[Rob Watts]

Re; Solid core headphone cable again.

Good effort. Never thought about silver from jewellers - I wonder how pure it is?

I think your meter to measure L and C is faulty though.

Cables are a very complex situation, with a host of differing factors at play. One big thing (for speakers for sure, headphones are less critical) is the impedance, so that the transducer is damped. Going down to milli-ohms with loudspeakers is audible, and it changes how tight the bass sounds. But if you use thick cores, then it gets brighter due to skin effects; that's why I use multiple, insulated solid cores, so you get the best of both.

Did you try PTFE heat-shrink tubing?

 

[The Jester]

That’s where and why some manufactured cables get expensive,
Multiple core, single stranded, Teflon insulated over a thread of Teflon wound around the core to give a large percentage of air as the dielectric.

 

[Kentajalli]

Good effort. Never thought about silver from jewellers - I wonder how pure it is?

Four nines (99.99%)

I think your meter to measure L and C is faulty though.

I thought too, but it does measure down to 5pf I am sure, it is a cheap meter, if you recall I did manage to measure other cables down to 30pf and above. It uses 600kHz+ signal
Let's say it is low.
Edit:
Meter is OK! just checked it, see picture. If you zoom in, those are Farnell 22pF +/- 1pF capacitors.
Second picture is measuring the bundled cable from Hifiman Edition XS Sundara 2020.
With my cables, it stays firmly at zero. go figure!

Cables are a very complex situation, with a host of differing factors at play. One big thing (for speakers for sure, headphones are less critical) is the impedance, so that the transducer is damped. Going down to milli-ohms with loudspeakers is audible, and it changes how tight the bass sounds. But if you use thick cores, then it gets brighter due to skin effects; that's why I use multiple, insulated solid cores, so you get the best of both.

My next project! use 0.2mm silver wire but with 4 insulated cores for each conductor, 16 in total .

Did you try PTFE heat-shrink tubing?

No, I used silicon rubberized heat shrinks for flexibility . PTFE is too stiff for headphones.
I cleaned the wires with Brasso first, polished off, then the heatshrink should keep air out, so I wouldn't get any corrosion in the future.

The treble grain/clarity improvement defies logic. I am not a cable affictionado, it happened by accident!
I just came across some cheap solid core silver wire, decided to do something with it!
Thanx for your thoughts.

 

[Jawed]

My next project! use 0.2mm silver wire but with 4 insulated cores for each conductor, 16 in total .

If you're feeling patient, perhaps try this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081YRZMDD

You just need to sleeve say 100 strands per final conductor.

 

[Whazzzup]

More insulated litz cores the better. Dhc prion 4 has what , can’t count em all. Well 6 main cores with 35 insulating each? I dunno lot of litz going on

 

[Kentajalli]

More insulated litz cores the better. Dhc prion 4 has what , can’t count em all. Well 6 main cores with 35 insulating each? I dunno lot of litz going on

Two things:
- litz cable AFIK is for very high frequency above GHz, its effect on audio is questionable.
- Price!
You can always throw a lot of money at cables, how much value you get for your use is the question. So far I have had results for under £50.
Ofcourse @Rob Watts could shine more light on this (hint, hint).

 

[kennyb123]

Why XMOS input? There would be zero benefit in changing the current USB implementation. The nonsense that has been posted about the current USB implementation is not based on facts but by someone wanting to sell you something.

Have you measured the latency of the Amenaro USB interface you selected and compared it to what XMOS is able to deliver?

A benefit that XMOS has over Amernaro is the support for native DSD over DoP. Like you, I’m not a fan of DSD. But at a minimum Amanero should get their act together and support this on Linux and macOS. It can create a more reliable connection when scaling to high rate DSD.

 

[Rob Watts]

The latency (delay) is insignificant compared to the WTA filter latency. This is not an issue that will change SQ at all. Having Windows re-send faulty packets is a possible advantage though of Chord's USB (although in practice I don't think it's actually needed).

Of course DoP DSD is fully supported up to DSD 256 with Linux and macOS. For DSD 512 (native DSD transmission) it's limited to Windows via ASIO. That's a disadvantage, but how many real recordings are at 512 DSD? And particularly that 44.1/16 beats DSD 512 easily with an M scaler...

 

[rkt31]

The latency (delay) is insignificant compared to the WTA filter latency. This is not an issue that will change SQ at all. Having Windows re-send faulty packets is a possible advantage though of Chord's USB (although in practice I don't think it's actually needed).

Of course DoP DSD is fully supported up to DSD 256 with Linux and macOS. For DSD 512 (native DSD transmission) it's limited to Windows via ASIO. That's a disadvantage, but how many real recordings are at 512 DSD? And particularly that 44.1/16 beats DSD 512 easily with an M scaler...

@Rob Watts , cd quality through m scaler upscaled to 705khz beats even dsd512 ? What about when dsd64 or any dsd upscaled to 705khz through m scaler vs cd quality upscaling to 705khz through m scaler ?

 

[Kentajalli]

@Rob Watts , cd quality through m scaler upscaled to 705khz beats even dsd512 ? What about when dsd64 or any dsd upscaled to 705khz through m scaler vs cd quality upscaling to 705khz through m scaler ?

AFAIK , mScaler and DSD are chalk and cheese to each other, mscaler does not upscale DSD.
PCM only.

 

[rkt31]

AFAIK , mScaler and DSD are chalk and cheese to each other, mscaler does not upscale DSD.
PCM only.

M scaler converts dsd into 705khz after filtering.

 

[Currawong]

Near zero DSD512 music exists, so it will just be PCM converted by whatever software to DS then back to PCM inside whatever Chord product you’re using. That will introduce all sorts of distortion. Admittedly though, with the DAVE in DSD mode it was entertaining.

 

[rkt31]

Near zero DSD512 music exists, so it will just be PCM converted by whatever software to DS then back to PCM inside whatever Chord product you’re using. That will introduce all sorts of distortion. Admittedly though, with the DAVE in DSD mode it was entertaininm

Near zero DSD512 music exists, so it will just be PCM converted by whatever software to DS then back to PCM inside whatever Chord product you’re using. That will introduce all sorts of distortion. Admittedly though, with the DAVE in DSD mode it was entertaining.

M scaler upscaling of dsd to 705khz is superior to dsd+ mode of Dave as per rob watts. All ds dacs converts both pcm or dsd to same 5 or 6 bit stream at very high rates. Dsd requires even more filtering than pcm. So in all modern dacs dsd in a way treated similarly. M scaler and chord dacs process dsd in more elaborate way than others.

 

[Currawong]

@rkt31 Do you have a link to the post where he said that? I want to bookmark it for my own reference.

 

[rkt31]

@rkt31 Do you have a link to the post where he said that? I want to bookmark it for my own reference.

I think it is in this thread itself few days back. You will have to search a bit.