[IEMusic]

Cheaper SPC cables fall into the same category. You cant really trust what is claims it has. Supposed to be silver plated over copper. The copper is usually of a lower quality and the silver aspect is most definitely suspect. Silver colored paint. Looks just like silver.

True story I got 2 of the exact same silver cables from the same company. One I bought initially was touted as pure silver 4 cores thicker and had some bulk. I still own that cable to this day. Has been an outstanding silver cable. I know it is pure silver as it has some minor oxidation on it. When I saw the same cable on sale for half the price from the same folks I bought it from. I thought why not I will get it in 2 pin. When I got it. It was shiny and silvery but it looked too shiny. Upon further inspection and some digging on the nets. It seems the newer version of the same cable is not what they claim to be. It turned out to be a silver coated copper wire. A person on the net actually took it apart to prove his claim.

What is puzzling is there seems to be some newer pure silver cables being sold on aliexpress TRN, NiceHCK and KBEAR and I believe a few others have these cables. They claim it is pure silver and one of our headfi members @Slater took it apart and tested the cable, what you know it turned out to be pure silver. How they can sell those for the price they are going for I have no idea but it is cheap and it is for real so we will see. I have a firm idea what pure silver cables do sonically so I will know if it is silver just by connecting it to a few earphones especially the Orbs. We will see.

Do you know which one he took apart? Was it the TRN T3? I have ordered some of the 4 core Litz NiceHCK silver cables. I hope they turn out to be legit also.

 

[Owludio]

Hold on there partner. I hate to say it but that cable you linked to. I bought a similar type cable a long time ago claiming it was gold plated only to get a gold spray painted colored copper cable. Funny thing is it looks exactly like real gold. I am gonna doubt that actually has real gold in there. I wish there exists a real gold plated cable for that much.

As far as I know the cheapest real gold plated cable is the ISN GC4 and those cost almost the same as the Penon GS849. Penon sells a higher purity gold cable which also happens to be their most expensive called the Golden Armour an 8 core pure silver plated in 24K gold for a cool $800. I cant imagine what that ends up sounding like on some IEMS. That being said

Penon stuff I can trust and they charge a reasonable price on their cables compared to other boutique cable makers. You can read the many others that have tried the GS849 cable and you wont see a disappointed person. As far as sound goes. That cable does not brighten sonics in fact it is more closer to copper properties than silver or gold. The bulk being 68% OCC. The reason I chose the Blessing 2 for the first pairing for that cable was because of just how great that cable sounds on the Blessing 2. It doesn't exaggerate but more so expand upon the sonic foundation of the Blessing2. It sounds great on just about everything I tired it on but the Blessing 2 sounds like a new earphone with that cable and much higher end. Anyway I will just leave it at that.

In other news I haven't gotten my NiceHCK silver cables yet but a good buddy just got them and tried them on his Orbs. Says it sounds good on it which if it is pure silver should be a great bang for buck for the Orbs. Will report as soon as I get my set.

I never actually believed that it's a good gold-plating. Good gold plating is not cheap, but when I bought it while ago it was about $22 - too good to be true, but it looked good and I thought that if I don't hear the difference, - will take it apart at work (QA dept, so I have access to some fine equipment), and write about it to have some fun. Like I said before, I call it curiosity budget - part of the hobby.
But then I didn't really knew what to expect. I have dozens of cables, because as you mentioned in your review - very often synergy is more important than anything (given that cable is not defective). I have my own experience of IEMs failing to sound better with expensive cables, only to find their Synergy with $8 or $20 cheapness. Exception- $60 FiiO balanced SPC, that somehow sounds better with FH5 than the stock one.
So, going back to these "GPC cables": Whatever they're coated with, I don't know, but they sound like nothing I've heard before. No SPC or OCC of different thickness, braids, configuration could compare. Well, I thought, wasted $50 - since it didn't sound right with anything. Forgot about them for a while, until COVID quarantine gave me time to do some serious cable-swapping sessions.
Usually I would use SPC to boost treble, Copper to tame treble, thick multi-core copper to boost presence area. This time it was "let's try wacky contra-intuitive combinations" - improvise. To my surprise, MMCX one found its home with FH7, and 0.78 one - with ASG2. Both were barely usable to me before that. Thin Shozy 1.4 cable for a while was the best match to Blessing2.
So, my point is - Yes, you cannot trust Ali-Express sellers. Buy cables for collection, if you can afford, and maybe you get lucky to eventually find a synergistic one, like I have. One of the best sounding cables that I've tried with Legend X cost $10.
I'm not saying that Penon or better NiceHCK cables don't have potential to sound better due to just better quality built and materials, but I definitely don't have budget to buy dozens of high-end cables the same way - to keep them in my collection, waiting for perfect synergy in the future.
I don't believe that pure silver is much superior to pure OCC. Testiments on EE thread supported my own experience with LX at the time. Pure conductor of similar makeup will sound similar. Conductivity difference between copper and silver doesn't matter for IEMs. Bi-metals - different story because of "skin effect" - frequency-dependent surface conductivity.
I trust my ears. I know for a fact that 2 identical 8 core "SPC" cables may not sound the same. One from NiceHCK was boosting treble while another was neutral, which means tinned - not silver plated. Same thing with Yi%#$% cable that was insanely bright, while another one (i believe FDBRO) was the same 8 core configuration and more neutral(tinned, not SPC or very thin plating).
I trust your expertise, you've helped me with it more than once, which I appreciate. But the problem is - me with my freaky ears. While objectively I can assess quality by comparing to reference, difference between IEM having "magic" is so subtle, that it comes heavily to personal "preferences" and thus - unpredictable, +-1db here and there - and the magic is gone. It was like that with Orb.
So, before dumping money in the $$$ cable collection, I need to experiment more with cheap ones, and if I get cable that claims GPC and not softening treble, i'll know that. Placebo effect doesn't affect AB comparison. (not with me anyway)
Also, before I spend $800 on the cable, I could spend it to buy Thieaudio Monarch and get better quality gain with stock cable (for which it's tuned BTW). Just an example. Also, that BGVP Zero is warping my brain with that EST treble. If I could find Blessing-type tuning without BA or Piezo... It makes me re-evaluate chi-fi. Maybe no BA TOTL? Rah & Zero redefining audiophile sound for me.
I've learned a lot from that review. Awesome job there! I'm planning to read more cable reviews. It's fascinating.
There is one thing however, that I found to be more important at this time - find portable DAC with competent EQ. Cable can only get you so far...

 

[Dsnuts]

Do you know which one he took apart? Was it the TRN T3? I have ordered some of the 4 core Litz NiceHCK silver cables. I hope they turn out to be legit also.

It was the TRN T3. I am very certain NiceHCK is using a similar cable. I trust Jim at NiceHCK. Nice fella. He has been 100% honest with me in the past and asked me if I wanted to try his new silver cable. I was very surprised it was less than $20. @DannyBai just got those cables. Says it is legit. That is all I need to know. I should get mine here by next week I hope. Shipping now a days is hokey so we will see.

 

[Lamim Rashid]

How about this?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001171935016.html

Too thin. My knowledge of speaker wiring leads me to believe a thin 4n purity silver cable would be technically inferior to a thicker OCC spc cable with 5n-7n purity, these go for around $15-$40 too. I'm hoping the trn t3 is thicker bit if it isn't then I would have been just better off going with a nice thick high purity spc cable, one of the better quality ones for around $30. Silver is only 7% more conductive afterall, I find it hard to see how a thin silver cable would be superior to a much thicker higher purity silver plated copper cable with just that 7% more conductivity. This is just objectively speaking if we consider iem cable like speaker wiring, I can't really say anything for sound signature since that's such a controversial topic that I have no experience with.

 

[pr0b3r]

I see a lot of those for sale here in my country locally. Claimed to be pure silver cables from KB Ear, TRN, BGVP, Y**y**, etc. What I'm interested in is the one from S**f*r. The build looks good and the hardwares aren't too common looking.

I have only seen this on a local online marketplace. They have a 2pin version so I might try this one soon. It sells for about $25.

 

[Lamim Rashid]

What are these mythical blue stemmed tips that everyone keeps recommending for treble? Mine came with orange, red and green stemmed tips. Also came with black double flanged tips. Which of these are better for more treble? I've attached pictures, the red stem seem to be slightly bigger tips and have narrower bores.

Edit: I finished tip rolling, oddly enough the smallest orange stem tips worked best for me. I normally wear large or medium tips. I suggest others trying smaller sizes with these monitors, I realized that the thick stems and wide bores of these tips make them look smaller than they actually are. I was also able to get a much deeper insertion after switching to smaller tips. I think smaller tips are particularly good here because you reduce the low frequency occlusion effect, which I think is especially noticable with headphones like these.

 

[Lamim Rashid]

I'm trying to choose between keeping the H40 and orb. Such a hard choice. Been comparing tracks on them both using my 9038s g3 + UAPP in bit perfect mode for days now.

Unsainted by Slipknot, found this to be a good benchmark since tidal has the 96khz mqa track. I listen to fair amount of metal and rock too. Drums sounded much more natural and full on the orb here, but for some reason I liked the H40 a bit more for this track, it just felt less congested.

Next I compared 2 bags by Kevin gates, I felt this was a good representation of a lot of the music I listen to since I listen to a lot of rap and hip hop. I loved the orb for this track, as dsnuts said in his review, they left me wishing my other iems had this kind of sub bass. The H40 felt limp in comparison which was a little surprising because I hadn't had this issue in most other tracks.

Next to follow is shotta flow 3, and all though this is an mqa track I found it almost unlistenable on the h40 without turning down the volume, there was just way too much noise. Using the orb smoothed that noise right out.

I tested Honesty by Pink Sweat$ to account for the fair amount of RnB, and similar genres I listen to. I expected the orb, being a vocals focused iem, to win out here but surprisingly I liked the H40 more here. With the orb it felt like the vocal was drowned out too much by the rest of the track, while the H40 it felt much better seperated.

Going to test some more songs but this has turned into a hard decision.. I find the H40 impressive for trading blows like this at it's price point. I would keep both but I'm a set it and forget it guy, I don't like switching between headphones, I want to settle on just one.

 

[Darkestred]

I'm trying to choose between keeping the H40 and orb. Such a hard choice. Been comparing tracks on them both using my 9038s g3 + UAPP in bit perfect mode for days now.

Unsainted by Slipknot, found this to be a good benchmark since tidal has the 96khz mqa track. I listen to fair amount of metal and rock too. Drums sounded much more natural and full on the orb here, but for some reason I liked the H40 a bit more for this track, it just felt less congested.

Next I compared 2 bags by Kevin gates, I felt this was a good representation of a lot of the music I listen to since I listen to a lot of rap and hip hop. I loved the orb for this track, as dsnuts said in his review, they left me wishing my other iems had this kind of sub bass. The H40 felt limp in comparison which was a little surprising because I hadn't had this issue in most other tracks.

Next to follow is shotta flow 3, and all though this is an mqa track I found it almost unlistenable on the h40 without turning down the volume, there was just way too much noise. Using the orb smoothed that noise right out.

I tested Honesty by Pink Sweat$ to account for the fair amount of RnB, and similar genres I listen to. I expected the orb, being a vocals focused iem, to win out here but surprisingly I liked the H40 more here. With the orb it felt like the vocal was drowned out too much by the rest of the track, while the H40 it felt much better seperated.

Going to test some more songs but this has turned into a hard decision.. I find the H40 impressive for trading blows like this at it's price point. I would keep both but I'm a set it and forget it guy, I don't like switching between headphones, I want to settle on just one.

What source(s) are you using? I tested out Pink Sweat$ and his vocals were infront of the guitar throughout the whole song.

Slipknot - Unsainted. I didnt sense any congestion on this track. Of course there are better fidelity sets so know this song can sound even better on a more competent unit. Still did a good job i feel on this track.

I can't go back and compare to h40 but i can see where things may sound closed in since the soundstage is smaller than the h40.

 

[feverfive]

Man, the Orbs are tempting with the universal praise for its sub bass rumble, but I listen to a lot of (multi genre incl. trance, house, ambient, new age) electronic music, as well as progressive rock/metal, as well as instrumental jazz. Detailed, non-recessed treble is important to me as well.

Also, I've said in a couple other threads the past few weeks that I've largely been away from the audio hobby the last 5 years or so, so I have been astounded by the choice we have now; how fewer dollars gets you better sound compared to just a few years ago.

I'm just doing homework for a "mid-fi" (well, at least in terms of cost) IEM with a targeted purchase date of Black Friday. I have a lot of research to do.

 

[1TrickPony]

If in doubt don't buy. From what I've read, these have fantastic vocals and subs. The rest is ymmv/up in the air if you don't know what you're buying. Reviewers here though have been pretty good at their description.

 

[Darkestred]

Man, the Orbs are tempting with the universal praise for its sub bass rumble, but I listen to a lot of (multi genre incl. trance, house, ambient, new age) electronic music, as well as progressive rock/metal, as well as instrumental jazz. Detailed, non-recessed treble is important to me as well.

Also, I've said in a couple other threads the past few weeks that I've largely been away from the audio hobby the last 5 years or so, so I have been astounded by the choice we have now; how fewer dollars gets you better sound compared to just a few years ago.

I'm just doing homework for a "mid-fi" (well, at least in terms of cost) IEM with a targeted purchase date of Black Friday. I have a lot of research to do.

youll be disappointed with treble especially on cymbals with your last comment.

 

[illumidata]

Man, the Orbs are tempting with the universal praise for its sub bass rumble, but I listen to a lot of (multi genre incl. trance, house, ambient, new age) electronic music, as well as progressive rock/metal, as well as instrumental jazz. Detailed, non-recessed treble is important to me as well.

Also, I've said in a couple other threads the past few weeks that I've largely been away from the audio hobby the last 5 years or so, so I have been astounded by the choice we have now; how fewer dollars gets you better sound compared to just a few years ago.

I'm just doing homework for a "mid-fi" (well, at least in terms of cost) IEM with a targeted purchase date of Black Friday. I have a lot of research to do.

You’re right where I was about 8 months ago (and still am, frankly). Mid-fi is an absolute treasure trove!

My hype / review / experience aggregator has generated the following shortlist, fwiw (alphabetic): Audiosense t800, Dunu dk-2001, ISN H40, LZ A6, Moondrop Blessing 2, Penon Orb.

Hopefully one of those has the right mix of fit, driveability, sound signature and looks you’re after, or you pick up on something else going through the reviews and threads. Others should weigh in as well.

GL

 

[feverfive]

You’re right where I was about 8 months ago (and still am, frankly). Mid-fi is an absolute treasure trove!

My hype / review / experience aggregator has generated the following shortlist, fwiw (alphabetic): Audiosense t800, Dunu dk-2001, ISN H40, LZ A6, Moondrop Blessing 2, Penon Orb.

Hopefully one of those has the right mix of fit, driveability, sound signature and looks you’re after, or you pick up on something else going through the reviews and threads. Others should weigh in as well.

GL

Ah yes....the LZ A6 might be a contender as well, based on what I've read. My biggest concern (as much as I sincerely care about sound characteristics/technical ability) is build quality. I just don't know these companies enough. The L6 in particular seems to have some moisture buildup issues, based on what I've read, an dit sounds like an L7 is forthcoming.

 

[audio123]

What are these mythical blue stemmed tips that everyone keeps recommending for treble? Mine came with orange, red and green stemmed tips. Also came with black double flanged tips. Which of these are better for more treble? I've attached pictures, the red stem seem to be slightly bigger tips and have narrower bores.



Edit: I finished tip rolling, oddly enough the smallest orange stem tips worked best for me. I normally wear large or medium tips. I suggest others trying smaller sizes with these monitors, I realized that the thick stems and wide bores of these tips make them look smaller than they actually are. I was also able to get a much deeper insertion after switching to smaller tips. I think smaller tips are particularly good here because you reduce the low frequency occlusion effect, which I think is especially noticable with headphones like these.

The blue stemmed tips are now orange stemmed.

 

[ehjie]

Man, the Orbs are tempting with the universal praise for its sub bass rumble, but I listen to a lot of (multi genre incl. trance, house, ambient, new age) electronic music, as well as progressive rock/metal, as well as instrumental jazz. Detailed, non-recessed treble is important to me as well.

Also, I've said in a couple other threads the past few weeks that I've largely been away from the audio hobby the last 5 years or so, so I have been astounded by the choice we have now; how fewer dollars gets you better sound compared to just a few years ago.

I'm just doing homework for a "mid-fi" (well, at least in terms of cost) IEM with a targeted purchase date of Black Friday. I have a lot of research to do.

I'm pretty sure Bass, Mids u won't be disappointed. They got fantastic rendition. (the TCB album, ur in sub-woofer mode). As for the upper frequencies, if your not into vinyl you might not dig this, unless u upgrade to pure silver cables.
i will order mine very soon...