Headphone Cables

I've been buying inexpensive tripowin gran via cables for Senns and focals lately. $39 recently for a 1.5m cable. I think they sound better than my audiophile ninjas and periapts. I still want Forza cables though lol

 

Most of the budget stuff is Mogami or Canare microphone cables with various levels of dress up especially if their marketing is PRO or Japanese copper. At that level, the real decision will be aesthetics and after sales support. Stuff priced similarly but braided and blingy will be equivalent to the Aliexpress roulette. I don't have a recommended maker but I like as much transparency from them, especially at the budget end.

I will forever recommend avoiding hard techflex or similiar as a covering unless you drag your cables over sharp edges routinely. Anything that has hard techflex and heatshrink all the way up to the headphones is going to be stiff and rough to handle compared to stuff like nylon multifilament or paracord or just naked cables with a little bit of heatshrink to keep things tidy.

 

@crenca I have a BJC HF cable that you can have for free. You would need to just pay shipping. It's 4-pin balanced on the amp side and 3.5mm(s) on the HF side. Let me know if you are interested.

I'll let you know upfront that it didn't knock my socks off. Sounded harsh, poor micro and macrodynamics, and was rather stiff. After my foray into inexpensive HF cables (also tried an Audiophile Ninja cable that was less than impressive sonically and actually had an intermittent channel dropout), I only now go with Norne or Forza HF cables, if needed. I say if needed b/c the stock cables that came with my VO are surprisingly good.

Bill

 

Thanks for thinking of me @roughroad! I would take you up if I had a need for a 3.5mm cable terminated on the HF side but I don't at this time.

I'm actually with you, @Josh Schor , and others in that I tend to go with at least Forza level (I like their TOTL silver/copper hybrid) for my Utopia, Atrium, etc. out of my desktop rig (Yggdrasil, DNA, etc.). However even with these HP's I find lessor cables fine when connected to DAP's (usually when I'm listening in bed reading). It might be heretical to some, but I don't find HD6xx cans (e.g. I have a JARHD650) really scale with better cables so Ninja/etc. is what I use with them normally....

 

Agreed, I really like cables that have a good about of flex / no memory. I do find the Forza cables to be pretty stiff. At least the ones I've had.

 

Custom Cans makes cables that are @atomicbob approved (I'll try to find the link to his post on them). I use them on my JAR600b and on my Auteur OG. They are very supple, no microphonics

I have a Forza Claire on my LCD-x (hoping to grow up and be an RD-x someday) and I don't feel like I'm missing anything with the less expensive Custom Cans cables (although I can't directly compare on the same headphone).h

-----edit------
just searched for @atomicbob 's post and can't find it... was at least a few years ago and may have gotten lost with the hacker (may have been in his original system synergy thread).

 

@ColdsnapBry I have to disagree with you about the Forza cables being stiff. I've owned many of their cables and they have all been supple. Mine have been all copper models.

 

Which one? I got the Copper Series IEM Mk2 and it was a bit stiff.

 

I used the Claire HPC Mk2 in various iterations for different headphones.

 

I'll give a mention to fogcityaudio where I've bought a few cables from in the past (offer Mogami and Cardas).

And currently just recently bought cables from Arctic Cables which also have excellent quality and service.

I still hold Norne and Forza as my benchmark for top quality cables and service. I think Arctic is in that tier for me as well.