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Headphone Cables - Do we really need anything beyond copper, OFC at best?
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VientoB
Addicted to Fun and Learning
But my wife can hear the difference from the kitchen.
Interesting reading. I've just bought my first set of IEM's (KZ ZSN Pro) purely out of interest as they were so cheap on Amazon and I had bought a Fire HD 10 plus tablet so thought it would be fun to try out. I know very little of this world so all information is appreciated. I find the output from the tablet very noisy so got a ugreen 32/384 dongle dac usb c to headphone cable for £12 which definitely appears to sound much better but I do hear way too many pops and clicks to be enjoyable when listening to YouTube videos etc Silence appears to be the enemy in this setup. Any advice or forums to follow would be greatly appreciated.
Happy New Year to all when it comes
Happy New Year to all when it comes
VientoB
Addicted to Fun and Learning
For years I thought I could hear a difference. But there really is none. I think a lot of people are scared of being honest with themselves.
... not exactly. As a hardcore cable guy I would legally tell that e- are just an imagination, and the laws of physics likewise. Only for an illustration, there is a video on u-tube stating a simple problem. How long would it take to light a bulb using a cable that goes around the moon., author is Veritassium. Immediately, or would it take two seconds due to limited speed of light? The answer is simple, though.That's why these guys love quantum so much. You know, reality is created by the observer, Schroedinger's cat and such.
One may come to the conclusion that as long as still in doubt and thinking about cable subtleties, the stereo won't feel that good. Or the music maybe, or the person's attitude?
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VientoB
Addicted to Fun and Learning
How long would it take?
That's why these guys love quantum so much. You know, reality is created by the observer, Schroedinger's cat and such.
One may come to the conclusion that as long as still in doubt and thinking about cable subleties, the stereo won't be that good. Or the music maybe, or the person's attitude?
multichannel_guy
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Get even a 1k magnepan lrs, treat your room correctly, improve your room's resolution and you may start to hear differences in cables. But, the good news is certain 70 dollar aliexpress cables sound better than 20k moron oil snake cables.
But, if you sit in a trash room with trash dirac thinking it solved all your problems in life, all cables, dacs, power amps and maybe speakers too will sound the same...such is life.
See >> How Electricity Actually Works
Better counter arguments are better. We must not become sloppy only because of the other
Mojo Warrior
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My experiences cover 50 years and included high end headphones. I cannot imagine that the room acoustics will affect headphone performance. YMMV
Maybe you should read the Extreme Snake Oil forum, it is enlightening.
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VientoB
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I think some people have become distracted into talking about all cables.
Especially with contemporary headphone amplifiers there are still open questions. If the output impedance is kept to a bare minimum and distortion also even in tops of treble, and voltage gain is as low as one, what about the amplifier's, a hot op amp mostly, stability? I know it's academic, but every other villain could make a case out of it. To no avail, though.
Trick is to push the opponent into a spiral of complications. At one point, necessarily, the defender of well done enineering will reach her limits. Then the cable guy would go like: look, we don't know, but my ears feel it ... .
So, let them listen to cables, or electrons' opinions as You put it, to their liking. It's, even with the engineering stuff, all about vanity. At least with me, admittedly. Music to love can be had with Sony's portable radio of the sixties
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My goodness, it has been a journey, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. After a year or thereabouts of searching to understand more, and also carrying out my own listening tests, the general conclusion is with IEM cables, low resistance is good target to aim for, as the primary property of a cable.
Why is this an issue with IEMs? With IEMS in particular, there is very little attention paid to the need for low resistance, in a similar manner that is almost assured in the over the ear headphone, and in the case of speakers powered by an external amplifier(professional, hi-fi, and public address). What is not an issue in the professional and Hi-Fi space, cos it has been well established, is not paid any attention in IEM cables, and especially in the IEM cables bundled with IEMs.
I've compiled and will continue to update this other thread on Head-Fi(link below), which sums up and houses links, to as much information as I have considered relevant, on the subject, and it has IEM cable recommendations, based on science(i.e properties of cables), and listening (subjective I know, but I would consider myself a trained listener).
I sincerely hope others will benefit, from the pain, including some public humiliation when I spoke up on the subject, puzzlement, and eventual eureka moments, I have experienced in this cable exploration journey.
I have, after quite a search, found excellent cables based on very sound logic and science, and the quality of my listening on IEMs, has significantly improved. Details below.
www.head-fi.org
Why is this an issue with IEMs? With IEMS in particular, there is very little attention paid to the need for low resistance, in a similar manner that is almost assured in the over the ear headphone, and in the case of speakers powered by an external amplifier(professional, hi-fi, and public address). What is not an issue in the professional and Hi-Fi space, cos it has been well established, is not paid any attention in IEM cables, and especially in the IEM cables bundled with IEMs.
I've compiled and will continue to update this other thread on Head-Fi(link below), which sums up and houses links, to as much information as I have considered relevant, on the subject, and it has IEM cable recommendations, based on science(i.e properties of cables), and listening (subjective I know, but I would consider myself a trained listener).
I sincerely hope others will benefit, from the pain, including some public humiliation when I spoke up on the subject, puzzlement, and eventual eureka moments, I have experienced in this cable exploration journey.
I have, after quite a search, found excellent cables based on very sound logic and science, and the quality of my listening on IEMs, has significantly improved. Details below.
Recommended - budget to mid priced IEM cables - with low estimated resistance, as a desirable target
Please note, this thread/post is a work in progress, and will be revised, whenever I have more information, knowledge and experience on the subject. So check every few weeks, just in case I have added some new cables I discovered, or any new relevant information. TLDR - Primary target for a...
www.head-fi.org
Why on earth are you quoting resistances to 10 decimal places? And these are estimated? How are you estimating? What is the expected error in your estimation -and why.My goodness, it has been a journey, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. After a year or thereabouts of searching to understand more, and also carrying out my own listening tests, the general conclusion is with IEM cables, low resistance is good target to aim for, as the primary property of a cable.
Why is this an issue with IEMs? With IEMS in particular, there is very little attention paid to the need for low resistance, in a similar manner that is almost assured in the over the ear headphone, and in the case of speakers powered by an external amplifier(professional, hi-fi, and public address). What is not an issue in the professional and Hi-Fi space, cos it has been well established, is not paid any attention in IEM cables, and especially in the IEM cables bundled with IEMs.
I've compiled and will continue to update this other thread on Head-Fi(link below), which sums up and houses links, to as much information as I have considered relevant, on the subject, and it has IEM cable recommendations, based on science(i.e properties of cables), and listening (subjective I know, but I would consider myself a trained listener).
I sincerely hope others will benefit, from the pain, including some public humiliation when I spoke up on the subject, puzzlement, and eventual eureka moments, I have experienced in this cable exploration journey.
I have, after quite a search, found excellent cables based on very sound logic and science, and the quality of my listening on IEMs, has significantly improved. Details below.
Recommended - budget to mid priced IEM cables - with low estimated resistance, as a desirable target
Please note, this thread/post is a work in progress, and will be revised, whenever I have more information, knowledge and experience on the subject. So check every few weeks, just in case I have added some new cables I discovered, or any new relevant information. TLDR - Primary target for a...
Why are you estimating them at all. Resistance can be measured if you have them. If you don't, then why recommend them?
Why are they all silver or silver plated. In your research, I'm sure you realised that sliver offers no benefit that can't also be offered by 5% thicker copper (and silver plated not even that). Did you not consider investigating some copper only cables?
I just had an epiphany.
If resistance matters in, uh, cables connecting an amplifier and a transducer... why not make them thicc
No, seriously. I'm thinking about standard line highflex cable. The better ones, 0.35mm². As per above headfi post, 0.1Ohm is perfection already? Behold, the mighty bog standard copper line cable:
I don't see the mechanical difficulty using that for head/earphones. What am I missing?
If resistance matters in, uh, cables connecting an amplifier and a transducer... why not make them thicc
No, seriously. I'm thinking about standard line highflex cable. The better ones, 0.35mm². As per above headfi post, 0.1Ohm is perfection already? Behold, the mighty bog standard copper line cable:
I don't see the mechanical difficulty using that for head/earphones. What am I missing?
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