Allow me to interject my experiences with various cables for the VC,and how they pair with systems and other interconnects.
When i did my review of the VC the cable I used was the stock cable that came with the headphone. I have a ZMF 2K cable here,but it sounded rough and edgy,so I stuck with the stock.
Im prepping a video for my YouTube channel where I will be doing an RCA and USB cable shootout. I have 3 USB cables on hand,with another three in bound from a fellow member. I also have eight RCA cables on hand,with a few more inbound from two members.
When I replaced the USB cables in my system the edginess I experienced with the 2K cable entirely disappeared. What ive learned from this process is everything is entirely dependent on the rest of your chain,all the way down to the lowly USB cable being used to transport 1s and 0s to your DAC.
Im sharing this info not to debate with cable non-believers,but to suggest that YMMV when it comes to cable rec's. I highly suggest that with whatever cable you choose to make sure there is an iron clad return policy. What sounds fantastic thru one person's system may sound entirely different in yours.
I will be conducting my cable shootout some time within the next week or so,and posting the results on my channel.
I pretty much agree with what you're saying, the chain is vital and it can be hard to tell which component is bringing certain changes, as every component introduced will have unique effect on everything else in the chain. The with the one caveat that i think its fair to make some assumptions as to the performance which one is likely to achieve by introducing an HP cable made of certain weight and quality wire as their effect is likely to be pretty universal. In headphone cables specifically, performance largely depends on the quality/weight or gauge of wire used combined (to lesser degree) with the quality of connectors. Shielding has little or no effect in headphone cables, litz versus non-litz wire again pretty much zero difference, etc all have little or no effect.
I'm mainly basing this statement based what i have heard while having been lost up river over the last 6-12 months, experimenting making cables from all sorts of wire (OFC, UPOCC, OCC, Pure Solid Silver, various "pure copper") connectors, shielded vs unshielded, litz versus non-litz, 4-12 core configurations and i've compared these to a brace of shop bought cables retailing from £250-1500.
I used a consistent set up for evaluation purposes:
Neotech UPOCC Power Cable > airlink balanced mains unit > Isotek 6-way > Neotech UPOCC power cables > SoTM SMS-200 Ultra Neo Network Player with SPS-500 PSU > Tellurium Q Black Diamond USB cable > Neotech UPOCC Silver RCA Cables > Hugo2 DAC > "Insert headphone cable" > Focal Stellia & Elegia, Beyer T1s & DT1770 pro
The main conclusions i drew, were most cables made non-UPOCC cables were much of muchness, by which i mean they provided pretty similar levels of sound quality/ performance, some were considerably worse, such as thin gauge silver (sounded bright and thin), certain copper litz sounded muddy, but generally all were okay. I include within so called big name cables like Nordost Heimdall, which i consider a bit of a rip off, as while its not bad, its no better than most well made OFC stock cable at 1/4 of the price. The most noticeable improvements in sound quality, came when i made cables using UPOCC pure silver, pure copper, a mix of the two metals and silver/gold UPOCC alloy. I found the performance of all the headphones i tried with these cables were improved/ effected in similar consistent manner, when tested with the same reasonably high quality chain of components behind them.
For example, UPOCC silver, which was provided the most consistent improvements to performance compared to any other wire i used, created a characteristic presentation, slightly warmer than neutral, organic naturally toned/ timbered, highly dynamic/energetic, well extended, controlled, layered and detailed sound with Stellias, VC, Elegia and T1. Any variation came down the individual characteristics and abilities of each headphone, but as all of these headphones can be considered proficient or better performers with no specific flaws, had their performance improved.
Now the question as to whether how much of this improvement is down to the cable is harder to qualify. I choose to assume the better the cable hopefully the less colour it adds and the clearer the window it is on the system feeding it. My testing is by no means as rigorous or systematic as yours, as i set out more than anything to try prove to myself what are the most important factors in producing a headphone cable. I did this by swapping in and out different components in the chain (power, USB and interconnects in this instance )and being able to hear the differences more clearly using the UPOCC silver cable than any other. Now, i have to say i didnt perform this last experiment with every cable i made and as result i'm still just about married
, but i did try it with the Stellia OFC stock, Heimdall, copper UPOCC and silver UPOCC, the latter being he most effective and i should say the most enjoyable to listen to.
Sorry that got away from me, but for anyone who's still awake, my point is IMO the chain is vital, but i think you can buy a headphone cable with a considerable degree of confidence, if you buy based on the quality and weight of wire and with HP cables at least, i found very little else influences the performance.
Having initially been a bit of a "zeros & ones flat earther", i tested half dozen USB cables in my set up, all of which sounded differen and settled on the ludicrously expensive Tellurium Q black diamond, for no other reason than it made the music sound better, which for me meant, more organic, more musical, more resolving and just less digital than any other cable.
Anyway i'm more excited than 46 year old man should be to read your USB shoot out
