[pietcux]

Ordinary copper cable. That is headphone cable without magical material properties certified by NASA, special recipe cryo process with intricate secret weave, extra pretty sleeve and rare bongo bongo Amazonian wood slider.

You mean it is a real cable?

 

[Satir]

n/a

 

[Whitigir]

There is no need to hear the differences or debate. OCC is 103% conductive and silver is 105% conductive in comparison to ofc 100%. It is also more expensive

Sound performances aside. I am only curious about being a flagship tier from Senn. Will they use OCC or just typically OFC

 

[hypnos1]

Am too old to worry about others' opinions, but just wanted to give my own findings re. what (DIY!) solid silver and copper Neotech UP-OCC wires did for my Beyer T1, v1...being now interested in the HD820 (closed function!).

The original T1 hp cable was mostly shielding, which didn't impress me one bit!...(supposedly one of the 'best' stock hp cables out there). Anyway, replacing with the said OCC wires did in fact make a noticeable difference, with increased detail; spaciousness; treble handling among just some of the improvements. And my friend found similar results with his Senn HD800 (and has even younger, better ears than my own!...Edit : he with Questyle CMA800 amp, vs my own Feliks-Audio Euforia OTL tube amp with EL11s driving EL12 Spezial powers).

And so I shall replace (probably) the HD820 cable with exactly the same above wires...for me, at least, vastly superior to the stock cable...(the rest of my equipment can be found on my profile, to save repetition...). As per usual, YMMV!!

 

[Ifwiff]

These headphones are so pretty... and so out of my price range

 

[Dulalala]

What is OCC?

Ohno Continuous Casting.

 

[Mark Up]

What is OCC?

I found this with a quick search. I'm not endorsing or denying anything it says, but this is the official definition of OCC wire.

The UP OCC process for refining copper was developed and patented by Professor Ohno of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. The licensed to use this manufacturing process is incredibly popular for the production of wire and cable products for the audio/video industry. UP OCC stands for Ultra-Pure, Ohno Continuous Casting. In conventional processing, hot molten copper is poured into a cooled mold for extrusion, resulting in multiple, fractionated crystal structure. While the copper may be "pure" in measuring gas impurities in the copper in comparison to standard copper refining techniques.

Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) has undesirable effects that lead many to use more expensive materials such as silver for their conductive strands. As developed for A/V cable use, the OCC process utilizes a heated mold for casting and extruding, with the cooling taking place in a separate process.The result is a larger crystal size and increased purity that approaches the 6N, 99.9998%! Looking at it another way, traditional copper has oxygen impurities of 200 to 500 parts per million (PPM), while traditional OFC copper reduces that to less than 10 PPM. With the OCC process, the figure is cut in half to less than 5 PPM of oxygen, and less than 0.25 PPM of hydrogen (compared to the 0.5 PPM for OFC). The OCC process creates "ultra-pure" copper.

The benefits of UP-OCC are as following:
• A true unidirectional copper crystal that is as free from impurities as possible to prevent corrosion
• Flexibility and fatigue resistance without impairing conductive characteristics
• Low electrical resistance • Rapid signal transmission
• Corrosive-resistant • Non-crystal boundaries

 

[Terry Newton]

Thanks for that,very educational.

 

[zolkis]

The benefits of UP-OCC are as following:
• A true unidirectional copper crystal that is as free from impurities as possible to prevent corrosion
• Flexibility and fatigue resistance without impairing conductive characteristics
• Low electrical resistance • Rapid signal transmission
• Corrosive-resistant • Non-crystal boundaries

You're free to shoot me, but I think the UP OCC (and technologies on similar principle) makes sense. Another thing that seems to matter is the right insulator (dielectric). A third thing is the Litz effect, we need strands of different diameter and a proper weaving structure. Among other variables, IMHO the best cross-section shape is circle for a single cable, and the best material is OCC copper. I don't take a position on silver plating.

The most plausible theory I heard about cables is that all of the above mainly affect the uniformity of the electromagnetic field, which in turn seems to affect the way we perceive sound resulting from the electric signal carried over the cable (regardless whether the information in the signal is encoded in digital or analog form). It is interesting that the same principle makes similar perceived sonic differences in both digital (coaxial) and analog cables: interconnects, speaker cables, power cords, internal cabling etc.

The difference I have heard in my systems was the following:
- better bass extension, definition, attack and decay, more realistic contrabass, cello, organs, piano, etc.
- more relaxed and more natural, more easy-flowing sound
- much better defined highs, cymbals having more body and realistic impact, while sounding less edgy.

My first contact with this tech was almost 20 years ago when I was building some speakers (bass modules) and found out that cables with this tech sounded like going an octave deeper in the bass with much better resolution than the best Nordost cables that were my references that time. Ever since I used these cables and didn't care any more about cable theories.

Sorry for the OT, I don't intend to follow up on this here, just shared my 2 cents - take it or leave it.

 

[hypnos1]

There is no need to hear the differences or debate. OCC is 103% conductive and silver is 105% conductive in comparison to ofc 100%. It is also more expensive

Sound performances aside. I am only curious about being a flagship tier from Senn. Will they use OCC or just typically OFC

@zolkis confirms what I personally have found with UP-OCC wire used in mains, interconnect/headphone cable etc., so I shall not say any more on this subject

In reply to your question Whitigir, it appears from Senn's own website that they are, sadly, using OFC and not OCC wire in their cables...

 

[Whitigir]

@zolkis confirms what I personally have found with UP-OCC wire used in mains, interconnect/headphone cable etc., so I shall not say any more on this subject

In reply to your question Whitigir, it appears from Senn's own website that they are, sadly, using OFC and not OCC wire in their cables...

I don’t know if Zolkis is a reputable scientist or laboratory that can give standards to copper and conductivity. Here is simply a wiki link

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen-free_copper

Conductivity is generally specified relative to the 1913 International Annealed Copper Standard of 58 MS/m. Advances in the refining process now yield OF and ETP copper that can meet or exceed 101% of this standard. (Ultra-pure copper has a conductivity of 58.65 MS/m, 102.75% IACS.) Note that OF and ETP coppers have identical conductivity requirements

Perhap, OCC is 102.75% instead, and not 103%.

Again, I am not talking about “sound performances”. I just don’t care.

Thanks for the finding. It is sad that Senn. Is still using OFC. Stax, for example, uses OCC on their 2 flagship, the 007 and 009

 

[pietcux]

I don’t know if Zolkis is a reputable scientist or laboratory that can give standards to copper and conductivity. Here is simply a wiki link

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen-free_copper

Conductivity is generally specified relative to the 1913 International Annealed Copper Standard of 58 MS/m. Advances in the refining process now yield OF and ETP copper that can meet or exceed 101% of this standard. (Ultra-pure copper has a conductivity of 58.65 MS/m, 102.75% IACS.) Note that OF and ETP coppers have identical conductivity requirements

Perhap, OCC is 102.75% instead, and not 103%.

Again, I am not talking about “sound performances”. I just don’t care.

Thanks for the finding. It is sad that Senn. Is still using OFC. Stax, for example, uses OCC on their 2 flagship, the 007 and 009

Sennheiser presents the probably best closed headphone of all times and all you can think of is the copper they use as cable. I think you are a little over the top with this, but you don't use copper anyways, we all know for you it has to be solid silver or better Kryptonite,
I am listening to Puccini Arias on my WM1A Z1R combo right now with the balanced cable which Sony supplies and look forward to compare this combo to the WM1A HD820 pairing with the cable that Axel Grell decided to accompany this hopefully stellar headphone.

 

[Whitigir]

Sennheiser presents the probably best closed headphone of all times and all you can think of is the copper they use as cable. I think you are a little over the top with this, but you don't use copper anyways, we all know for you it has to be solid silver or better Kryptonite,
I am listening to Puccini Arias on my WM1A Z1R combo right now with the balanced cable which Sony supplies and look forward to compare this combo to the WM1A HD820 pairing with the cable that Axel Grell decided to accompany this hopefully stellar headphone.

Lol! Seriously, trust me, My question is more about being a flagship and expensive phones, would Senn care enough to use better materials than OFC. But, it makes sense if they don’t. After all, the HE-1 still has OFC cables

 

[Mark Up]

Personally, I think Solid Core Copper is superior, OCC Copper is a close second, and far more flexible. I prefer copper to every kind of silver (plated, stranded or solid) that I find can be tizzy. However, as stated above, the cans make the biggest difference and I'm sure the cable used stock is high enough quality. You may do better with costly wire but it's diminishing returns. So it actually means "both sides" of this are actually correct. Yes, it makes a difference, is one side vs. is the difference worth it (totally subjective) as the other side. I think we can coexist with this.

 

[Audioholic123]

Sennheiser presents the probably best closed headphone of all times

I take it you're a Sennheiser fan?