Google’ bard has an elegant answer to the question:
Essentially, “try for yourself and don’t bug others”
Hahaha even AI is scared of pitchforks from both camps! AI does a wise cop out and refuses to commit on the cable debate -> trust your own ears blah blah.
K but jokes aside, I respect both cable detractors and believers. But consider this, in the entire chain from IEMs (transducer) -> eartip -> cable -> amp -> DAC -> source file, do kilobuck cables make sense in the big scheme of things? I'm not talking about cheap cables but kilobuck ones. I've seen forum peeps saying "This sub $100 IEM with stock cable I will grade as 2/5. But once I put on a $1000 cable, the IEM now sounds 5/5!!" (and the IEM maybe costs sub $100USD, but is paired with a $1000 cable - cart before the horse?).
Considering eartips do make measureable and hearable differences, and they cost a few cents to a few dollars, I think eartips are a way cheaper method to change sound than a kilobuck cable? I've owned some cables up to $300 and tested a few $1000 ones, and TBH, a bad IEM is not gonna be saved by a cable, and personally I would upgrade other areas in the chain first, which are probably cheaper?
Thankfully, there's lots of bang for buck cables at the sub $30 range now, like from NiceHCK, Xinnhs etc. I have a lot of these at home and appreciate them. If consumers buy cheaper cables that measure well on resistance, or with cables that feel very good haptically/asthetically, with zero microphonics/tangling, then those are pretty decent ways to spend money IMHO. However, I have difficulty reconciling buying $1000 cables especially if the IEMs you are using it with are in the budget/midFI bracket.
Regardless, I respect both sides, and if the cable changes the sound for you, then congrats you have another toy in the audio chain to play with. It doesn't change sound for you, then congrats also, you save lots of money. Win Win, we can now go back to our love of music (and gear). On to more discoveries in this thread!!!
Cables are one thing, but I’m more interested in dongles at the moment. I’m using this dirt cheap Apple dongle as a DAC out of my xDuoo digital transport and I have to wonder if any other dongle out there could sound different?
Apple dongle is quite neutral and measures very well. It just lacks power for low sensitivity/high impedance gear. Otherwise it is very very good for sub $10 USD. It is not a matter of jacking the apple dongle to max volume with a planar headphone, just that you lose dynamics, bass is not controlled, perhaps soundstage is worse when the apple dongle fails to feed enough juice to demanding gear.
IMHO, dongles give better price to performance ratio than an equivalently priced DAP in terms of sonics. For example the Questyle M15 ($200 USD) probably can hit midFI DAP ($500 - 1000USD) sound quality. Most budget dongles have actually rendered budget DAPs to be obsolete. You don't need to bring a second device too.
However, dongles have disadvantages in draining the battery of the phone and if you use lots of lossless files, memory space may be an issue too on the phone. Some may want a DAP so as to focus on music and not be distracted on the phone by work and calls, so fair enough too.
