@M0N or any of you with higher end systems ever experienced anything like this?
An interesting design and build by Jason of Custom Cans here in the UKā¦
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I make my own cables, interconnects, and power cables. I started about 1.5 years ago and have been replacing all the premade cables on my buds, IEMs, headphones, and speakers as well as the power cables and interconnects in my component rigs. I still keep a few cheap premades around for loaning out and such.
I have a hifi shop near me that makes custom cables and interconnects so I order parts and supplies through them and that lets me get pretty much any high end material I want for pretty cheap because they just add my stuff on to their bulk orders. I keep my shop/garage stocked with supplies for experimenting with different looks, braids, core/insulation materials, and terminations. Making my own cables gives me access to cables that match the highest quality stuff you can buy premade for generally significantly less money than what Iād have to pay on the open market. The mark-up on high end cables is amongst the steepest in head-fi gear.
All the money saving stuff aside, I find cable making to be fun. I have enjoyed learning about the benefits of various braids, twists, and designs and I love being able to customize and revise 'til my heartās content. I have long been a headphone modder and DIYer and Iām surprised that I didnāt get in to cable making sooner.
P.S. With the internet, you donāt need a local hifi shop to stock up on cable making supplies. It might take you a little searching to find places with the quality components youāre looking for, but theyāre out there. That said, if you have a local hifi/headphone shop that has parts catalogues and will order for you, I encourage people to go that route because youāre getting a known quality level and supporting an important resource that is becoming scarce. Always support your local shops when you can!
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And do you think they sound different from one another?
I have never been lucky enough to hear a difference between core materials and such. Quality cables all sound the same to me whether they are copper, spc, silver, palladium, etc. If a cable is made well from quality components itās all good. My cable āupgradesā are based entirely on desires for better aesthetics, ergonomics, lengths, or terminations. Just for reference I have āheardā and/or owned cables that cost all the way up to the $2k+ region.
I would like to add that I trust otherās ears to tell them what theyāre hearing just like I trust mine to tell me. If someone has done their due dilligence to isolate the variables to their satisfaction and they are hearing differences, I think thatās fine. On the one hand, Iām jealous that theyāve found another way to tweak and customize their rigās sound, but on the other hand, my wallet thanks me for having avoided one audio rabbit hole at least lol! While I think there are companies out there selling snake oil BS, I donāt think there are many, if any, average joe/jill forum members hanging out and maliciously lying about hearing differences between cables.
Iāll end this by saying that I have heard power supplies/cables and usb cables lower noise floors and such. That said, I havenāt heard a difference in soundstage and imaging or anything like that between quality usb and power cables.
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A friend of mine actually measured cables too. Not only their electric properties but also their impact on sound.
He used a measuring setup that is common for IEMs (like an artificial grass with calibrated microphones).
He found that cables do influence the sound Ina way that can be easily seen in measurements and can of course be heard as well.
I started with cable experiments to improve the ergonomics and visuals first bit soon discovered that they have an impact on sound too. How much impact depends on the gear used (IEMs, source) but you can use cables to fine tune gear.
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This is interesting! Can you put the specific cables and their measurements here?
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I donāt remember the exact cables but those were copper- and silver cables and also different thicknesses (4x, 8x etc.). It makes sense as each material has a different resistance and the amount of material influences the inductivity.
But in the end itās best to just try for yourself as itās all that counts, right? Weāre not machines and our brains and ears are different.
(I just remembered: He was using an EE Odin with the Stormbreaker cable (PWA1960 2x), a Satin Audio Athena 8x and others )