[mbwilson111]

I know earbuds are the height of mediocrity

Not at all. I was listening to an outstanding earbud tonight and felt relieved to not have tips stuck into my ears. Excellent bass was included.

 

[Slater]

@Slater should dissect similar cables by other suppliers...

I have. I’ve dissected a number of cables from a number of manufacturers, and I’ve openly shared all of the results for all to see.

I also have a new pile of cables that another member donated that I haven’t had a chance to get to yet (been too busy).

The only reason I did a quick test of the tiger cable, is because with EVERY cable I buy the very 1st thing I do right out of the box is test phase, check continuity, and measure resistance. That way, if a cable is defective I can immediately file a claim or contact the seller. Anyways, when I opened the tiger cable today and did my normal round of tests, the lopsided resistance measurements immediately jumped out at me. And that told me that deeper investigation (ie dissection) is required, so that a factual explanation can be determined.

Anyways, there’s no need to contact TRN or make a call to arms yet. I don’t want to jump to conclusions when I haven’t even finished my physical dissection. All I’ve done so far is electrical measurements. That’s why in my post I said stay tuned for the dissection results.

 

[baskingshark]

Not at all. I was listening to an outstanding earbud tonight and felt relieved to not have tips stuck into my ears. Excellent bass was included.

I'm not really a earbud fan due to the poorer isolation and bass compared to IEMs. The last ear bud I used was more than 5 years back though, has the technology of earbuds improved since then?

I'm of the opinion that an IEM is likely to have better sound quality due to the deeper insertion and isolation properties, but please correct me if there are good earbuds out there that do these well!

So against my better judgement, I bought one of the new black and yellow TRN 8-core cables:



Well, despite the general build being nicer than the old cables (nicer quality plug, softer cable, chin slider, etc), it seems there may be something going on with the soldering in the wires again.

I’m getting the following resistance:

Ground left = 0.8ohm
Ground right = 0.7ohm
Left + = 0.4ohms
Right + = 0.4ohms

I’m not going to make any further statements at this time, but just like last time I’m going to dissect the cable and take detailed photos of what exactly is going on inside. I have my suspicions as to why the resistance is way off, but I don’t want to say anything right now without proof. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict what I’m going to find though...I

Thanks for taking one for the team, as per the last time!
It doesn't look good for sure, but TRN already knew about the non tiger cables having soldering issues in the previous batch (which u dissected), and they said they will fix it (they claimed it was a particular factory that had the issue?). It will be very disappointing if they launched a new lineup of cables with the same issue.

 

[mbwilson111]

I'm not really a earbud fan due to the poorer isolation and bass compared to IEMs. The last ear bud I used was more than 5 years back though, has the technology of earbuds improved since then?

I'm of the opinion that an IEM is likely to have better sound quality due to the deeper insertion and isolation properties, but please correct me if there are good earbuds out there that do these well!

It is late here and I am going to sleep now but I will just leave this here

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/page-2971

Sound quality can be excellent... including bass. Some sound almost like a full sized headphone... especially high impedance ones -150 - 600 ohms... but most are around 32 ohms. You do have to learn to fit them properly and use good foams etc.

Some are even worn over ear.

Isolation... no... but that is kind of the point. I don't miss hearing the doorbell when I am wearing buds... so fewer missed deliveries... lol.

 

[Otto Motor]

Tiger cable appears to be ok...all cores connected in the current batch. Lots of cable massacring going on this weekend. Two videos showing the dissection here:

https://www.audioreviews.org/dissecting-the-tiger-cable/

 

[kakaworu]

OK looks like they've improved the equality of their cables

 

[FastAndClean]

Tiger cable appears to be ok...all cores connected in the current batch. Lots of cable massacring going on this weekend. Two videos showing the dissection here:

https://www.audioreviews.org/dissecting-the-tiger-cable/

why are you moving the youtube links posted earlier on your website?

 

[lgcubana]

Tiger cable appears to be ok...all cores connected in the current batch. Lots of cable massacring going on this weekend. Two videos showing the dissection here:

https://www.audioreviews.org/dissecting-the-tiger-cable/

...
I’m getting the following resistance:

Ground left = 0.8ohm
Ground right = 0.7ohm
Left + = 0.4ohms
Right + = 0.4ohms

I’m not going to make any further statements at this time...

Any theories on what's causing the disparity, that initiated your concerns ?

What I know of electrical resistance, flow and continuity could fill a shot glass, so please go slow.

 

[Slater]

Not so fast.

There’s more to cables than just how many wires are connected.

I finished my dissection. And yes, I can confirm that all 8 wires are soldered to pins. And that’s a good thing.

Here’s how they soldered the pins:

• (2) yellow (“gold”) conductors to L+
• (2) yellow (“gold”) conductors to R+
• (4) black conductors to shared gnd

Here’s the photos to prove it:





So if the ground terminal on the 3.5mm plug has FOUR wires soldered to it, why is the resistance DOUBLE on the ground terminal as compared to the + terminals?

Clearly, the huge resistance/impedance disparity isn’t caused by ‘fake wires’ not being soldered, because all 8 wires are soldered to terminals.

So what’s causing it?

Well, upon closer inspection, I determined it is being caused by:

1. Using 2 drastically different wire gauges
2. The way the wires are soldered (ie the configuration of what wires go to what terminals)

For #1 above, despite the black and gold wires having roughly similar external diameters (ie the insulation), the size (gauge) of the internal conductors is vastly different.

Once the insulation layer is stripped away, it’s readily apparent that the gold conductors are many times thicker. In other words, the actual gauge of the black wire’s copper conductors are ridiculously thin and tiny, and the actual gauge of the gold wire’s copper conductors are super thick in comparison.

Look at the difference side by side (2 different photos of the same cable, shot in different light):




So that brings us to #2 in my list above. This copper conductor’s size difference was compounded by the configuration of which wires were soldered to which terminals.

As I stated earlier, they soldered them this way:

• (2) yellow (“gold”) conductors to L+
• (2) yellow (“gold”) conductors to R+
• (4) black conductors to shared gnd

But because the black wires are so paper thin compared to the gold wires, the black wires have a very high resistance (and thus impedance) and the thick gold wires have a much lower resistance (and thus impedance).

Thin gauge conductors = high resistance, thick gauge conductors = low resistance.

How they should have soldered them IMO, was to better balance out the differences in resistance. Maybe like this way:

• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (2) black conductor to L+
• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (2) black conductor to R+
• (2) yellow (“gold”) conductors to shared gnd

Or, if the cable had a balanced TRRS configuration, they could have soldered them this way:

• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (1) black conductor to L+
• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (1) black conductor to L-
• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (1) black conductor to R+
• (1) yellow (“gold”) and (1) black conductor to R-

If they had done this, the resistance of the whole cable would have been even and not so lobsided.

Even better, they really should have used 8 wires that all had the same internal conductor size (gauge). Not 4 wires super heavy gauge and 4 wires paper thin gauge.

I plan on putting all new ends on my cable, and at that time I will use the opportunity to reconfigure which wires are soldered to which pins, so that the resistance will be even across all of the pins.

Now, with all that said, is this a ‘bad’ cable? No, it’s not a terrible cable. It is technically a ‘functional’ cable. It looks nice, has all 8 pins soldered, has a nice plug, a chin slider, and is softer and more flexible than the previous cable.

But is it a ‘good’ cable? Well, using 2 drastically different thicknesses of wire, and soldering them in such a way that the ground pins have double the resistance of the + pins shows a concerning level of technical understanding and cable building ability.

There are certainly worse cables out there. But there are certainly other cables (at the same price) that have all wires soldered AND have well-balanced cable resistance between all of the pins.

So I’ll let you decide for yourself if you’re happy buying this new tiger cable. I can’t make that decision for you. All I can do is dissect them, present the facts, and show what goes on ‘under the hood’ of these cables.

 

[jant71]

It is wired that way on purpose to smooth those treble peaks lol!

Was Otto using this cable for the cage match??

 

[tiamor988]

So, for using the 'KZ Type-C' IEM, which TRN BT3S should I get. The 0.75mm or 0.78mm? The 'Type-C connector is 0.75mm right?

 

[Slater]

It is wired that way on purpose to smooth those treble peaks lol!

Haha, no this was obviously a manufacturing oversight.

If it was on purpose, every cable in the world would be wired with 2x the resistance on the ground pins. Plus, how would a company know what exact IEM every cable was being used on?

 

[Slater]

So, for using the 'KZ Type-C' IEM, which TRN BT3S should I get. The 0.75mm or 0.78mm? The 'Type-C connector is 0.75mm right?

Yes, 0.75mm.

Just be aware that, while the BT3S will fit the Paragraph C connector, it will stick up a little bit.

You can see what I mean in this photo of @voicemaster’s ZSX (which has a Paragraph C socket) used with a TRN BT20:

 

[Otto Motor]

It is wired that way on purpose to smooth those treble peaks lol!

Was Otto using this cable for the cage match??

The cage match does not exist yet. Now we need the implications of the differing impedances within the 8-core cable. What does it actually do to the sound? Is it accidental or intentional? Allegedly, it is a common practice to get a warmer sound.

"...If you have a home audio system with detachable speaker wires you can try double-run the positive lead... You will notice the bass and midrange has more body. I have been using this unproven method for over 20 years. I discovered it by accident. All I can reason is the slow drain in the capacitors of the crossovers helps give a smoother, more rounded sound..."

"..Apparently many Chinese-made audiophile cable trick people into believing that their system sounds more "tube-like" by using thicker positive conductors..."

I personally don't have any understanding of this and can't verify or dismiss the above statements. But what I can do is A/B the sound of the Tiger cable with another cable by a different manufacturer.

 

[tiamor988]

Yes, 0.75mm.

Just be aware that, while the BT3S will fit the Paragraph C connector, it will stick up a little bit.

You can see what I mean in this photo of @voicemaster’s ZSX (which has a Paragraph C socket) used with a TRN BT20:

Thanks for your reply. I don't mind the stick up. The only other option for Paragraph C is the KZ Aptx HD cable but I'm more inclined toward the BT3S because of the battery life and IP-Rated.