This is a review and technical measurements of the three Norne Audio "high-end" cables made out of Litz wire of different material. It was kindly sent to me by a member for testing. The cables are slight variation of what is sold currently although visually they seem the same:
The one on the left appears to be the Draug 3 "4x20awg - copper occ litz - 24-wire Tri multi-conductor - ultimate copper upgrade cable."
Middle is Draug Silver 4x20awg - 24-wire - Tri multi-conductor (cotton cores) - Flagship headphone cable.
Last one is copper silver hybrid is a Solvine Series likely v2S which was described as a 4x18.5awg - 16-wire - Silver occ litz / Copper occ litz - fusion.
Not sure of the exact prices but we are talking about US $250 to $800 range.
All cables were terminated in balanced connections for the Drop X Focal Elex headphone.
The cables themselves had a very light feel and were much more flexible than the stock stiff braided cable Focal supplies.
Headphone Cable Testing
I first tested the cables using the Elex on my measurement fixture. Extreme care was taken to keep the headphone stationary while changing the cables. Here are the frequency response measurements of all three compared to the stock supplied cable by Focal (all use unbalanced connection):
As you see, all the graphs land on top of each other indicating identical tonality.
Distortion test showed almost the same outcome:
The variation is within the scope of the test other than perhaps that difference at 120 Hz highlighted by the cursor. The stock cable appears to have lowest amount of that mains induced frequency. We did not however try to keep the cables routed identically so that may have something to do with it. Follow up testing of the cables by themselves using a transformer to induce interference showed more or less the same performance so I am not thinking much of that difference. Stepping back then, nothing has been impacted as far as non-linear response of the headphone no matter which cable is used.
Acoustic measurements are subject to noise and of course performance of the headphone itself. So I thought I also test the cable electrically and see if there is a difference there. Here, a Topping A90 amplifier is driving the cable at one end, and the other end goes into the Audio Precision APx555 analyzer for analysis. Here is the frequency response now:
This is an incredibly zoomed vertical scale of just quarter of a dB yet the three graphs land on top of each other again (ignore the little wiggles below 20 Hz). So no way is the tonality is changed with this cable.
Headphone Cable Listening Tests
This is tricky business to do objectively in that cable swap takes a minute or so. As such, no way short-term memory is able to remember the sound of the last cable to compare to the current one. My son and I tried anyway but could not detect any difference.
Conclusions
Objectively there is no way for these cables to change the sound of the headphone. Frequency response that impacts tonality is absolutely the same as the physics would predict. Distortion/non-linearity is the same for the same reason: the headphone dominates by far. The cables by themselves provide wider bandwidth than the amp can use resulting in no measured difference.
"Quick" AB test shows no difference in any way that I or my son could identify.
Everything points to these cables being differentiated by how much money you spend toward them than any fidelity difference.
Needless to say, I do NOT recommend that you buy any Norne Audio Cables for performance. For feel, there may be some value there and I let you decide on that.
Edit: video review also posted to youtube:
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The one on the left appears to be the Draug 3 "4x20awg - copper occ litz - 24-wire Tri multi-conductor - ultimate copper upgrade cable."
Middle is Draug Silver 4x20awg - 24-wire - Tri multi-conductor (cotton cores) - Flagship headphone cable.
Last one is copper silver hybrid is a Solvine Series likely v2S which was described as a 4x18.5awg - 16-wire - Silver occ litz / Copper occ litz - fusion.
Not sure of the exact prices but we are talking about US $250 to $800 range.
All cables were terminated in balanced connections for the Drop X Focal Elex headphone.
The cables themselves had a very light feel and were much more flexible than the stock stiff braided cable Focal supplies.
Headphone Cable Testing
I first tested the cables using the Elex on my measurement fixture. Extreme care was taken to keep the headphone stationary while changing the cables. Here are the frequency response measurements of all three compared to the stock supplied cable by Focal (all use unbalanced connection):
As you see, all the graphs land on top of each other indicating identical tonality.
Distortion test showed almost the same outcome:
The variation is within the scope of the test other than perhaps that difference at 120 Hz highlighted by the cursor. The stock cable appears to have lowest amount of that mains induced frequency. We did not however try to keep the cables routed identically so that may have something to do with it. Follow up testing of the cables by themselves using a transformer to induce interference showed more or less the same performance so I am not thinking much of that difference. Stepping back then, nothing has been impacted as far as non-linear response of the headphone no matter which cable is used.
Acoustic measurements are subject to noise and of course performance of the headphone itself. So I thought I also test the cable electrically and see if there is a difference there. Here, a Topping A90 amplifier is driving the cable at one end, and the other end goes into the Audio Precision APx555 analyzer for analysis. Here is the frequency response now:
This is an incredibly zoomed vertical scale of just quarter of a dB yet the three graphs land on top of each other again (ignore the little wiggles below 20 Hz). So no way is the tonality is changed with this cable.
Headphone Cable Listening Tests
This is tricky business to do objectively in that cable swap takes a minute or so. As such, no way short-term memory is able to remember the sound of the last cable to compare to the current one. My son and I tried anyway but could not detect any difference.
Conclusions
Objectively there is no way for these cables to change the sound of the headphone. Frequency response that impacts tonality is absolutely the same as the physics would predict. Distortion/non-linearity is the same for the same reason: the headphone dominates by far. The cables by themselves provide wider bandwidth than the amp can use resulting in no measured difference.
"Quick" AB test shows no difference in any way that I or my son could identify.
Everything points to these cables being differentiated by how much money you spend toward them than any fidelity difference.
Needless to say, I do NOT recommend that you buy any Norne Audio Cables for performance. For feel, there may be some value there and I let you decide on that.
Edit: video review also posted to youtube:
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Last edited:
, no thanks
