[Rob80b]

Here’s something interesting…quite often I make reference to the fact that more than any other phone that I’ve owned the Hd700s are somewhat closer to listening to speakers…well I’ve found a good way to test this for yourself…binaural recordings.
Just for fun spent the morning going through a number of these …with binaural recordings of live music or ambient settings, rain forest, thunder storms, cityscapes etc the HD700 sound amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itLxXeyM2aM, where they are less convincing are with binaural recordings of the classic barber or dentists chair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA  …why is this…well the HD700s set the sound stage out and away from the ears/head so that the sound appears almost a foot or more away, switching to a more conventional headphone, my closed back AKG 550s work really well, the sounds are placed directly at the ear and more in the head.
This is probably also why many find the HD700s odd at first, that female singer that was once whispering in your ear ..now isn’t…so what they have come to consider the norm has been altered, what was mistaken as midrange is now considered as recessed, but in fact from an audiophile’s perspective, in reproducing the original sound stage, the HD700s are in fact way more successful.
Again… just more food for thought.

 

[lawrywild]

  I'd love to see what would happen if you took a handful of those cables, wrapped them up with thick electrical tape so no one could tell what they are on sight, and then let people try them all and describe how they sounded compared to one another.
 
All I know is literally every single time someone says they got a new cable, they list off the same improvements: better bass, bigger soundstage, clearer presentation. 

 
It's never a negative change either

 

[donlin]

   
It's never a negative change either

I have no intention of getting into the 150th argument on this thread over whether cables matter or not.  Somebody asked the question and I answered honestly.  For all those that think it's nonsense, that's fine by me.

 

[lawrywild]

 
I have no intention of getting into the 150th argument on this thread over whether cables matter or not.  Somebody asked the question and I answered honestly.  For all those that think it's nonsense, that's fine by me.

 
Cool yourself bro, nobody said anything to start an argument or said you can or can't do what you want.

 

[Rob80b]

but in fact from an audiophile’s perspective, in reproducing the original sound stage, the HD700s are in fact way more successful. Again… just more food for thought.

 
Again… just more food for thought...continued
 
Now…obviously Sennheiser’s engineers have contoured/voiced the HD700s as a whole to respond that way, the base coming across tight and punchy and the highs clear and detailed, not overly so but not ethereal, which again IMHO adds to the psychoacoustics of a better balanced soundstage and of course sound, overall a fairly well engineered accomplishment…not perfect…but getting there.
The downside of all this is that it’s initial reception was not favorable, also headphones are like shoes, depending on the shape and size of ones ears and canals the design intentions put into the HD700s could work against it, the treble for some users may come across a bit too boosted causing to much contrast between it and the midrange, which again affects to overall tonal balance including the base.
But for those of us with whom the shoe fits…Sennheiser’s engineering on the HD700s has proven quite succesful.

 

[donlin]

Cool yourself bro, nobody said anything to start an argument or said you can or can't do what you want.

Sorry bro, my mistake. I took the sarcastic posts the wrong way.

 

[Rob80b]

 
I have no intention of getting into the 150th argument on this thread over whether cables matter or not.  Somebody asked the question and I answered honestly.  For all those that think it's nonsense, that's fine by me.

 
I’ve come across a number of posts, not necessarily pertaining to headphones but where the sound was indeed adversely affected from silver or silver coated cable/connectors...
Now… normally pure silver is a better conductor than copper but very little information is available on the purity of the silver used … copper has been well documented plus I noticed Cardas uses rhodium connectors, which is even a better conductor…
So if indeed Cardas is using rhodium connectors for its headphone cables along with their “Low Eddy Copper” in theory it should offer an improved electrical interface over the OEM cable…and as you have mentioned.... the sound became “less congested, smoother treble and more solid bass.  Overall a more relaxed sound”.....just saying.

 

 

[donlin]

Again… just more food for thought...continued

Now…obviously Sennheiser’s engineers have contoured/voiced the HD700s as a whole to respond that way, the base coming across tight and punchy and the highs clear and detailed, not overly so but not ethereal, which again IMHO adds to the psychoacoustics of a better balanced soundstage and of course sound, overall a fairly well engineered accomplishment…not perfect…but getting there.
The downside of all this is that it’s initial reception was not favorable, also headphones are like shoes, depending on the shape and size of ones ears and canals the design intentions put into the HD700s could work against it, the treble for some users may come across a bit too boosted causing to much contrast between it and the midrange, which again affects to overall tonal balance including the base.
But for those of us with whom the shoe fits…Sennheiser’s engineering on the HD700s has proven quite succesful.

Very interesting series of thoughts. After spending a lot of time with the 650's, I was listening to the 700's last night with your comments in mind regarding speakerlike presentation of space and you're exactly right. It's very different from the standard headphone perspective.

 

[donlin]

I’ve come across a number of posts, not necessarily pertaining to headphones but where the sound was indeed adversely affected from silver or silver coated cable/connectors...
Now… normally pure silver is a better conductor than copper but very little information is available on the purity of the silver used … copper has been well documented plus I noticed Cardas uses rhodium connectors, which is even a better conductor…
So if indeed Cardas is using rhodium connectors for its headphone cables along with their “Low Eddy Copper” in theory it should offer an improved electrical interface over the OEM cable…and as you have mentioned.... the sound became “less congested, smoother treble and more solid bass.  Overall a more relaxed sound”.....just saying.  

That's very possible. I tried the nordost headphone cable and ended up returning it. On the other hand though, I prefer my Nordost interconnects to my Cardas. I've never heard a solid silver cable that I liked though.

 

[heymian]

The only Cardas cable I've found for HD 700 is some guy selling em' on Ebay. I guess he buys the copper from Cardas and uses his own plugs and jackets. $249.99 vs the "Black Dragon" from Moon Audio which is almost $400.00.

 

[donlin]

The only Cardas cable I've found for HD 700 is some guy selling em' on Ebay. I guess he buys the copper from Cardas and uses his own plugs and jackets. $249.99 vs the "Black Dragon" from Moon Audio which is almost $400.00.

Right, that's probably the same one I have. He uses a nice Furutech headphone plug that is rhodium plated like the Cardas.

 

[Eee Pee]

Why is it called a Cardas cable when it's not sold by Cardas?

Peter at Doublehelix used my 700s as his prototype for his fancy Litz Molecule SE copper cable, blah blah. Sounds the same as the stock cable.

This thread is officially… crazy.

 

[donlin]

Why is it called a Cardas cable when it's not sold by Cardas?

Peter at Doublehelix used my 700s as his prototype for his fancy Litz Molecule SE copper cable, blah blah. Sounds the same as the stock cable.

This thread is officially… crazy.

It's not a cardas cable, I said it was a custom cable made with cardas cable which is exactly what it is.

 

[Rob80b]

Regardless of what metal is used I found the best cables/connectors are those periodically combined with alcohol

…. …that’s Isopropyl alcohol by the way and Q-tips (pipe cleaners for the little holes) to periodically clean all the connections in ones audio system..

........oh and a bit of the other alcohol once in awhile doesn't hurt either.

 

 

[DavidA]

  Regardless of what metal is used I found the best cables/connectors are those periodically combined with alcohol

…. …that’s Isopropyl alcohol by the way and Q-tips (pipe cleaners for the little holes) to periodically clean all the connections in ones audio system..

........oh and a bit of the other alcohol once in awhile doesn't hurt either.

 

I've been using Deoxit vs alcohol on all the connections, really helps with noise for some tubes.
 
As for the second type of alcohol, used in sufficient quantity most headphones will sound great

.  Time for a beer