Superunknown2
100+ Head-Fier
I tried the 2k copper, lektrik-c, lektrik-s, verite silver, and grand palladium silver at canjam. Cables are extremely subjective, but in my opinion their ability to change the sound is understated. Pads can only change the medium between the driver and your ear, but cables can change what comes out of the driver. I have a caldera, but I find it unpleasant on any copper cable, so I use it on a 4 strand lektrik-s, and it is great on that. In contrast the silver cables make my VO and AC too bright, so the stock cable sounds best with them. ZMF "silver" cables aren't all silver, but silver and copper. The PassionForSound guy tried some ZMFs on pure silver cables and said they sounded too bright, but sounded best on copper/silver hybrid cables, which is probably why ZMF doesn't offer pure silver cables. The verite silver cable is half pure silver, half 2k copper. Half of the lektrik-s is the same copper found in the lektrik-c (litz copper), and the other half is the same type (litz) but silver. So the ZMF silver cables are half the copper version at that pricepoint, and half an equivalent type of silver. The Grand Palladium is a weirdo, with everything thrown at it, though appears to be about 2/3 copper. The 2k copper and verite silver appears to use purer metals, so I would generally expect better performance from them than the Grand Palladium, which is what I heard when I tried them at canjam. At canjam, I found the lektrik-c unlistenable (in theory it would only be marginally better than the stock cable anyway) and the 2k copper was much better, but is still fundamentally doing the same thing the stock cable is doing. Copper is copper, and purity of the metal in my experience does not correspond to better sound, at least not for copper. The OFC cable in theory should be better than the stock cable, but in my experience the stock cable sounds better. I did like the 2k copper better than the stock cable, but not by enough to justify the cost. My issue with all the upgraded copper cables is that to me they seem to increase the body in the lower frequencies but that body sounds almost metallic or noisy, and almost makes the sound seem brighter even though it is masking some of the detail in the upper frequencies. The 2k copper didn't have nearly as much of this, which is why I thought it sounded fine, just not $400 fine. I loved the lektrik-s at canjam so much I bought one. I have a verite silver on the way. The copper cables at canjam actually sounded brighter than the silver cables, because of that bloat they introduced to the lower frequencies. If you just focused on the upper frequencies, the silver cables were a bit brighter, but overall it seemed to me that the silver cables gave a cleaner sound. I did think the verite silver was a bit better than the lektrik-s, but the lektrik-s was a little less tight and a little more grungy (a bit more body throughout the FR), which might make it better with rock. It was almost as if, to me at least, the lektrik-s did what I would expect the 2k copper to do, and the vertie silver did what you would expect a silver cable to do. Like pads, cables wont make the sound better or worse, but they will just change the character slightly in a way that may or may not matter or be an improvement. Just my 2 cents. So much of this depends on what kind of music you like, what your equipment is, what the state of your hearing is, etc.
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