[DJJEZ]

How does this compare with the Dave? Are you now getting the best of both worlds - transients with a fully body? Are you still using the SOTM as a streamer to the Rockna?

This is a level above dave as it sounds meatier than dave but has a more expansive 3d soundstage with higher resolution, very transient heavy and more impressive imaging and yes using the sotm as a streamer still.

 

[walterboss]

DHC triple threat adapter for Chimera headphone cable for Susvara > 1266

Having been blown away with Double Helix Cables’ (DHC) flagship Chimera cable for my Susvara, I was fascinated with what the cable might do for my 1266.

The Sus cable is actually very decent, imo. But the Chimera is in a different universe.

• It gives the top end a buttery smoothness that’s just sublime whilst losing none of Sus’s incisive speed. It doesn’t soften it at all.
• Instruments decay and sustain in a way I couldn’t appreciate before.
• Also – and I might be wrong about this – I swear the headphone is louder now! (NB, all the results I'm noting here are true regardless of volume pot. So this isn't a reflection of simply having the music louder). Having thought I was hearing wrongly, I had a check online, and a review on Mimic Audio mentioned this too. No idea what the technicalities are at play here, but it really sounds like it.
• Imaging is more precise.
• Overall clarity takes a leap. And I mean a leap.

CHIMERA paired with Abyss 1266

But 1266 is a different animal of course. What on earth would the Chimera do to it? Now I know.

I've had the Superconductor from day one of the 1266 and it was a huge improvement over the stock. The improvements have been well documented now by many others, so I won't bother repeating them all here. Suffice to say, it's a fantastic cable.

The short review is: I’m selling my Superconductor cable.

I’ve given it time, but honestly I knew after even an hour. Maybe less. It’s like the 1266 I’ve always wanted. And I’ve always loved it. But the midrange now has come up several levels. Let me emphasise that: several levels.

Even on jazz records that I’ve never even bothered attempting with 1266 after some disheartening early listens are now singing.

Even Nick Drake’s Hazey Jane II – which is a don’t-even-bother-trying-this-with-1266, just-put-on-your-Atriums song – is absolute heaven. Nick is right there singing to me now. The whole soundstage is no longer made up of separate components. They’re all performing together in such a way that I can still appreciate their constituent parts.

It’s hard to explain the experience of hearing THIS song in THIS way. Yes, I’ve put it back on as I write this. It’s...just perfect. Actually perfect. The bassier brass around 2:30 has never come through like this in the left channel before. So present and harmonious, in perfect concert with everything else around it.

To make sure I’m not losing my mind I put on Sigur Ros’s Agaetis Byrjun (title track). Same results. I almost cry. The 1266 isn't supposed to be capable of doing this, is it??

But ok, I didn’t get 1266 to listen to Nick Drake or Sigur Ros.

So I tried the Panopticon album by Isis. Opening track So Did We envelops me like never before. The clarity of the overlapping guitars. And I have an ‘oh my god’ moment, where I flap my hand incoherently towards my amp, as I realise that’s actually an acoustic guitar in the background around the 2 minute mark buried under a swell of guitars, previously impenetrable. I know this song inside out. And I’ve never heard that before.

This is the sort of clarity I'm getting now.

At this stage I consider emailing Peter at DHC to simply ask him: are you a witch doctor?
But I fear this might not come across well in email, so I don't send it.

Now it’s time for Jane Doe by Converge. One of the harshest-recorded albums I’ve experienced. Recorded entirely in the analogue realm, it’s pretty shrill at the best of times. Not because it was recorded analogue of course, but there's an uncompressed violence about that record. With the Chimera, it’s clear-headed yet still screaming its lungs out. How is this possible? This level of refinement but with these dynamics??

I really want to emphasise, the Chimera isn’t softening records that shouldn’t be soft. Jane Doe is as aggressive and visceral as I’ve ever heard it. But now it’s like it’s got its wonkiness filtered or something. It’s mesmerising.

CONCLUSION

I wasn’t prepared at all for what the Chimera would do to the 1266. After a few days, I’m genuinely questioning if I still need Susvara when the 1266 can do this.

I think these headphones have been put in a box in terms of what ‘it can do’. When actually, it’s capable of so so much more. I’m honestly floored.

I posted last week about the Mitch filters, and how I wasn't a fan of what they did to the 1266. It fixed midrange issues and some wonky tuning. But in the process, the filters tamed the 1266. They lost their wildness. Like someone had given George Best a haircut in his prime. Or took booze and drugs away from Keith Richards.

It felt like someone trying to dress their child in a way that wasn't true to who they were.

The Chimera with 1266 is the answer to that conundrum. It shows what they are truly capable of, fixing its problems without changing what it inherently is – which is way more versatile than I thought possible.

I get that the Chimera cable is insanely expensive. It’s also totally worth it.

And no, I don't work for DHC or anything, and I'm not posting links to their website in case people think I'm some affiliate or something. I'm just a guy who's hearing the best music of his life. My chain is in my sig, btw, for those interested.

 

[Exekuhtor]

Very interesting that it is not only clearly better than the normal cable (which i highly suspected), but also better than the SC.
That

It’s also totally worth it.

is also in the eye of the beholder every single time, for me 5 grand (for 6" with 20% VAT) is way over the top for a cable, sorry. I am also extremely happy with my Lavricables Grand Silver 8w for the 1266 and the Susvara, and they did cost 1k€ each. The leap in sound quality was also very apparent for me coming from a Forza cable, and they retain that super ergonomic flexibility that those extremely expensive cables sometimes lack (even with infinite money i wouldn't be so sure to get them).
You have to think about: Would you still enjoy the headphone with the previous cable? And the answer should of course be a "HELL YEAH".
There are also DAC's for 20k€+ that people swear by. At some point you need to stop worrying about FOMO and just enjoy what you have. If you have the funds and love to check stuff out, go for it, sure!
I've also not heard the SC (really dislike the splitted cable design) and your statement makes me wonder why Abyss' hasn't figured the cable game nearly as much out as DHC. Maybe their SC is just massively overpriced in comparison.
That being said: Very nice that you like it and and enjoy! I'm a bit jealous but i really shouldn't be, my cables are also now top tier.
Also: My brain would force me to also buy Chimera interconnects to really have the best experience (which i did with the Grand Silver), and those ones are another large investment.

 

[mitchb]

I am enjoying Danacable Nirvana cable with my 1266 TC’s. I have not tried the SC cable as I already have the Nirvana. With my Silver Fox amp I find I get good sound. I have a PS Audio Directstream Mk1 fully modded with APS transformers and everything else in fully modded DSD. I am getting good sound.

 

[Whazzzup]

Well then, it seems set. I have to order standard tc 1266 and 6 months earlier dhc chimera, I was hoping superconductor would be acceptable, but evidently dhc rises to the top again….

 

[walterboss]

Very interesting that it is not only clearly better than the normal cable (which i highly suspected), but also better than the SC.
That

is also in the eye of the beholder every single time, for me 5 grand (for 6" with 20% VAT) is way over the top for a cable, sorry. I am also extremely happy with my Lavricables Grand Silver 8w for the 1266 and the Susvara, and they did cost 1k€ each. The leap in sound quality was also very apparent for me coming from a Forza cable, and they retain that super ergonomic flexibility that those extremely expensive cables sometimes lack (even with infinite money i wouldn't be so sure to get them).
You have to think about: Would you still enjoy the headphone with the previous cable? And the answer should of course be a "HELL YEAH".
There are also DAC's for 20k€+ that people swear by. At some point you need to stop worrying about FOMO and just enjoy what you have. If you have the funds and love to check stuff out, go for it, sure!
I've also not heard the SC (really dislike the splitted cable design) and your statement makes me wonder why Abyss' hasn't figured the cable game nearly as much out as DHC. Maybe their SC is just massively overpriced in comparison.
That being said: Very nice that you like it and and enjoy! I'm a bit jealous but i really shouldn't be, my cables are also now top tier.
Also: My brain would force me to also buy Chimera interconnects to really have the best experience (which i did with the Grand Silver), and those ones are another large investment.

The line about 'worth it' should perhaps be instead 'I'm really glad I bought one'.

 

[walterboss]

I am enjoying Danacable Nirvana cable with my 1266 TC’s. I have not tried the SC cable as I already have the Nirvana. With my Silver Fox amp I find I get good sound. I have a PS Audio Directstream Mk1 fully modded with APS transformers and everything else in fully modded DSD. I am getting good sound.

I expect the Nirvana is totally superb. I haven't heard it.

 

[pofofo]

I use a Nordost Heimdal 2 cable. They do not make this cable anymore, or ever for 1266, but I got som Rean 3 pin mini xlr and I`m really satisified. Better than the stock and an Oidio cable I`ve got. Waaaay cheaper than the cables discussed here though!

 

[Rayon]

It's been a while I listened to TC, but after fiddling a while with PGGB I've again fallen in love. I recommend others to try it. Pure ridiculousness when I that is fed to May->Bliss->TC. Somehow PGGB has nature that reminds me of tubes, but without harmonics. Music flows really naturally with amazing articulation and openness, which synergizes superbly with TC. DSD lovers (like me) will also appreciate PGGB'd 16fs rate @ 64bit float -> HQPlayer / sinc-L or closed-form-16M + your favourite modulator.

 

[walterboss]

The new High on Fire album is superb on 1266.

https://open.qobuz.com/album/qql0fv9epf6kb

 

[chesebert]

DHC triple threat adapter for Chimera headphone cable for Susvara > 1266



Having been blown away with Double Helix Cables’ (DHC) flagship Chimera cable for my Susvara, I was fascinated with what the cable might do for my 1266.

The Sus cable is actually very decent, imo. But the Chimera is in a different universe.

• It gives the top end a buttery smoothness that’s just sublime whilst losing none of Sus’s incisive speed. It doesn’t soften it at all.
• Instruments decay and sustain in a way I couldn’t appreciate before.
• Also – and I might be wrong about this – I swear the headphone is louder now! (NB, all the results I'm noting here are true regardless of volume pot. So this isn't a reflection of simply having the music louder). Having thought I was hearing wrongly, I had a check online, and a review on Mimic Audio mentioned this too. No idea what the technicalities are at play here, but it really sounds like it.
• Imaging is more precise.
• Overall clarity takes a leap. And I mean a leap.

CHIMERA paired with Abyss 1266

But 1266 is a different animal of course. What on earth would the Chimera do to it? Now I know.

I've had the Superconductor from day one of the 1266 and it was a huge improvement over the stock. The improvements have been well documented now by many others, so I won't bother repeating them all here. Suffice to say, it's a fantastic cable.

The short review is: I’m selling my Superconductor cable.

I’ve given it time, but honestly I knew after even an hour. Maybe less. It’s like the 1266 I’ve always wanted. And I’ve always loved it. But the midrange now has come up several levels. Let me emphasise that: several levels.

Even on jazz records that I’ve never even bothered attempting with 1266 after some disheartening early listens are now singing.

Even Nick Drake’s Hazey Jane II – which is a don’t-even-bother-trying-this-with-1266, just-put-on-your-Atriums song – is absolute heaven. Nick is right there singing to me now. The whole soundstage is no longer made up of separate components. They’re all performing together in such a way that I can still appreciate their constituent parts.

It’s hard to explain the experience of hearing THIS song in THIS way. Yes, I’ve put it back on as I write this. It’s...just perfect. Actually perfect. The bassier brass around 2:30 has never come through like this in the left channel before. So present and harmonious, in perfect concert with everything else around it.

To make sure I’m not losing my mind I put on Sigur Ros’s Agaetis Byrjun (title track). Same results. I almost cry. The 1266 isn't supposed to be capable of doing this, is it??

But ok, I didn’t get 1266 to listen to Nick Drake or Sigur Ros.

So I tried the Panopticon album by Isis. Opening track So Did We envelops me like never before. The clarity of the overlapping guitars. And I have an ‘oh my god’ moment, where I flap my hand incoherently towards my amp, as I realise that’s actually an acoustic guitar in the background around the 2 minute mark buried under a swell of guitars, previously impenetrable. I know this song inside out. And I’ve never heard that before.

This is the sort of clarity I'm getting now.

At this stage I consider emailing Peter at DHC to simply ask him: are you a witch doctor?
But I fear this might not come across well in email, so I don't send it.

Now it’s time for Jane Doe by Converge. One of the harshest-recorded albums I’ve experienced. Recorded entirely in the analogue realm, it’s pretty shrill at the best of times. Not because it was recorded analogue of course, but there's an uncompressed violence about that record. With the Chimera, it’s clear-headed yet still screaming its lungs out. How is this possible? This level of refinement but with these dynamics??

I really want to emphasise, the Chimera isn’t softening records that shouldn’t be soft. Jane Doe is as aggressive and visceral as I’ve ever heard it. But now it’s like it’s got its wonkiness filtered or something. It’s mesmerising.

CONCLUSION

I wasn’t prepared at all for what the Chimera would do to the 1266. After a few days, I’m genuinely questioning if I still need Susvara when the 1266 can do this.

I think these headphones have been put in a box in terms of what ‘it can do’. When actually, it’s capable of so so much more. I’m honestly floored.

I posted last week about the Mitch filters, and how I wasn't a fan of what they did to the 1266. It fixed midrange issues and some wonky tuning. But in the process, the filters tamed the 1266. They lost their wildness. Like someone had given George Best a haircut in his prime. Or took booze and drugs away from Keith Richards.

It felt like someone trying to dress their child in a way that wasn't true to who they were.

The Chimera with 1266 is the answer to that conundrum. It shows what they are truly capable of, fixing its problems without changing what it inherently is – which is way more versatile than I thought possible.

I get that the Chimera cable is insanely expensive. It’s also totally worth it.

And no, I don't work for DHC or anything, and I'm not posting links to their website in case people think I'm some affiliate or something. I'm just a guy who's hearing the best music of his life. My chain is in my sig, btw, for those interested.

Here is an unpopular opinion, if a cable makes that much difference for you that means your amp is not adequate to drive the headphones (note "drive" is not the same as "loudness"). Try using speaker amp or a more powerful amp to drive 1266 and you should find the more expensive cable doesn't actually sound materially better than the stock, just a different flavor.

 

[PhazeCrive]

Interesting to hear about headphone drivability. Even with my setup, I find the 1266's bass to be very limp until the driver material itself has been warmed up. The warmth lets the driver loosen up and move more air.

But I wonder if higher powered amps can get these drivers to move more without the needing additional heat from the air. I'd love to be able to just put on the TC and get immediate performance but that never happens. Even sitting in about 60 degrees to room temperature, there is always this annoying warm up period lasting usually around 5 minutes.

 

[walterboss]

Here is an unpopular opinion, if a cable makes that much difference for you that means your amp is not adequate to drive the headphones (note "drive" is not the same as "loudness"). Try using speaker amp or a more powerful amp to drive 1266 and you should find the more expensive cable doesn't actually sound materially better than the stock, just a different flavor.

I'm using a Feliks Envy with Elrogs and an ifi power station. Not lacking any power.

Have you tried a Chimera?

 

[chesebert]

I'm using a Feliks Envy with Elrogs and an ifi power station. Not lacking any power.

Have you tried a Chimera?

I have tried enough cans and enough cables to know otherwise. Try a good speaker amp (you will need preamp unless integrated) and don’t waste money on cables. Planar magnetic drivers need musical and highly powerful solid state amp to bring out their best performance. This is common knowledge in 2 channel btw.

 

[krude]

I have tried enough cans and enough cables to know otherwise. Try a good speaker amp (you will need preamp unless integrated) and don’t waste money on cables. Planar magnetic drivers need musical and highly powerful solid state amp to bring out their best performance. This is common knowledge in 2 channel btw.

If this was true speaker cables wouldn't matter ... and you won't find anyone in the speaker world with any sort of experience who would say speaker cables don't matter. In fact with speakers the differences are enormous, much more noticeable than headphones.

I will reverse this, if you don't hear a difference between silver and copper, then maybe you just don't hear this difference biologically (and I would love that to be true for me as I would save a nice chunk of change), or your system is not resolving enough for this to matter.