your music people
Sorry for the off topic rant/ sermon there hehe...
J.

 

[Moses3]

Just found this thread as I am looking to replace my stock SE535 cables.  I am enticed by the Baldur MkIII, I am new to high-end audio and am not sure what "burn in" is.  Do you mean that you should just run the cables with music or white noise, for 80+ hours?  Does the volume matter?  Do the IEMs need to be attached?  
Sorry if these are dumb questions, I just want to know more before dropping that much coin.
Thanks!

 

[enterhiro]

I bought Zee's Music Cryopreservation 7N OCC upgrade cable for my UE900's June 2015, the cable has already broke in under 1 years use
 
Would not recommend these cables for the price