itsmejulieeye
New Head-Fier
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- Apr 7, 2013
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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.