Do you have any ferrite collars around? It might be a fun/interesting experiment to put one or two on your stock cable and see if it makes any difference.
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Oh gosh what have i done, created another crazy audio monster!!!
Great on your experiences and thanks for sharing them!!
All that matters is what YOU hear!!
Keep experimenting!! Maybe a DIY amp???
Alex
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Haha, yes, my new year’s resolution will be to learn to solder!
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What a great idea. I don’t have any ferrite collars but if they’re cheap, maybe I’ll order some from Amazon. Or I wonder if I could pry one off a cable that came with a collar.
I should do a 3-way comparison between cheap Anker USB, Schiit USB and Black Cat, all with and without ferrite collars.
Take a look at the Noir at DIYAUDIO.COM
The DIY Store sells the kit, pcb, parts and case I believe…
Its out of stock but keep an eye on it when they come is they sell out fast!!
The Whammy is another great amp…a bit more complex to build.
The BH Crack also is a great Tube amp to build!
Alex
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Thanks Alex. Are you suggesting that I learn to solder by building an amp?
Is there a safer way for me to learn how to use a soldering iron?
Well, you need to get a soldering iron, solder 60/40, some small hand tools, cutters, needle nose pliers, a sponge and some real components to practice with…
Several practice kits out there 
=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=practice+soldering+kit&qid=1604098899&sr=8-4-spons&tag=mh0b-20&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzN05XSEpVVEY4NVhYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDcyNzE4M1JIM1hTQ1BFS01WUSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzM5MzQzMzBCS0s5NVE1Qk5INSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
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There are many online videos on how to solder etc…
Its not hard, but takes some pratice and patience…
Take a look at my whammy build channel in my Discord as well…
I have many hints and tips etc…
Alex
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I am in agreement with you that there are differences. Build quality is far better on the branded ones. I have three USB stations. I use Cardas USB (standard), and ifi Mercury 2.0. Each station has some type of USB decrappifier on it (Schiit Wyrd, Uptone Regen, and the ifi IGalvanic). I’m more likely to spend $100 for a Cardas USB cable than $750 for a Black Cat one, but it’s a hobby and if you can get the performance from it, that’s always a plus. I think the Curious cables are worth a look too. Using a short Curious USB from my microrendu to Ultradigital converter.
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Agreed, the Curious USB has gotten a lot of good press and it was actually @andris mentioning that his Curious USB added 10% to the overall sound quality that made me…errr…curious about whether I’d notice a difference.
I wasn’t curious enough to spend $750, so I got the Black Cat used for $350 on US Audio Mart, thinking that worst case I could resell it for something close to that. I couldn’t find a used Curious (a new 1m cable is $390), otherwise I probably would have got that. And I’ve satisfied my curiosity that they do indeed sound different so I’ll stick with the Black Cat.
On another note, I’ve never bought used cables before. If they can be bought at a fraction of the original price, I might only buy used going forward.
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I should have added that I would have picked the ifi Mercury 2.0 for my experiment had I known about it, because it satisfied the criteria I was looking for (separate cables used for audio and power, and shielding) and it’s a lot cheaper than the Black Cat and Curious.
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I’m a big Cardas fan. Most of my system ICs are made by Cardas. Some I’ve bought new, but I have plucked a few of them off the used market. Cardas will inspect, authenticate and refresh them for $25. You pay shipping both ways. They repackage them and issue a certification that helps resale. I’ve also bought long headphone cables and had them reterminated. I took a six meter Cardas Cross headphone cable for an HD800, and turned it too a 1.5 meter HD800 cable and a 4.5m single extended headphone extension cable. Cost for that is $60 per termination.
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I bought the two ifi Mercury 2.0 on Ebay for $75 each. They were slightly used.
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I’m so honored to have been an inspiration for cable experimentation! 
However, I do want to be clear that I didn’t spend anywhere near $750. I got the Curious USB Hugo Link, as I currently have a Chord Hugo 2, and that cable is $170. Even the “standard” Curious 0.8M USB A-B cable is $350. You don’t get anywhere near $750 until you’re looking at a particularly long “Curious Evolved” cable.
Anyway, I want to definitely stress that, until folks have a very resolving system, don’t bother too much with cables, as you won’t notice much of a difference. That doesn’t mean using the free cable that came with your 10-year-old printer, but just get something decent, like the Schiit cable or the basic AudioQuest ones. Cables do matter, but DACs/Amps/Headphones matter a lot more, so don’t ever let your cable budget eat into those.
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Completely agree. I only started tinkering after I finished buying the Bifrost 2, Ly3, Stellia and Verite. The $20 Schiit cables sounded great but I was curious if I could find anything better.
My post-tinkering cables sounded better to me but they didn’t necessarily deliver value for money, although we could all say that about the diminishing returns on expensive audio equipment.
Here’s my tinkering so far (with the caveat that these are all opinions, so please insert “to me” after any mention of something sounding better):
Psvane Treasure Globe tube - sounded more open than the stock JJ tube on the Lyr 3. I can’t find my notes, so I can’t say more than “I liked this better”. This was expensive but I avoided buying a lot of other tubes to get to this, so I consider this as value for money.
Arctic Cables Cuprum OCC headphone cable. Although I bought this mainly because it looks great and has no microphonics, I also found it to be an incremental audio improvement over the horrible stock Focal cable. Also had better treble than the Hart Audio cable (which sounds good and also has no microphonics, and which I also preferred to the Focal cable).
Douglas Audio Alpha 2.1 interconnects, made of Furutech cables and connectors. Sounds better than the Schiit Pyst and Blue Jeans cables I already had, which were already good. Haven’t A-B’d them extensively so I can’t give more info.
Black Cat Digit USB. Bought used. The soundstage was exploded in comparison to the Schiit USB cable. I was fine with this as a $350 purchase, wouldn’t have paid the full price of $750.
ZMF Pendant amp (still waiting for delivery). LOL, this was much more expensive than all the above put together.
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+1 on Arctic Cables. Val does great work.
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New here, but have lurked for probably a year now (also an SBAF & Head-Fi member in case that matters) and am really happy to see a forum that isn’t judgy or as elitist as maybe some I’ve been a part of before may have been; seems like such a needed thing in this hobby, honestly. Anyways…
I’ve really only purchased upgrade / aftermarket cables thru Amazon and Aliexpress til now, and so far almost all of them have been great (the Better Audio / Hifihear Single Crystal Copper cables being my favorite). But lately I’ve been checking out what places like Norne, Null, and PlusSound Audio have to offer; seems like Null and PlusSound have some very nice cables, and at decent prices. Anyone here had any experience with any of these?
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Wendy Li from KBEAR has provided me with a review sample of the TRI Through cable. Here are my impressions of it:
TRI Through cable
TRI are best known for their high quality IEMs such as the i3 and i4 and now the new Starsea and Starlight. This sister company of KBEAR has released a new cable, the “Through”.
It is a 4-core silver-plated cable and the material is 5N single crystal copper. The 3.5mm plug is straight and finished in highly polished metal with TRI branding. The Y-split is similarly finished with the trident symbol and there is a spherical clear plastic chin slider and the 2-pin connectors are colour coded for channel identification. The cable is very well made and feels substantial. It is supple and feels very comfortable. It also comes with a sturdy carrying case with a zip closure which is finished in a grey textured material with the TRI logo on the lid.
The Through cable was tested principally with the KBEAR Lark via an Xduoo X20 DAP and immediate improvements were noticed compared to the stock cable. The soundstage became wider and deeper, the treble gained extra focus and became smoother. Midrange detail and layering were more transparent whilst the bass appeared somewhat tighter and firmer.
Similar improvements were noted with other IEMs including the KZ ZAX and BLON BL-05s, the former achieving a shallower V signature and the latter displaying a more even treble response. In both cases midrange transparency was increased and the staging was expanded, especially with the BL-05s.
This is a very good cable and the improvements gained certainly justify the extra outlay. It looks good, sounds good and represents good value. Another quality product from the TRI stable.
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I’m picking up a used ForzaAudioWorks Claire MK2 HPC balanced cable terminated in 4 pin XLR as my first foray into upgraded cables. I’m looking to use this cable for both balanced and SE amps. I see FAW sells “pig tail” extenders that look like they can convert 4-pin XLR to 6.3mm. Is this the right thing to be looking for to use the balanced cable in a SE amp? How important is it to use the same exact type of cable for an extender/adapter? The FAW extender is 74 euro which seems a bit pricey for just an adapter, but maybe that’s just me being naive 
Are there any trusted alternatives that are a bit cheaper?
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@bogginhead, in my opinion, the main advantage of going to a cable maker direct is that you have something very specific in mind that you can’t get at a cheaper price from Amazon/Aliexpress etc. The other advantage is full transparency regarding the components that were used to make the cable, e.g. if you really want palladium-plated OCC silver with rhodium-plated connectors, you should be able to find someone that will guarantee that’s what they’re using. And by comparing different manufacturers that offer that combination, you’ll be able to see which of them is trying to make the biggest profit.
If you’re lucky, you can get something off the shelf from the cable maker, but I think the real value comes from getting custom-made cables, often at little or no additional expense, since they are often making these from scratch for your order anyway.
I’d recommend that you use someone based in the same country (or at least continent) as you, in case you need to send it back, not just because of an issue, but perhaps you want them to put a different connector on it, e.g. it’s currently got a 1/4 inch connector and you just bought a balanced amp.
I’m not going to argue the pros and cons of spending a lot of money on these custom-made cables. I have Cuprum cables from Arctic, which look very pretty, have no microphonics, came with custom adapters for my Focal and ZMF headphones and have a lifetime warranty. I think they sound awesome but I haven’t done a blind A-B test with the stock cable (and don’t intend to do one), so I’ll stick with pretty and functional as my justification for now. I’m also currently looking for IEM cables now, and Arctic’s “pretty” cables are too thick and unwieldy for IEMS, so I’m looking at PlusSound, Norne and Double Helix, since I’m based in the US. They all make nice-looking cables, and all have good reviews on other forums, so I’ll make a list of what I need and will probably choose the cheapest.
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