[Mastergill]

Hello boys and girls,

OK, I gonna try to make it short and sorry for my broken English. This story began in the end of January when i decided to ask Cardas about the possibility of a custom HD-650 cable made with some Neutral Reference cable. I mean the 'standart' Cardas is very good and i could have stop there...but looking at my setup it was obviously the weak part. Having some Golden Ref. as IC, I wanted something of the 'same quality' or as close as possible for bringing the last bit of musical info to my beloved HD-650 drivers.

Brian from Cardas told me that they cannot use Neutral Ref. IC because it has not enough conductors, BUT, they can make one with Neutral Ref. Video and it may take 60 to 90 days.
So i ordered a custom N.R. HD-650 headphone cable (3 meter) via the french distributor and patiently waited...2 months.
It finally arrived on tuesday 30 March and after only one week of use i think i can tell that it's a really fantastic cable.

The construction: Well if you ever saw a piece of N.R. video cable it's made with the same cable. A pretty stiff one not easy to move around with. For me it's not a problem as i don't move that much when i listen to music. But fact is that you cannot move like with other cable.
Overall construction meet the usual Cardas standart build...very good. One thing that surprise me is that the 2 leads that goes to the earcups are very small ( 2x thinner than the 'smurf').
Brian already told me that the standart HD-6X0 cable use larger conductors, but the N.R. has a much more complex geometry and better shielding.

The sound: Clean, clean, clean. The amount of details this cable bring is just amazing. Like removing another curtain. I'm closer than ever to the original recording event.
You can clearly hear all the small harmonics like from a hi-hat buried into the mix, cymbals are fantastic, they shine like the real ones. You can hear piano or guitars string in ALL their glory. Bass and drums are tight and fast...incredible. More transparency, everything is clean and sound like the real thing!. Faster, cleaner, and 'punchier' sound. The soundstage depth and width has no increased, but placement of the different instruments or sounds is more precise. The difference in sound 'ambience' from one recording to one other is now crystal-clear. This cable is a winner.
( This in comparison with the 'standart' Cardas first generation HD-600 cable).
System used: Studer D731 cdp---> Golden Ref.IC--->Manley 300B pre/headamp--->N.R. headphone cable---> Senn. HD-650.

Conclusion: Who needs this cable? If you have invested maybe $7-8k and more in an HD-650 setup (or if you wanna see/hear the guts of your BlockHead) and if you think you can squeeze the last bit of 'musicality' from your setup, then go for it. Ask your local Cardas dealer for a price quotation. I paid €575 for it!, more than the phones itself...call me madman i like that!. You lucky Americans can have it for something like $300-400 i guess.

Thanks for the interest.

 

[Edwood]

Thanks for the impressions. Have you compared to other cables, like Moon Audio, Zu, etc?

Pics please.

-Ed

 

[HiWire]

Mastergill... you are one extreme head-fier; I salute you. I hope you enjoy your new system. Less time on head-fi, more time between phones

I hope I never wade as deep as you've gone

 

[Mastergill]

No, i have not compared with Moon and Zu.
About the pics, yes i'll try my best to provide some asap ( within a week ). I don't own a digicam.

 

[ipodstudio]

I feel the urge to leave this thread quickly and never return

....but I won't

Now this sounds like a great cable. I'll have to try this some time after I've used the current system for a loooong while. Wonder what kind of detail would come out of NR ICs and NR cans cable..

Hmmm...I think I just saw my wallet outside trying to thumb a lift

 

[dSquared]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mastergill Hello boys and girls, OK, I gonna try to make it short and sorry for my broken English.

Nice review! Your english is better than a lot of native speakers (especially now that they stopped teaching grammar in US schools).

 

[Stoney]

Interesting project, thanks for posting! I like the flexibility of the standard headphone cable, but I'm sure yours improves quite a bit upon it.

 

[daycart1]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mastergill Brian from Cardas told me that they cannot use Neutral Ref. IC because it has not enough conductors,

It seems they could have twisted one up special for you..?

Quote:

I paid €575 for it!, more than the phones itself...call me madman i like that!. [/B]

You are a madman!

An impressively dedicated madman, though.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

And I thought $200 for a headphone cable was rediculous.....

 

[ipodstudio]

$200 IS ridiculous, but what the heck

 

[oneeyedhobbit]

So what IS this custom cable being compared to MasterGill, just the stock Sennheiser cable? I would like to hear it compared to the Zu/Silver Dragon et al, otherwise it seems like your results may not be any different than those who use, say, the Zu Mobius.

 

[oneeyedhobbit]

Double Post, my apologies.

 

[Mastergill]

HiWire, dSquared: Thanks for your kind words.

daycart1: It's not a special one it's made with Neutral Ref. Video cable. First i thought...video cable? maybe not the best for music signal. I decided to take the risk and i don't regret! The strength of this cable IMO is the very good shielding, rejecting RFI that blur with the audio signal.

oneeyedhobbit: As i said, i compared it with Cardas first gen. HD-600 cable.
I had no experience with silver cable, i've always used copper, and from what i'm reading since many years i don't feel the need to try silver...i hate brightness. I'm a Cardas user since 15 years and they are maybe not the more transparent or fast or whatever, but they convey the music in a way that is extremely natural.

 

[Mastergill]

Here's one pic of that cable. As you can see the leads are thiner than with the 'standart' cable. I've learned one interesting thing is that the size (gauge?) of the cable is not that much important. The quality of the copper is important sure, but what make that particular cable so good is the shielding, much, much better than with the 'standart'. One thing that amazed me (beside the sound of course) is that i got a blacker background even without music! The Manley was already dead silent at any volume setting (without music), now i can feel an even more silence!, if that make sense. Like a 'black hole'.

About the sound, OMG! All what i said in the first place is 100% valid. They can turn an HD-650 into a TRUE holophonic headphone with explosive dynamics.
If there's a better phone than this one...

 

[JaZZ]

Matergill...

...it looks quite heavy and stiff. But the same can be said for the Zu Mobius. Well, I'm sure it sounds fantastic, and I envy you just a bit. But I think I'll stay with what I have, it sounds very good too. Great review BTW.