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- Dec 24, 2015
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My opinion is as follows is as follows. (others will probably disagree)
There are two reasons to "upgrade" your cables for these headphones.
1.) You have a balanced amp and you want a balanced headphone connection (so you need a balanced cable)
2.) You want prettier cables, with fancy sleeving, etc.
If you are staying single ended (the opposite of balanced), no cable in the world is going to improve the sound quality over the stock single ended cable.
If you want to go balanced though, there is a subtle improvement in sound on a balanced amp.
Currently I have one DAC/amp with a balanced output, which is the GeekOut V2 Infinity +. I have both the SE and balanced Monk +, and the balanced definitely sounds better. That being said, a number of people on these forums have said that the balanced output on the GO sounds better because it has more gain, so the jury is still out for me regarding whether there is a big benefit to balanced. The other caveat is the SE output of the GO is not driving the Senn/Massdrop cans well: I have to use the highest of the 3 gain settings, and set the source volume to 60-70% on a laptop with Foobar and an iPhone 6s with CCK. I would like a balanced cable to try it, but won't buy one to pair with the GOs 3.5 mm connector.
What are you plugging the 6XXs into? If you don't have a quality source/amp, the money you might spend on cables would be far better spent there.
Husband and I are going to CanJam NYC in Feb, and my goal is to find a good desktop DAC and amp, or a combo. At this point, I have a collection of cans that I am happy with - for now
So the answer is I don't know yet, but really appreciate any suggestions on cables and source gear. These forums are a great resource!