A mix of sterling silver and rusty coat hangers. 
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After taxes and imports a 240$ cable = comes to ~400$ cable with Elex.
But it’s 12ft / 3.6m so there is that and it’s Cardas Audio 4×24 wire braiding, Neutrik connectors and many good things. 
Corpse Cable ✦ GR∀EDIGGER ✦ Made In USA
" always dead flat, dead quiet and dead accurate."
It’s only music
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I’ve been cable rolling ever since I started this thread and have come to conclusions.
Just like I said, the sound differences between the different metal cable make ups aren’t drastic, but there are differences. At first, when I could hear the difference, I immediately felt the silver cables sounded more technical and improved the sound in a more detailed way. After going back and forth, the silver cables lack the weight the copper cables have. It’s nice to be able to push an IEM in either a more or less technical direction using different cables, but I feel my general preference is copper, or silver/copper hybrid. Generally, the sense of weight the silver cables lack I miss to much.
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Bought a dope and well made hybrid cable from Forza for my OG Andro’s but after much trial and error/face punching I preferred the original cable they came with lol…that cable is now firmly attached to my P1’s so it’s all about personal preferences and matches for me.
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Andros are very sensitive as I’m sure you know. It all boils down to everything matters and everyone should use whatever they prefer. There is no universal “best”.
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Right. One frustrating thing about cables (aside from the obvious price) is that it is all about synergy. Just like electronics, I’ve had a cable that sounds superb on one IEM, sound like crap on another. With that said, it’s impossible to identify a best cable. You’ll have to listen to your IEM and decide which characteristics you want to enhance and go from there.
Side note: it’s a common mistake for people to think that cables are an EQ. It doesn’t magically bring something that was not there. It only brings out or smoothens out what your IEM already does. Again, the more detail your IEM can resolve, the more likely you’ll hear these changes in cables.
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Cables can be EQs if you buy em at the dollar store… but 
lol
This is hi-fi guides not lo-fi shenanigans.
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I have the feeling that RadioShack cable contains a lot more copper than most modern cables of that size.
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It also attempts to blowup my headphones if I so much as touch it with all the damn pops and crackles 
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It seems to me that cables can change imaging and separation. This happened after I bought a silver-copper mixed cable called the NiceHCK C8. Does anyone know about cables that can reproduce such behaviour?
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I just listened to my Blessing 2 on my smartphone without EQ and for the first time I thought it actually sounded somewhat decent treblewise, which was kind of shocking to me. At first I didn’t understand why, but I realized, that I switched the stock cable to the cheap Moondrop MKI microphone cable, so I could use it as a headset. I immediately tried it on my desktop and while my EQ setting does overall still sounds better than no EQ, it was kind of “too much” and when I did my semi-blind process to find a good EQ gain value for the treble it really ended up being lower than what I had before.
I never thought I would consider this, but it seems I start considering cable sound to be more than some placebo bullshit (as I didn’t even consider the cable change and the new cable is even lower quality). I still have to do more testing to be absolutely sure.
Maybe I will just jump down the whole and order a “fancy” cable. Can anyone recommend something, which adds treble (I am just going with this now) and ideally is light, flexible and has a microphone?
I found the Blessing 2 thin in it’s sound signature and would normally pair it with a copper cable, something like this
which should add some weight & warmth to the sound but if you are looking for treble boost I have no idea what to recommend, silver cable maybe?
It’s hard to recommend a cable because in my experience one cable might pair great with one IEM but sound worse on another IEM. It’s all about synergy and trying it out for yourself and finding what works for you is the only sure way to find a proper cable.
Experiment with cheaper stuff first Kbear, Bqeyz, Tripowin… IMO going above 150$ for cable in hopes of sound quality improvements is a waste of money. If you are looking for better build/aesthetics and don’t care about cost, then the world is your oyster
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Yes, it definitely felt like that when I changed the 7hz Timeless stock cable with Fiio’s LC_RC.
Any „difference“ in sound people might connect to a Cable does not go beyond the placebo effect or personal biases.
It is astounding to me how some still believe this, given that even simple Physics and measurements can and already have disproven these claims.
And yes; a cable can change the sound given what Impedance it adds to the chain. However, the amount is so very low (both on headphones and IEMs) that something like the human ear would not be able to reliably discern between it. Wa are talking 0.1 Ohm for example.
You‘d be better off adding a separat resistor to your cable if someone really wants to change their sound that way.
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Can we please not do this again? Discounting another user’s findings isn’t all that constructive and when this debate about cables comes up it only spreads animosity between users, there is almost never any sort of conclusion that comes from it. Only splitting the community based on their beliefs.
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Totally agree, we should respect each others’ experience / hearing abilities; for me I could hear very clear differences between different cables - on portable DACs, such as from my Q5s or Q1 II on a sensitive IEM (such as 846 / 09).
For a sensitive IEM, on “lack of power” portable device the every fine resistance / material characteristics got “enlarged” due to sensitive IEM and limited power driving the IEMs. I had always A/B with my setup before buying an expensive cable - after all, your own ears hear what’s coming out of the IEM. The most expensive one I ever owned was a $1k titan which consequently I had to pass on as can’t justify the sound improvements vs the bucks I paid for it… settled with a single-crystal silver.
Ever since I’m on my K9 Pro (as mostly now wfh) - I have noticed that cables do not make much of a difference with it! The cables sounded very different in Q5s/Q1 II now sounded the same with K9 Pro - this is why I think some folks out there don’t believe the cable snake oil but others are firm believers (such as myself)
Hope my 2 cents help this controversial subject!
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You see, “simple” is already wrong here.
A lot of people have issues understanding DC circuits, and that is fine. Mixing up Volt, Watt, Ampere, Ohm, etc. can happen to the best, especially in the heat of an argument. Using a $30 Multimeter with accuracy somewhere between “feeling the resistance” and licking the wire to prove some arbitrary claim, is deception of the self.
I am yet to see a measurement of a cables impedance (because audio is AC, not DC) in a frequency span of 20Hz to 20kHz. Until someone corelates that to an effect (or lack there of) on the reproduced audio, I would argue for “to be decided”.
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I would be happy to be proven wrong! Just means I have learned something new and change my views accordingly.
I plan on getting a coupler myself and start doing measurements, just for the fun of it. Then I can also test the same IEM with different cables and see for myself if the FR changes. I doubt it and am sceptic, but will have to accept whatever the results may be.
Also, I want to say, I do not hate on anyone claiming to hear anything. Your experiences and takes are as valid as mine, and in the end, who am I to say what someone else likes? Whatever they enjoy is the most important.
It‘s simply that in this hobby, there is so much bs and Snake Oil being spread, with some manufacturers and sellers preying on those who they can exploit with products that are highly questionable or not proven to improve anything. Be it the „audiophile SSD“ that made its rounds recently, 2000$+ cables that promise to improve audio quality significantly, Network Switches or even Stones that supposedly improve sound.
Call me sceptic, cautious, or cynical. It‘s hard to figure out what is a scam and what has real benefits sometimes.
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I still say that in a hobby where we put tape over the holes on an IEM, or foam in them, to change the sound, then share the graphs to show how it impacted the sound, yet these discussions about cables never have a chart or graph, and there is a reason for that, there isn’t any difference, unlike the tape and foam.
I am going to make it simple until someone shows me that chart, I assume that they are selling the cable because it looks nice, or feels good in my hands, and any claim beyond that is false advertising.
I got sucked into one of these a couple months ago, and I am fine if fancy cables make people feel better about their gear.
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