# Cables - 3rd Party/Upgrades & Recommendations

**URL:** <https://forum.headphones.com/t/cables-3rd-party-upgrades-recommendations/4156>\
**Category:** General Headphone Discussion\
**Tags:** headphone-cables, cables\
**Created:** [November 7, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cables-3rd-party-upgrades-recommendations/4156 "2019-11-07T16:20:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 163

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**Author:** ![Torq](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/torq/32/16384_2.png) [@Torq](https://forum.headphones.com/u/Torq)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cables-3rd-party-upgrades-recommendations/4156/163 "2020-04-19T03:57:28Z")

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Cables for full-size headphones make, at best, tiny differences (excepting for the SR1a and electrostatics, where impedance or capacitance, respectively, are CRITICAL factors and must be tightly controlled).

I only say this, because until everything ELSE in your system is “end game” then cables are the last place to spend your money, as they’ll give by far the smallest return. Excepting getting to a reasonable balanced cable if you don’t have one (and re-terminating the Focal cable if the best way to go there without spending a lot … it’s easy to do and beyond the ergonomics and length, is excellent).

All that said, you can read my prior posts to get the answers to your specific questions - in some cases you may need to read back a post or two to get the proper context:

- [OCC/UP-OCC Wire](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/68)
- [Purity and Metallurgy/Materials](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/73)
- [Directionality](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/76)
- [Conductivity and “Signature” of Materials](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/78)
- [Audibility Differences in Competently Built Cables](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/83)
- [Resistance, Capacitance, Geometry & Number of Conductors](https://forum.headphones.com/t/headphone-cables-builds-w-pictures-diy/1586/85)

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