[00940]

I'm hesitating between a few cables to change the cable of my cans :

Canare Starquad (already used by a few headfiers)
Belden 8413 (as adviced by Jan Meier)
Teflon insulated 25awg pure silver (as in the CVH fine silver IC).
An equinox aftermarket cable

The silver will be far more expensive (about 55$ for a 5-6ft cable) than the two first but still less than an equinox. Something in me want to provide the cleanest highs to the electrostat driver of the K340, but is it a waste of silver ?

 

[TimSchirmer]

I'd go for the equinox. The guy who makes those has done a lot of research in headphone cables.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Did you ever get around to rewiring them? I'm going to rewire my pair shortly and it would be interesting to hear what difference rewiring made to the sound of your 340's

Regards

Mike.

 

[00940]

actually ... not yet.

But i should work on this this evening.

I'm considering doing a cable out of cat5 (i bought 150ft two days ago to make me some more speakers cable).

Basic idea would be :

4 inner conductors twisted, two opposite conductors by channel.
8 conductors braided around those (round braid), 4 by ground channel.

Only thing i'm slightly concerned about would be flexibility. But all of my listening session are done in a really static way, so it should be ok.

 

[00940]

OK, I've done that this morning.

I changed the main cable, using one cable for each earcup. I avoid thus the wire inside the headband. I didn't change the internal wires, I'm still uneasy desoldering the electrostatic driver and you have to do it to access the small pcb. However, I cut the plastic grid too (i just left the outer ring to secure everything in place).

Cable I use is made of a CAT5 braid (24awg solid pure copper). I'm using 4 strands, each one being made of 4 twisted individual conductors (using a drill to twist them). I've thus 16*24awg conductors, each 15ft long (that's 240ft of wire !). The two ground strands are used as one strand and the two conductors strands individually. Final cable is about 12ft long. It's not really flexible but ok for my use (very stationnary). It's long enough to bend in a non-obstrusive way. It's looking nice too, all blue and white-and-blue wires. I'm considering to cover it in heatshrink. Not really sure about that. The plug is a stupid pro grade 1/4 I got at the local music shop (the more expensive they had, like 6€).

Sound ? A bit early to say, I've listened for a few minutes now. Sounds promising, the highs are more extended, a lot more details all around. It also reveals the noise from the source far better. I didn't gain any bass, I'll wait to see if it improves with time. It's not another pair of cans but it jumped on an higher league.

It took me an awful lot of time untwisting, re-twisting and braiding all those wires but it was certainly worth it. I doubt however other people could live with the rigidity of those 16 solid wires.

 

[PinkFloyd]

That sounds like a great job you've done! Do you have any pictures? I'll start work on mine shortly but will probably begin with replacing the resistors and rewiring the electrostat and hybrid with solid silver strand....... I think the silver could possibly add a touch of sparkle to the sound..... I'll take photos when I'm doing the work and will report back

I'd love to see your braided cable

Pinkie.

 

[00940]

I've no digital camera on hand but will try asap.

You should contact Number9, who provided me some help. According to him, the resistors swap didn't bring a lot. Internal wiring (there's not that much to change, just 2 wires by earcup, perhaps half a feet of wire is actually needed), cable and grid were the points bringing actual results.

Btw, the main improvments is the airiness that become quite clear. Those cans were slightly dark and let a kind of shadow in the music. That's over now

Flavor went from a good Bourgogne to a really great Bordeaux

Time to update my sig.

 

[00940]

There are different versions of the K340, i found this pic :

Mine doesn't look like that, there's a smaller transformer enclosed in a golden metal cylinder that is closer from the edge, wires are going nearer to the center.

This version looks easier to mod :

The pcb is less easily accessible on mine, the wires are more under the electrostatic driver.