Submitted by Xane1985 t3_112s389 in headphones

It's not because of the sound quality, (though there is that to a small degree,) but rather the length. I recently got a Zen DAC V2, and mounted it to the desk where it makes the most sense, but that meant no more recliner. Extra long cables and cable extensions to the rescue.

It's started to feel like wireless with extreme quality. I can control my Plexamp from my phone on the comfy chair, and I'm getting no loss over bluetooth

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metalrufflez t1_j8me99k wrote

You had me at the first half, not gonna lie

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No_Analysis6187 t1_j8mj54c wrote

Try something sensitive like CA Andromeda or EE Zeus XIV and compare their stock cables with something like Tacables Obsidian / Rubine. I was a non believer until I tried cable swapping these IEMs.

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vivi112 t1_j8mwodv wrote

Not sure why you are down-voted. With low-impedance headphones, sonic changes between cables can be more audible. Even headphone show confirmed it lately and it's not first time I see Andromedas mentioned in that context.

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GnT_Man t1_j8n1fg2 wrote

This is natural considering the physics. The lower the impedence, the larger effect the impedence of the cables have on the signal transferred to the headphones.

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thatcarolguy t1_j8n2k9w wrote

Long cables are snake oil. I recline just fine with a 6 inch cable.

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andysaurus_rex t1_j8n3skq wrote

But they get tangled in the wheels of my desk chair 😑

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cb__360 t1_j8nlrnb wrote

As i know there is a rule, source output 1/8 max impendance of the headphone, where FR does not change. Its something different.

My setup:

WIN PC--> Apple Dongle-->Extension Cable--> Cable X or Y or Z--> Sennheiser ie 600

I hear a difference in all 3 cables, and prefer a cheap 16 core silber platted cable.

And for sure its not some placebo, and i hate the fact i hear a difference, but there is one.

Cant say what changes, and the fact companies selling this very expensive cables cant tell me hard facts like measurements too, makes me believe its not this relevant.

So in the future i will keep an eye on this, but never spend huge money on cables.

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ProphetNimd t1_j8nmqtd wrote

I recently did the opposite. Bought a 3 foot cable to be able to listen to my HD600s around the house without having to buttfuck the cable with hair ties, lol.

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Xane1985 OP t1_j8npqy7 wrote

that has been an inconvenience, but I'll accept the tradeoff. like I said, it's a little bit like wireless once you hit a certain point. at any time I can get up and move around the room mostly untethered

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ProphetNimd t1_j8nq1h7 wrote

Same! I have a whole web of mounted cables under and around my desk for both of my over-ears so it's a pain to take those completely out when I want to walk around with one. Can't do anything about the DT770 cable but being able to walk the dog with my Sennys is clutch.

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Sneakerthing t1_j8ny933 wrote

Do people really not hear the difference between cables? At least for my speakers, I noticed a significant difference in quality just from switching rca cables. Granted it was just going from a 5 dollar cable to like a 20 dollar one but it was absolutely audible

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digixmax t1_j8o63i2 wrote

Which extension cables do you all use with your IEMs?

I am currently making do with a 15 ft Mogami 2549 cable I had bought for use with my headphones, but would like to find a light weight cable that doesn't tug down when I have to move around.

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InFortunaWeLust t1_j8o8ne7 wrote

I bought a short cable for my desk but kept the stock HD800 cable since its super long for listening from bed side also. I feel like the new cables make the sound punchier but that is most definitely just placebo.

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Tasty-Bid-9408 t1_j8obrke wrote

I was cleaning my room (I live in an attic) and was enjoying my headphones using it's included 10 ft cable plugged into my iPod on my bed, which is in the middle of my room so I was able to get almost everywhere I needed to clean.

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Miserable-Novel4078 t1_j8oltdx wrote

On the one hand, it’s understandable; there’s a lot of snake oil in the industry and there are some pretty sensible-sounding rebuttals to expensive cables (β€œwhat about the cables inside the amp?”). For that reason, people don’t trust anything that can’t be demonstrated with an A/B blind test, even though they have their own demonstrable problems and are almost never conducted on/by people who would have the faintest clue what to listen for.

But there’s a difference between healthy skepticism and the r/headphones equivalent of an arrogant 14-year-old atheist who denies our understanding of solid state physics and human hearing and instead spouts β€œhurr durr can’t tell the difference on MY chi-fi IEMs!” every time someone mentions any part of the audio chain that isn’t headphones. Some kind of middle ground of β€œcables theoretically make a difference but you shouldn’t lose sleep over it unless you’re picking up some serious interference” would go a long way, but Reddit is incapable of nuance.

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AyeYoYoYO t1_j8owvl4 wrote

You cannot. But you can give the illusion of instruments being farther away by recessing the mids, especially the upper mids from 900hz-3khz lol

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CruickEsso t1_j8ozrqm wrote

Might not be placebo. I have a copper cable and a silver cable and they sound ever so slightly different. Also they’re in different lengths so that could be playing a part too. But in essence, cables can make a difference.

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Digiarts t1_j8ozu2w wrote

Read the last word as cannabis

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Prom_etheus t1_j8poh4m wrote

Eh, I run 25 ft rca cables from my phono preamp to valhalla 2 and another 25ft cable to my powered speakers (Klipsch The Sixes). No loss in quality; works fine.

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dongas420 t1_j8pqaky wrote

There's been a rising trend of new audiophiles who get all their information from bite-sized YouTube videos and thus don't know any of the exceptions to the basic rules.

IIRC, Andromeda bass drops by something ridiculous like 2 dB per ohm of impedance added. It's been documented and graphed, CA themselves recommend an IEMatch, and big-brain KB tuned at least the original while listening out of a Sony DAP with 1.5 ohm OI. It's nothing you can't simulate with a voltage divider like an IEMatch, EarBuddy, or UE Buffer Jack, though, so the $300 cables are still pretty pointless.

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Sneakerthing t1_j8pr0nf wrote

Better how? It reveals more detail. I don't know why and I can't quantify that but it does.

The difference between a slightly blurred window and a clearer one is the best analogy I can give. The sounds dont mesh into one "blob" as much if that makes sense.

With the worse cable, "s" sounds turn a bit more onto "ch". And that is a very very noticable difference.

Not saying the super super high end cables matter though lol

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AyeYoYoYO t1_j8qrmlf wrote

Lol that statement has nothing to do with inebriation.

It’s actually a technique first used to international audio acclaim in the Sennheiser HD-800. There are numerous articles in European and North American hi-Fi media outlets in which Sennheiser engineers talk about the strategy behind tuning the HD-800 the way they did.

The tuning was specifically attenuated in that frequency range to portray a sense of distance from the source sounds in that frequency range. Not quite the explanation you imagined earlier, eh ? You thought it was a joke. Joke is on you, son 😎

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No_Analysis6187 t1_j8r46o6 wrote

Of course, from my experience the material themselves rarely matters. The stock copper cables that come with my empire ears have more pronounced mid treble compared to an aftermarket silver one, even though people say copper were supposed to sound warm.

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DPKingston t1_j8rr34v wrote

You'll never be a master audiophile until you ziptie/strap the (desktop)amp, dac, and device(maybe battery for amp and dac) on your headphones a true all in one setup cause I hate wireless and long wires

Makes for great neck exercise without having to buy audezes /s

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