The All Purpose Advice Thread

Greetings. Looking for recommendations on headphone cables. I'd like something to replace the stock cable on the Focal Clear, as the stock cable is beautiful but way too stiff for me. Entirely way too stiff. The cable has 3.5mm mono on one end, 3.5mm mono x2 on the other. My God, it is so f'ing annoying.

To me a good cables will have next to no memory, and have a nice "flow," and conform nicely to how I wear them, without bunching or curling. Also, the best cables for my taste tend to tolerate twists and turns well, reducing the need to unwind them constantly, and to have to adjust them clock or counterclockwise to prevent bunching. There is nothing more infuriating.

Having said that, cables are often are ultra expensive, and I am not a believer that upgrading the cables will make a difference in sound quality unless they are not performing in the headphone manufacturer's spec (eg. they have high resistance due to being broken, which of course will alter the sound noticeably). I am just looking for a cable that is comfortable, reasonably free of memory, and doesn't curl up or bunch.

All recommendations welcome, thank you.

 

I recommend Impact Audio Cables. Lightweight, flexible, doesn't bunch or curl, no memory effect, and affordable. I love the Infinity series cable that I've been using for the HD650s for a year. They're on break til after the holidays though.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ImpactAudioCables?show_panel=true

 

That definitely makes my decision easier, I'll look into hunting one down in Canada. Never had a tube amp so a Val2 seems like a good start. In the mean time hopefully schiit releases some new shit

 

What is endgame and when will I know I have hit it? I like dark headphones with smoothed treble and I have been particularly taken with the HD650 but the sub-bass is not my favorite. I was swindled by exaggerated youtube praise of the m1060 and got that and was disappointing by this weird kind of almost out of the blue piercing nature of the treble on certain sounds. I ordered the LCD-2 Classic hoping that this will be the dark endgame headphone for me. I want so desperately to be done with buying headphones. How will I know when I am done?

 

Fair enough. I guess I'm done then. I'll have to figure out how to sell my m1060.

 

I still have my Valhalla 2 even though I've gone to the Black Widow and Horizon III. I let a friend borrow it a few weeks ago. He's using the HD600's with it. He just sat there with a big grin on his face. A word of warning. Don't spend money on a lot of tube rolling. Doesn't change the overall character of the amp much. Been said repeatedly on here. So my last time saying it. Gold Lyons 6922's I would avoid. Expensive and makes the sound hard and fatiguing. Stock tubes are fine.

 

Oh yeah, considering weight is a bit of a concern, the Focal Elear and Clear are lighter than the HE-500, right? It's never easy to tell exactly what's quoted in the weight specs.

 

Are you trying to decide if you want to buy one over the other?

I don't have the HE-500 but I do have the HE-560. It is spec'd at 375g while the Focal Clear is at 450g.

When holding the headphones in the hand, the HE-560 feels about like it's spec'd weight when held in similar positions, and the same goes for the Focal. Most of the Focal's weight is wider-spaced out,, with the Hifiman having less weight in the headband but you don't notice this when holding both by the headband and upward.



When wearing, having a suspension headband design means the HE-560 feels very light. Perfect perceived weight for that "disappearing headphone," act I look for.
Having the Focal Clear on my head, it doesn' disappear. I have medium length hair for a male. Straight, so it doesn't give me excessive padding. But I think it's enough, and if it was any less the headband provided may not be enough. A light hotspot begins to form on the top of my head. It never becomes a big one. Considering the weight of this headphones, im surprised it doesnt give more discomfort. Others have conplained about a stronger hotspot. I can listen for 2 hours and be fine.

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you. I'll look into Impact in new year, they are on my list. In thenmeantime I ordered two short dongles. 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male. They will be used to transform my Hifiman HE-560 cable into a Clear cable.

 

impact audio is good for price and function. Not fast though.

 

I was just curious if an amp like a Jot/Val 2 AND a saga will both fit on top of a Gungnir Multibit?

Thanks!

Now that I think about it I suppose I could get the specs off the Schiit website and do the math.

 

Schiit stacked on Gungnir Multibit

 

I have the HE-500's and they're heavy enough that they seem to give me headaches, even with extra padding. The top of my head is also a bit pointy. I was kind of expecting them to be a bit lighter considering that they were dynamic drivers.

 

Not dynamic, planar magnetic, and iirc, the 500 in the name is pretty close to its weight in gms.

 

I meant I was expecting the Clear to be lighter.

 

I already have a modi 2 and I currently use it with a fiio k5 amp that I got used from a neighbor. Would it be worth it to get a magni 3 or an asgard 2? The fiio works just fine for driving my hd650s and I quite like it, but I've never heard anything else so I'm not sure what I might be missing at a similar price tier.

 

Hi SBAF! all the best for 2018! expecting even more bang for buck audio products

Would need some advices for a dac/amp to work with my Android phone. My requirements are the following:
- Built in battery
- Powerful enough to drive most of headphones (let's say 500mw at 32ohms should be fine)
- Silent with sensitives IEMs
- close to 0 impedance output
- High performance
- Under 1K new

I am almost set on GO V2+ (already had the V2A without battery few months ago) but I'm concerned about reliability...
I am following a second hand Alo CDM too . If there any other options I should consider?
Thank you!

 

It will be hard for anyone here to say whether a purchase will be “worth it” for you. The real answer is: don’t buy either until you have a chance to hear them in person and can judge for yourself. You will also need to have spent enough time with your current setup to know what it can do and how it compares.

SBAF is not the best place to ask for permission to make blind purchases. If you don’t take the time to learn what you like and listen for yourself, you will only end up wasting money in the end. Many here, myself included, have learned this lesson the hard way.

 

Thanks for the advice; that definitely makes a lot of sense. I think in the case of the magni 3 at least, I kind of worry about not having that as a reference point. Having the hd650 is nice, in addition to the fact that I just really like the relaxed sound, because it makes it easier to converse with people. But yeah I guess that would be more of an invitation to try to listen to a magni 3 rather than purchase one.