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SkidMarc
85
Nov 8, 2018
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Most of what is discussed is cable length and color options. Quality seems to be good, however no one has attested to any sonic improvements. I’d be particularly interested in hearing from those with carnal knowledge of these cables with HE4xx cans. Cheers!
Dr.Tyler
162
Nov 8, 2018
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SkidMarcCables don't really improve sound quality, which makes sense. A manufacturer wouldn't package their headphones with cable that would lessen the quality of their product. You buy a periapt because it's sturdy, well built, and doesn't get all janky. Or because you want more length. Cables that try to sell you improved sound quality are borderline snake oil.
LIBY555
192
Nov 9, 2018
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Dr.TylerYou have no idea about what you're talking about. You're absolutely clueless.
Trully High-quality wires are very expensive to produce, you're expecting to get an expensive cable with a 250 bucks headphone? No, you will get a cheap $5 dollar one.
Actually high end headphones comes with solid cables most of the time, with high grade OFC copper. Problem is that they are not comfortable most of the time.
Buying a $60 cable to replace a good stock HD800 cable foe example is the stupidest thing you can do.
If you want to enjoy both worlds in terms of sound and comfort you'll need to invest a little more than 70 bucks. and also check exactly what's under the hood regardless to the price as many takes advantage to the fact that you can't really know what you're buying.
Dr.Tyler
162
Nov 9, 2018
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LIBY555I see you drank the snake oil, friend. I never said you would get the best cable stock. Obviously a company has to balance cost with quality. But having tried "OFC" cables from different sources, I've never heard an audible difference worth mentioning. And certainly not one worth the extra cost. But audio is subjective and if you need to justify an expensive purchase by saying it's better and telling people they have no idea what they're talking about, you're enjoying the right hobby for sure. Can you quote me the cost of 99.999% purity copper? Which machines are you using to test the purity/conductivity of your cables when you "look under the hood"?
SkidMarc
85
Nov 9, 2018
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Dr.TylerThanks for your responses. Perhaps I too have drank a bit of the oil (not). I went through an extensive wiring exercise with my home audio (two systems) a couple of years ago. In that exercise, I experimented with interconnects, speaker wire, and power cords (the latter two having the greatest effect - with, surprisingly, the power cords having nearly the same impact as speaker wire. These were not OTT in cost, but significantly more expensive and higher quality than what was offered by the manufacturer.
More recently, I attended the annual Audiofest and there was a vendor that had three of the same headphones- one with the stock cable, the second with their “midrange” offering, the third with a $3,500 prototype. There were differences in presentation and detail. My two friends, who weren’t with me initially, joined me in a bling test - the results of which were mostly consistent in terms of sonic impact between them.
I’ve concluded that cabling does make a difference, sometimes subtle, sometimes more pronounced - and not always an improvement regardless of cost. To me, headphone wire is akin to speaker wire. In my experience, these connections often have a signature. What I was asking was how these cables affect the sound of the headphones (perhaps I shouldn’t have used the term “improvements”?). If none, so be it.
Thanks!
LIBY555
192
Nov 9, 2018
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Dr.TylerListen, you don't know me and my experience with audio, so please don't start with the snake oil bull.. There's certainly alot of it in the industry, like $600 USB cables, or $4000 interconnects, or 50K dacs.
Now, even as an electrical engineer that clearly know how to distinguish between bullshit and not, I know the basic facts are : once a cable is measured differently, because it has a big enough difference in characteristics, it will sound different, PERIOD.
Saying all cables sounds exactly the same is pure ignorance. Even things like the quality of the conductivity on the connectors the cable has can influence the sound.
That being said, When you use a good quality connector, even if it's not that expensive like Neutrik, the difference between it and some super expensive connector like the Furutech, is going to be much harder to distinguish from one another. But when you compare generic brass garbage with good quality connctor, the difference will certainly be noticeable. So my point is- don't drag yourself into exaggerated place, but still look for the something of high quality for a reasonable cost.
About the wire itself, yes, id you'll look good enough and investigate what you're actually getting, you will be able to find excellent cables for great prices. Im NOT going to give examples because I Don't want anyone to think I'm not being objective here.
Yes it will never going to cost you 60 bucks, because as I said on my other message, after all expenses are being calculated, you can't have a truly high end cable for the cost of 7 dollars, especially when this claims to come from Kansas.
But you can buy a really good cable for about $130, that besides the price has an actual specs you can look at, and better yet it is a certified UPOCC wire.
Again, most $60 cables, would sound at best scenario as good as a sennheiser stock cable, and even worst.
As I said because most of you don't have the ability to test the actual wire material and characteristics, the best thing you can do is get the wire specs, and make sure it's also comfortable and has the lowest microphonics possible, because if you don't, you may as well buy the most beautiful pure OCC silver cable in the world for 70 bucks, and even let your mind telling you it's the best thing ever, but the real fact is that it's pure garbage, like most others.
I'm saying it again - There's no free meals, high end cables are expensive to produce, and most of the confusion over cables comes from the fact that most people are buying cheap cables that claims they are something they aren't, and are confusing pretty cables for good sounding cables.
A fun fact- There's only 3 factories in the whole wide world that are producing real and certified OCC wire, and those are super expensive. Now go to AE and eBay and see how many "OCC" cables you can find for penny's.. So what happens? A clueless person that bough this cable and found its sounds not better than stock, is now convinced that it's all bullshit, but the fact is he's got a fake cable.
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