CABLE TOUR 1: Sennheiser Termination - HD800, HD800s, HD820 (Cables Only)
CABLE TOUR 2: 2.5MM Termination - Sennheiser HD700, HiFiMan HEX/HEK/HE560/400i, OPPO PM1/PM2, Audioquest Nighthawk/Nightowl (Cables Only)
I am not going to pretend to be an expert at cable science as I am not, but after auditioning these Forza AudioWorks Noir Hybrid HPC cables for a week, I can tell you that there is something to them - a WOW factor. Both my HD800 and HEX headphones, while TOTL HP SQ, are treble hot headphones that need a little taming to be enjoyable for a long listen. This Noir Hybrid HPC upgrade cable is a great pairing with both offering both a tamed treble, but also more meat on the bones. The HD800 needs more help so the impact is more significant with it, but both benefit considerably while being much more comfortable to utilize with the new wonderful ergonomics. While I am unsure of the secret sauce that makes these cables sound so much better than the stock cables, I do know that they offer a hybrid design with separate pathways of the highest quality UPOCC copper and silver - no cheezy SPC here. The website also mentions doubled strands per channel and proprietary geometry in the Noir Hybrid HPC design. All I can tell you is that the feel is like holding a luxury teddy bear and the improved SQ makes you want to curl up with it. You can see my personal audio setups that I am testing these cables within my signature.
While I started out a cable skeptic through much of 2017, only buying cables for looks and termination - having played with a number of cables lately, I have found that they can make a large difference in SQ, signature, ergonomics, manageability, and longevity. Even more interesting, the wrong pairing can ruin an HP/CIEM SQ/signature - therefore, high price doesn't equal guaranteed SQ improvement. The correct pairing takes trial and error. Regardless, my experience with custom cables has been mainly on CIEMs. This made me wonder how much they can improve my HD800/HEX SQ - hence the tour. My hope was to find out together with my HeadFi friends and share our experience.
Happily, for us US-based Head-Fiers, I was able to talk Matt at Forza AudioWorks into providing two tour kits for us to find out how much his cables can improve 1) the Sennheiser HD800 Series headphones, and 2) the other 2.5MM termination headphones such as HifiMan HEX/HEK, HD700, etc. as listed above. Matt provided us with his masterpiece Noir Hybrid HPC cable for each terminated in balanced with a balanced to SE adaptor so we can try them on our own gear. My reason for reaching out to Matt is the preponderance of his cables in the Seattle Head-Fi community that I am from. The Forza cables are very obvious with the teddy bear like appearance that makes you want to snuggle up with them. All the incredible HD800 setups at the time were using these cables and I wanted to know why. When using someone else's gear, with HP mods, Sonarworks tone modifications, etc. it is hard to know what part of the equation make for that incredible SQ. Now, by using it on our own gear, we can focus on the cables alone. Luckily, it is very easy to switch back and forth to test. So..... who is ready to give them a try?
CABLE TOUR 2: 2.5MM Termination - Sennheiser HD700, HiFiMan HEX/HEK/HE560/400i, OPPO PM1/PM2, Audioquest Nighthawk/Nightowl (Cables Only)
I am not going to pretend to be an expert at cable science as I am not, but after auditioning these Forza AudioWorks Noir Hybrid HPC cables for a week, I can tell you that there is something to them - a WOW factor. Both my HD800 and HEX headphones, while TOTL HP SQ, are treble hot headphones that need a little taming to be enjoyable for a long listen. This Noir Hybrid HPC upgrade cable is a great pairing with both offering both a tamed treble, but also more meat on the bones. The HD800 needs more help so the impact is more significant with it, but both benefit considerably while being much more comfortable to utilize with the new wonderful ergonomics. While I am unsure of the secret sauce that makes these cables sound so much better than the stock cables, I do know that they offer a hybrid design with separate pathways of the highest quality UPOCC copper and silver - no cheezy SPC here. The website also mentions doubled strands per channel and proprietary geometry in the Noir Hybrid HPC design. All I can tell you is that the feel is like holding a luxury teddy bear and the improved SQ makes you want to curl up with it. You can see my personal audio setups that I am testing these cables within my signature.
While I started out a cable skeptic through much of 2017, only buying cables for looks and termination - having played with a number of cables lately, I have found that they can make a large difference in SQ, signature, ergonomics, manageability, and longevity. Even more interesting, the wrong pairing can ruin an HP/CIEM SQ/signature - therefore, high price doesn't equal guaranteed SQ improvement. The correct pairing takes trial and error. Regardless, my experience with custom cables has been mainly on CIEMs. This made me wonder how much they can improve my HD800/HEX SQ - hence the tour. My hope was to find out together with my HeadFi friends and share our experience.
Happily, for us US-based Head-Fiers, I was able to talk Matt at Forza AudioWorks into providing two tour kits for us to find out how much his cables can improve 1) the Sennheiser HD800 Series headphones, and 2) the other 2.5MM termination headphones such as HifiMan HEX/HEK, HD700, etc. as listed above. Matt provided us with his masterpiece Noir Hybrid HPC cable for each terminated in balanced with a balanced to SE adaptor so we can try them on our own gear. My reason for reaching out to Matt is the preponderance of his cables in the Seattle Head-Fi community that I am from. The Forza cables are very obvious with the teddy bear like appearance that makes you want to snuggle up with them. All the incredible HD800 setups at the time were using these cables and I wanted to know why. When using someone else's gear, with HP mods, Sonarworks tone modifications, etc. it is hard to know what part of the equation make for that incredible SQ. Now, by using it on our own gear, we can focus on the cables alone. Luckily, it is very easy to switch back and forth to test. So..... who is ready to give them a try?
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