Well, my goodness, this has been an interesting thread to read through! Now I see why @WaveTheory rolled up his sleeves and did a comprehensive dive into what we will call “Cable Theory”, a series of YT videos that addresses this topic. I will say that I have seen every one and have enjoyed the series a great deal.
My takeaway is this - for me, cables do matter. And they matter for a number of reasons. I know the main thrust of this debate centers around sound quality. And for me, I have noticed a difference in sound. It pains me to say this, because I was convinced that cables did NOT make a difference and that this concept was just snake oil generated by thieves trying to sell you expensive cables. But after the first chapter of Wave’s series, I started to do some of my own very un-scientific testing with headphone cables and interconnects, and I’ll be damned, I heard a difference. They were subtle, but there was an actual difference. In a nutshell, I heard the biggest difference between copper and silver cables, with silver cables offering a bit more treble response over a copper cable. Whether it is “better” is a case of individual preference, and for me, silver did not always equate to better.
But sound is really only one factor as to why one might want to change out a cable. how one cable looks compared to another is certainly a factor. How a cable wears when using it is a factor. Case in point, I feel like the Periapt cable I use for the HP-2 is sonically the best cable I have, but it’s big and heavy and can sometimes be annoying to me, whereas the Tripowin cables I have sound excellent AND wear so much better than the Periapt. And they look fantastic, giving an upgraded look to the headphone they are attached to.
At the end of the day, I always look to upgrade the stock cable for whatever headphone I have and have done so for every set. And enhanced sound is not the only reason. Enhanced user experience is the goal.
I don’t really believe in the cable myth myself, unless it’s a balanced cable, then it’s 99% mostly for better quality and looks…
Tips and DAC’s make more difference than anything any standard cable will do…
The only reason I’d buy/upgrade a different cable is if the current one doesn’t feel comfy on the ears, gets tangled easily, creates a lot of sound when moving, things that deal with the build quality and not the sound quality. I’ve used different cables for my IEMs, and never did I feel like the sound changed.
My main gripes with this side of the IEM community, is how a lot of it sounds like elitism to me. Thankfully I don’t really ever see this elitism on HiFiGuides, (this is genuinely the best place to talk about audio, everyone here is great), but the whole cable talk sounds like snake oil. For example: there is a certain individual on the Headfi forums that reviews stuff like the Penon Vortex, my favorite IEM. His reviews are insanely in depth, but then he starts talking about how the cable that comes with the Vortex sucks, and how if you get this more expensive cable, the 1000 megapixels per silver strands of that cable will help “tighten the bass” and will fix the IEM. To me, it sounds like someone who loves the smell of their own farts, along with them just trying to sell you stuff you don’t need. Same with the whole “burn-in” conversation. Like you’re really gonna waste a whole week of not enjoying using your headphones/IEMs, most likely destroying your return window in case you don’t like them? It’s just guff companies use to make sure you can’t return the product.
mostly agree but personally I did have a case of burn in mostly fixing a IEM I found unusable at first (very hot treble hurt to listen to for more than 2-5 minutes out of the box), as always different ears and gears YMMV
^^^ This review proves once again that Mark is deaf.
Impedance is important, but the material of the cable also makes a difference in sound perception and can greatly affect the timbre, for example.
I can also attest that with an IEM with very low impedance cables do make a difference, also sources and that´s not even subtle but should be clearly audbile for trained ears.
Many don´t trust in Zeo´s words but his findings with Cadenza 12 also showed that.
He was never a cable believer and almost lost his mind while finding it out during the review of C12.
One of my favourite reviews…peak entertainment
Would i spend that much money on a cable though?
Probably not…you can get really good cables (0,3 Ohm) for 50€ from XINHS and IvipQ so why pay premium.
For arround 100€ you´ll get 0,2 Ohm cable from them.
Best sounding IEM cable I’ve heard so far has been the NICEHCK Moon God Furukawa cable. I wanted this to sound like ass because I think it’s damn ugly but it sounds really good. I bought some other nice cables during 11/11, but alas, the ugliest is the best sounding.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to recommend anything. I’ve had so much new gear recently, there’s only a few anchor points I am familiar enough with that I can compare things to, and I haven’t been doing detailed comparisons. Most of my listening recently has only had part of my attention as I listen while I work. Some changes in sound are obvious though. That Moon God cable for instance; I use Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Take the Power Back’ as I have found Zach’s vocals to be a little hot on some gear; the Moon God cable smoothed that right out. That track is also good to discern masking as the kick drum and bass guitar easily blend into one on that track, unless your chain is well-synergised. That cable did a good job of that, too. This latter point was a marginal improvement and could be placebo; as I mentioned, a lot of my listening at the moment doesn’t get 100 % of my attention.
I’d be comfortable recommending the Moon God as a “good sounding cable” but wouldn’t want to claim anything specific past that without spending some serious sessions assessing it.
Unfortunately, I don’t care about cable weight so I wouldn’t say any of these are light. But they are all at least comfortable to use.
It´s so hard to resell all these cables…I think about creating a cable rolling thread where people can trade cables I am sure quite a few of us have way too many cables lying around
I ended up ordering ivipQ-190 and get it customized with the black and carbon hardware of ivipQ-199… might turn out really nice
Hope it won’t be too heavy though
Wait what, you bought all these cables to measure them? great work
tbh I don´t understand why some cables are advertised with a low impedance while others are even lower and much cheaper and no information is to be found
Speaking of cables… NiceHCK AceOrpheus with the lower jacket removed. Nobody wanted to buy it so I figured why not. I was wondering what was under there. I am keeping it now because I think it looks much better and isn’t as bulky feeling.
looking for a cable for my new to me beyer T1.2’s since most of my cables don’t fit it (and maybe for some other HP’s while I’m at it lol).
considering vikingweave but wondering what other nice cables people like.
coming from mostly Hart Audio and a some other randoms.
