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 …
Was she, perchance, in the kitchen at the time?Hey, HD650 single ended stock and Sennheiser XLR cable do sound differently, XLR is brighter, even my non-audiophile girlfriend noticed difference in quick test. I think difference depends on how ****** stock cable is
For me the only reason I look at aftermarket cables is to get a connector type or length that isn’t offered as oem. Also some cables are too stiff.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:
View attachment 123899
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):
View attachment 123900
As you see, all the graphs land on top of each other indicating identical tonality.
Distortion test showed almost the same outcome:
View attachment 123901
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:
View attachment 123902
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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Or microphonic.For me the only reason I look at aftermarket cables is to get a connector type or length that isn’t offered as oem. Also some cables are too stiff.
For me the only reason I look at aftermarket cables is to get a connector type or length that isn’t offered as oem. Also some cables are too stiff.
Or microphonic.
There's practically an inverse correlation between the price of a headphone and ergonomics of its stock cable.
Oh microphonics, the bane of my cable headphone cable shopping so far. That and the connectors on an ali express that damaged the connectors on my IEM’s.Or microphonic.
I've got a set of Moondrops:Some of the IEM makers need to have a long hard look too. There is no excuse for the loose weave braided nonsense that comes with Moondrop etc
The Blessing cable isnt bad. The Starfield was a little flimsy and scratchyI've got a set of Moondrops:
I have no complaints about the supplied cable, it's a bit bling-y perhaps, but it's soft, flexible, not overly prone to tangling and doesn't seem to mechanically transmit much noise to the ear pieces.
In fact of all the headphones and IEMs I've had or currently own, these are the ones I've been most happy with right out of the box.
With most of the other IEMs I've had, I've had to experiment with aftermarket ear tips to get a good fit and others have had cables that transmit a lot of noise as it brushes on your clothes, buttons and zips, etc..
The Sennheiser HD650 and 560s both came with really long 3m cables, although that's a fairly easy fix, just cut to length and fit a new jack plug.
My Focals came with three cables in the box of various lengths and with different jack plugs; nicely made, but realy stiff.
I have my blessings balanced- only because I had a nice soft 2.5mm cable already (think it might be a Linsoul)- makes no difference if I use it balanced on my E1DA S3 or unbalanced on E1DA D from a sonic perspective. I doubt the S9 struggles for voltage into the Blessing single ended- it will just be louder over the balanced connection for any given volume on your slider.I've not seen the Starfield in person; in pictures, other than the colour, the cable looks very similar to the one that comes with the Blessing, same 4 cable braid, same splitter and connectors. I assumed it was essentialy the same.
I wanted to try my Blessings with the balanced output on the little HiDizs S9 I have. I considered fitting a new 4 pole 2.5mm jack to the existing cable, but those tiny jack plugs are really fiddly to work with, so ordered one of these: https://shenzhenaudio.com/collectio...g-mmcx-2pin-connector-for-trn-v80-v90-v10-v60
I've never tried a headphone with a balanced connection before, so I'm curious to see if there's much, if any benefit. It hasn't arrived yet, but at that price I doubt I could buy the cable and connectors separately, without taking into consideration the time it would take to assemble something so fiddly.
I bought a set of these balanced IEM cables from Hart Audio for my Blessing 2's and they're nice and soft but almost not long enough to fit over my ears then under my throat.Given that the Blessing 2 aren't diffucult to drive, I thought that would most likely be the case, but was curious to try it.
OMG. Tell that to Sennheiser cuz their cables have all failed me I just want a good Sennheiser cable that lasts forever. Is that so much to ask?The one that came with your headphones.
The manufacturer won't be supplying one which degrades their performance, it would be foolish.
The only reasons to change would be for a different length or one which picked up less mechnical noise rubbing on clothing.
Buying an expensive one one liked the look of would be a justifyable extravagance as well IMO
I have the S9 Pro and the Blessings. At least the Pro can drive them pretty loud at half volume in unbalanced. Balanced connections sound the same as single ended.I've not seen the Starfield in person; in pictures, other than the colour, the cable looks very similar to the one that comes with the Blessing, same 4 cable braid, same splitter and connectors. I assumed it was essentialy the same.
I wanted to try my Blessings with the balanced output on the little HiDizs S9 I have. I considered fitting a new 4 pole 2.5mm jack to the existing cable, but those tiny jack plugs are really fiddly to work with, so ordered one of these: https://shenzhenaudio.com/collectio...g-mmcx-2pin-connector-for-trn-v80-v90-v10-v60
I've never tried a headphone with a balanced connection before, so I'm curious to see if there's much, if any benefit. It hasn't arrived yet, but at that price I doubt I could buy the cable and connectors separately, without taking into consideration the time it would take to assemble something so fiddly.
Most likely out of taiwan or china. A few occ manufacturers there.I don't get it.. These look like simple re-badging of OEM stuff offered on Ali Express, but simply using higher cost connectors and terminations..
Here are the problems. The company website gives no indication of who the entity is. The first page has a 2014 date of copyright, and the store page has 2018. It's been a while since I've not seen an "About Us" portion to a website.
They offer the bog standard clear-cable weave patterns that are super common among IEM cables that can be ordered on Ali Express for example.
They also offer paracorded cables, which are of DIY quality at best. Also, paracord is hardly luxury, in fact, it's terrible. Terrible for microphonics when rubbing up against your clothes (not the audiophile kind). It's also nowhere near as supple as something like a basic Sennheiser HD600 series cable. But if you're settled on a paracord cable, might as well get something with customizability, and far more aesthetically pleasing tight weave patterns. A normal seeming company, with a sensible website, with labor producing in the country of origin, understandable pricing. Not a simple twist that looks also loose with these novice DIY-looking from Norne.
Lastly, OCC Copper (and OFC)? Does anyone, manufacturer or not, have any evidence of the sorts of foundries processing and selling this type copper with certifications, or technical documents legally guaranteeing any of these claims of composition to this degree? I cannot believe this stuff can still be legally espoused anymore. Why would any of this matter at the point where the solder joint comes into the discussion? I want just ONE single confirmed case where misalignment of copper boundary to such solder joint can be audibly detected... Since measurements "can't capture everything we can hear".