Expensive Headphone Cables - A personal investigation

Discussion in 'Modifications and Tweaks' started by Rthomas, Feb 13, 2017.

  1. Larry Megugorac

    Larry Megugorac Craps on Filipino accents to ease inner poverty

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    I build my own HP cables as I need about 20 feet to reach my listening position. They offer excellent performance and I can make it exactly as I need for a balanced Cable to my HP amp. I use Silversonic cable that I buy in a bulk length and attach corresponding XLR connector....
     
  2. Rob the Comic

    Rob the Comic banned from ASR

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    Interesting thread.

    Same with high end golf gear. I have had hundreds of rare and collectible putters over the years; there is a site for collectors of the most popular -and expensive - of these putters. here is my point; people pay up to 20K for GSS Putters (German Stainless Steel) and gush about the feel: 'so soft', 'like butter off the face' blah blah blah. If you point out that german Stainless Steel is actually harder than regular 303 or 304 on the Brunel Scale - well, tar and feather me and call me Irene. Anyone that has dropped that amount of money won't hear a word against it regardless of the facts. I am sure it makes them feel better, probably gives them confidence, impresses their friends and is efficacious in non practical ways all round - but that is another story.
     
  3. nishan99

    nishan99 Friend

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    ROB THE NECROMANCER!!!

    LOL, just kidding. I love the threads you dig from the dead :headbang:
     
  4. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    That sounds just like audiophool cable nonsense. Anyone who does anything at all with stainless steel, expecting softness of any sort is an ignorant idiot. Among other things (including, sometimes, stainless) that stainless steel is not, it is soft.

    Although... I suppose it depends what one is comparing it to.

    PS, I think it is Brinell. Although I only know that because of Google. But I knew that Brunel was the guy with the cigar, the chains and the hat. And the railways, ships, bridges, tunnels etc. And I didn't think he'd invented a hardness scale.
     
  5. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    A bit of experience with, not very expensive but pricey, Cardas Premium Clear Light I ordered for my HEKv2.
    The reason I wanted different cables for HEKv2 is not that stock cables are bad, but I just hated them because of the look and feel of like 10 feet of overcooked noodle. I wanted something shorter and better looking.
    And I never believed that cables make a noticeable difference, unless they are broken, but I was mistaken.
    So for at least 3 months of use of my new cables I noticed that I am loosing interest in listening to HEKv2. They were just boring, I switched to high gain on my BHA-1 and it sounded a bit better but still boring. I seriously started thinking about selling HEKv2. And one day I connected again the stock balanced cable. WTF?
    The clear articulation of instruments is back, the sound is not grey and not boring anymore, I just got my HEKv2 back the way I remembered them. Again I thought about a confirmation bias and went through a couple of days of switching between cables.
    So yes, expensive cables can make difference and comparing to the stock HEKv2, the Cardas Premium Clear Light sound like shit.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2020
  6. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    Missed this thread earlier when I was wondering if I should take the plunge into a "more expensive" upgrade (I did) for HE6se - and that's only b/c the stock HE6/se cables are horrible. My prior experience to this was that in general headphone cables do make a difference in terms of sound, but a small one in some cases and a near 0 / placebo level difference in others, and the biggest differences were via material changes. Using a big $$$$ cable for most headphones didn't make an audible difference to me. New cables were b/c I needed a longer cable, a different connector (XLR vs SE), a cable was physically broken, or something else that enabled listening.

    My normal headphone cable purchases would be stuff like Forza Audio where the cable is still reasonably priced, well made enough, no major annoyances, etc. and I didn't notice a degradation in sound - I wouldn't consider a $1k+ cable for my personal use.

    However, in listening with different headphone cables, I have noticed that I do hear a little bit more of a difference with planars and the 1 time I heard a bigger difference than expected was with the Raal SR1a and big cables. I suspect it's due to the extra amount of current/power that planars and especially SR1a ribbons need. Still less of a difference than switching between noticeably different DACs though and cables would still be near the bottom of my list in terms of "improvements" though.

    Ugh... I just bought a double helix cable last night. Will look it over carefully before use now. I guess luckily I "only" bought their cheapest cable.
     

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