[PhilW]

Quote:

The balanced Sennheiser cable sounded a world apart better than the stock cable with new Sennheiser amp and a HD 800. Don't even think of sticking with the stock single ended cable with this amp.

 
Couldn't agree more! I did a comparison with 2 pairs of HD800 on the HDVD800 with stock and balanced cable. Without people knowing which pair of HD800 they were given, every single person guessed the balanced pair correctly. The cables are speculated to be £250 = HD800, £199 = HD700 and £179/£189 = HD650/HD600.
 
Regards
 
Phil

 

[murrays]

Quote:

 
Couldn't agree more! I did a comparison with 2 pairs of HD800 on the HDVD800 with stock and balanced cable. Without people knowing which pair of HD800 they were given, every single person guessed the balanced pair correctly.

Regards
 
Phil

 
Of course, "balanced" outputs give a higher output level by a few dB so they will have the advantage.
Did you match the levels with a meter?

 

[Speedy Pedro]

Quote:

 
Of course, "balanced" outputs give a higher output level by a few dB so they will have the advantage.
Did you match the levels with a meter?

In my case, I did not. I don't have a meter to bring to the meeting. But I played with the volumes. And, yes, there was a difference in sound, not just a question of loudness. Balanced cable was better and I do recommend it.
 
 
 
 
Pedro

 

[Yog]

Couldn't agree more! I did a comparison with 2 pairs of HD800 on the HDVD800 with stock and balanced cable. Without people knowing which pair of HD800 they were given, every single person guessed the balanced pair correctly. The cables are speculated to be £250 = HD800, £199 = HD700 and £179/£189 = HD650/HD600.

Regards

Phil

Thanks for the confirmation, Phil. Say hi to Amit. I have yet to hear back from him.

Can't wait to get Senn's balanced cable for HD 800 once available.

 

[myt33]

[size=17.846153259277344px]Speedy Pedro[/size][size=17.600000381469727px] , [/size]
 
Have you changed the power cable between Ultra linear and it's power supplier 
or the power cable of power supplier itself??

 

[Speedy Pedro]

I did the tests separately.
 
I first demoed the Graham Slee vs Sennheiser amp with same Sennheiser stock cable on both.
 
Later in the day I did the cable comparison. I had two pairs of HD 800 and two cables into the same amp and same power supply. The balanced cable was noticeably louder so I upped the volume a bit when listening to the single ended cable. Did not have a meter so obviously had to do the it by ear.  
 
For the record, I did bring the PSU1 Graham Slee power supply with my Graham Slee Solo U/L.
 
 
Pedrp

 

[elwappo99]

If the amplifier has a true balanced design and a single ended output the balanced design will perform better. It's not a shock. 
 
Has anyone seen this official balanced cable? Is it anything more than the stock cable reterminated in a 4 pin xlr? $300 is pretty steep for something that is probably going to be mass produced via machine. 

 

[Speedy Pedro]

Quote:

If the amplifier has a true balanced design and a single ended output the balanced design will perform better. It's not a shock. 
 
Has anyone seen this official balanced cable? Is it anything more than the stock cable reterminated in a 4 pin xlr? $300 is pretty steep for something that is probably going to be mass produced via machine. 

 
Well I saw the cable, of course. Unfortunately, I did not analyse it in particularly close detail since I can never tell quality by looking at the cable (I know others can). However, the Sennheiser told me that it was a silver cable (or has some silver) as opposed to the stock cable. So the cables are different, not just re-terminated. 
 
Perhaps £250 is steep given the cost of manufacturing it. I do not know. Another way to look at it is that if you are going to spend £1000 on a headphone and £1200 on an amplifier (the cheaper DAC-less one) you would make a massive mistake not spending the extra £250 for the cable and sticking to single-ended. That is my opinion.
 
Are there cheaper alternatives? I am sure. I can only say that the balanced cable is much better than the stock cable. And in the absence of alternatives (known to me and that I have been able to test), at this point I rather spend the extra money on a (conceivably) overpriced cable than not.
 
 
 
Pedro

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

 
Well I saw the cable, of course. Unfortunately, I did not analyse it in particularly close detail since I can never tell quality by looking at the cable (I know others can). However, the Sennheiser told me that it was a silver cable (or has some silver) as opposed to the stock cable. So the cables are different, not just re-terminated. 
 
Perhaps £250 is steep given the cost of manufacturing it. I do not know. Another way to look at it is that if you are going to spend £1000 on a headphone and £1200 on an amplifier (the cheaper DAC-less one) you would make a massive mistake not spending the extra £250 for the cable and sticking to single-ended. That is my opinion.
 
Are there cheaper alternatives? I am sure. I can only say that the balanced cable is much better than the stock cable. And in the absence of alternatives (known to me and that I have been able to test), at this point I rather spend the extra money on a (conceivably) overpriced cable than not.
 
 
 
Pedro

 
Unfortunately in many ways Sennheiser is counting on this attitude. They know that if you've invested this much into the amplifier and headphones you're not willing to "take a chance" with a lower quality cable, and you'll rely on the sennheiser brand. Knowing that, they'll shoot the price up and get a little more money. I'm sure they aren't using pure silver, it's probably silver plated copper. If that's the case, the parts cost would be less than $20, easily. 

 

[Frank I]

I
 
 
I have this for ten day to write a review for Dagogo.com. I really wanted it longer but they have lot of reviewers in line and I also was sent the hD700 which I will have longer. better get to the listening.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

I think a stock cable from Senn is around $125?  You can re-terminate with an 4-pin XLR Male connector for $5-$15 depending on what you go for; it won't be "silver" but still...

 

[Speedy Pedro]

The popular Cardas Balanced Cable marketed as "for Sennheiser HD 800" (whatever that means) sells for £ 260 here in UK. Perhaps Sennheiser is targeting that price point irrespective of actual product costs to make and distribute.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

I
 
 
I have this for ten day to write a review for Dagogo.com. I really wanted it longer but they have lot of reviewers in line and I also was sent the hD700 which I will have longer. better get to the listening.

Looking forward to your review. Gotta admit, that's one nice, clean looking amp/dac combo.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

Looking forward to your review. Gotta admit, that's one nice, clean looking amp/dac combo.

Very sharp and well built. 

 

[slc01]

After being unhappy with the neutral to "cold" balance of the sound when I heard the HDVA800 + HD800 combination at home last week, but simultaneously being very impressed by the resolution and detail, I went back to listening via my Lehmann Linear. Rats! It now seems almost crude in comparison - although I was perfectly happy with it before.
 
I'm glad that the seemingly universal opinion from the recent head-fi meet in London is that the balanced connection between the amp and HD800s sounds much better than the single ended one. I will wait to try that, hopefully with the HDVA600.