Yeah Matts a sound dude and the Forza team make solid cables at a decent price 5* for both price and quality 
Here’s their hybrid IEM cable I purchased a while back…
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I’ve made a bunch of different types of cables now. And the 4 braided bare wire type ones seem to be the best for microphonics. As in basically no microphonics.
The sleeved variants have a bit, enough to bug me sometimes.
And the Moon Black Dragon type ones, basically heatshrink, have it pretty bad too.
I’m yet to try a tigth sleeving over a jacketed wire then 4 braid, I suspect if done well it w ould be good.
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I had been buying from Periapt - probably have 6-8 cables of theirs. But I’ve wanted a different look and have grown very fond of braided cables. I’ve just ordered my third set of cables from Halby Cables. They’re on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HalbyCables?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=833495848
Really nice quality. Beautiful and very original color combinations. Prices are REALLY reasonable. But the best thing about them is the owner, Victor - a one man show. He is incredibly helpful and accomodating and can make you pretty much anything custom you want. Highly recommended.
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If you want the best, and are willing to wait a bit, Norne Audio is the way to go.
Here is my Trio of Norne cables, from left to right in varying degrees of copper and silver, so I can fine tune the sound to my liking depending on headphones, mood, and tubes used.
Draug 3s (100% copper), Solvine 2s (67% copper/ 33% silver), Draug 3SC Fusion (50% copper / 50% silver)
With my Verite Closed and my gear, cable changes are easily noticeable and each one has it’s strengths.
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Trevor makes excellent cables. I have a Draug 3SC, as well as a few adapter cables from him.
It does take time though.
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Heck yeah man!
As far as taking a long time, I have found that if you email Trevor of Norne, and ask him what he actually has in stock for wire and hardware, and then place your order with stuff that is in stock, you will most likely get your cable in about 2 to 3 weeks. However, if you just go on the Norne website and place an order, you could be waiting for months to a year, as not everything is always in stock. So, for those of you who have been interested in Norne, but have heard horror stories of long wait times, I highly suggest reaching out to Trevor of Norne by email first, and then go from there. Honestly, I get why lots of people don’t even bother, as there are quite a few stories of people with bad experiences, and for those people I recommend keeping an eye on the secondary market. For those that are willing to wait, they will be rewarded with a beautifully crafted and amazing sounding cable no doubt. Also, Trevor’s prices are incredible for what you get, compared to many of the other big cable makers.
Long live Norne cables!
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I needed some balanced cables for my LCD-2 and HD800. Periapt seemed like a smart choice.
The delivery took forever (like two months), mostly not Periapt’s fault though. These seem very light, even though they are fatter than many. That big Y-split had me kind of nervous - is it heavy? Nope.
The XLR-plug looks lots like a Neutrik, but it says ”Amphenol” on it. Seems good quality anyhow. The Audeze cable is red by the way, HD800 one is navy blue.
Reason for buying? My Jotunheim 2 really seems to shine out of the XLR-out, found this out testing my Clear with both outs. Also, I can easily see a need for balanced cables with Lemo & mini-XLR connectors in the future.
Especially the Audeze seems to gain from using the Jot 2 bal-out. I’m not going to make any bold statements about SQ otherwise.
These Periapts are some very nicely made and reasonably priced cables and that’s quite enough for me. A recommendation is in order, esp if you live in the US. I had to pay customs and VAT on top.
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They are hefty things. Mogami 2893 with jacket still on wrapped in nylon braid / paracord. 4x26awg conductors. Can’t go wrong with Mogami.
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I just got a Pangea AC-14 1.5m for my RebelAmp – yes it’s much more flexible than many thick and unusable audiophile cables. The Pangea also doesn’t create an over filtered bass-heavy tone. Lesson learned.
In the future I expect to stick with basic shielded OFC medium gauge cables, as the wall current comes through standard cables. If I buy a power conditioner or regenerator then it seems there’s not much risk of signal loss in 1 or 2 meters either. I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
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Question for those more experienced than I.
The balanced cable I’ve been using with my Blessing 2 Dusk has developed this weird green tint starting around the ears and going down about half of the y split.
Does this look like oxidation? I think I’ve also been hearing a difference in audio through the Blessing 2’s; mainly subtle artifacting in the lower portions of bassy voices that sounds like peaking.
I chocked it up to just weirdness in the recordings I was listening to, or compression, but this color changing is making me think otherwise.
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Yes, that looks like oxidization.
As to whether there’s a possible audible effect it’ll depend on what material the cable is made from, how extensive and complete the oxidization is and how sensitive to changes in capacitance the transducer is.
“Skin effect” doesn’t really come into play here, since the individual strands are so fine that even a 20 kHz signal will propagate using the entire diameter of each strand. Thus increasing the resistance of the skin of each strand (which is what oxidization does) won’t really change the resistance of the overall wire at audio frequencies.
IF the oxidization is complete enough to act as an insulator around the strands, then it would increase the wire’s capacitance (effectively making it a Litz-like conductor, but with much less separation between strands). Whether it made enough difference to be audible is another matter.
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I would like to share an experience ordering and receiving a beautiful cable from a vendor, Impact Audio Cables. Having just received my Drop DCA Aeon Closed X cans, I had to spend the money I saved on a new 4ft cable to pair with my Mojo and LG v60 for OTG listening. I wanted something light and compact that stores well.
In a search, I located Impact Audio Cables and immediately noticed a well designed web site that had lots of choices of cable styles and materials, 22 cable sleeve colors, and a boatload of Eidolic connectors and splitters to choose from. I chose my custom cable in OCC Copper, with Imperial Red, Black and Charcoal Grey sleeving, and a stunning Eidolic E-SXAM splitter in Black CF with embedded blue filaments.
I noticed at the top of every page that the current build time was posted in a banner that appeared to be updated as orders are filled. I was surprised when a day later, I received a pleasant e-mail from someone named Lindsay, who is the sole proprietor of the company. The email was not only the common thank you for choosing… but also verification of my choices for the Custom Infinity Series Mr. Speakers type cable. The email was dated July 20 and it stated that he was ahead of schedule and my cable would certainly ship by July 26 at the latest. It shipped earlier, I think on the Fri before the promised Monday date. Total cost was 141 dollars and shipping was free.
I should also note that Lindsay also sells a variety of parts for anyone who chooses to build their own cables. I think he must keep a decent inventory to sustain the efficient turn around time. He stated to me in a later email that CS is his priority and that meeting the promised ship by date is of the utmost importance. The build quality and materials in my cable were stunning and a welcomed surprise at the price point. The connectors at both ends were accurately made and fit with precision. The cables themselves are soft and flexible and the round Litz weave was uniform and attractive. It wouldn’t be fair to evaluate the sonic characteristics since both the cans and the cables were new. I did not detect any sonic differences from the factory cables.
Lindsay does try to offer a wide range of customization options for all of the cable types he offers on the web site. Email impactaudiocablesinfo at gmail.com with questions after checking out the website if you don’t see something you are looking for.
Impact Audio Cables is located in Arizona and ships internationally to most countries. Customer service, attention to detail, reasonable turn around, and great communication with clients make this a win win for me and I couldn’t be happier with my new cable. I ordered blindly without knowing anything about this company. I paid full price and have not been rewarded or compensated for my opinion about Impact Audio Cables. I just wish there were more US companies that followed a similar business model. The fair price for quality goods and craftsmanship is a bonus. The nice storage pouch was also a pleasant surprise.
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Thanks for sharing that info.
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Question: I typically have had positive perceptible gains from upgrading to moderately priced interconnects, power cables and headphone cables … but have not had the same positive gains with digital interconnects (i.e. streamer to DAC). I first upgraded to a Moon Audio Black Dragon but even after ~20 hours of use it sounded veiled and lacking in detail compared to the $12 cables I ordered from Amazon. I returned them and ordered the Silver Dragon thinking this might open things up and retrieve more detail. Yes, a bit more detail but decreased the soundstage and sounded more harsh. The $12 cables from Amazon are relaxed, fluid, just the right amount of detail without irritation, etc. Still scratching my head over this difference. My system is: Bluesound Node 2i streamer > Schiit Gungnir DAC > Feliks Audio Euforia 20th Anniversary Special edition amplifier > Meze Empyrean headphones. Any ideas or thoughts are welcome as to this digital interconnect phenomenon.
Just my opinion here, but…
I’m sure there are tons of self-proclaimed expert hobbyists who will opine loudly and often on how everything cable related matters in some great and profusely influential way. Others disagree. There are a great many threads on HeadFi that have already explored this, if you wish to contaminate your brain further. Good luck separating the wheat from the chaff though. It tends to be a very contentious topic. This way madness lies.
Perhaps the best method would just be to use the cables that sound best to you and skip the fool’s errand of exploring it in depth.
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I think the only fools errand aspect of choosing cables is that it’s a crap shoot. They do sound different. I will stand by that side of the argument (contrasted with those that say they don’t). There seems, however, to be no valid or reliable strategy/method to go about trying to make a somewhat informed choice. You can glean useful information about speakers, headphones, amps, DACs, etc. but cables are a very different beast. Again … not that they don’t sound different but rather it is nearly impossible to reliably match descriptions of their “sound” with the user experience. That said … it has only happened to me (so far) with digital cables which is even more mysterious in that I would think those cables would be the least variable in their performance.
I’m looking for a better cable for my Hifiman Susvara. IDK but im not sure how good the quality of the stock cable is. Manufacturers have a reputation for giving cheap cables with their products. I dont really care if the cable is janky or considered ugly. I just want the cable that will give the best sound quality. Also need XLR.
Ive been shopping around looking for the best deal and my eye hit the Moon Audio Dragon cables. In articular the Black Dragon. Since the Susvara is so bright i thought their copper cables would be nice since it seems to be more warm. I’m also impressed with their rhodium-plated Furutech connectors and Mundorf MSolder SUPREME Silver-Gold. For 400$ seems like a good deal. IDK though, are there better cables out there?
Take a look at these:
Arctic Cables Magnus $299 - https://www.arcticcables.com/ac-store/Magnus-Series-p369687656
Norne Drausk Lite $219 - http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/Drausk-Lite-Headphone-Cable-hifi-aftermarket-occ-litz-copper-audeze-cu-hifiman-arya-lcd-2-closed-meze-empyrean-3-3f-4-focal-clear-elear-elegia-elex-sennheiser-hd800-hd820-zmf-verite-auteur-atticus-eikon-mr-speakers-ether-2
Double Helix Molecule SE $229 - NEW - DHC Molecule SE Headphone Cable V4 - premium OCC copper litz - Double Helix Cables
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Oh nice! didnt know this thread exists. got a lot of reading to do lol, So these sites you listed, would you say they are better than Moon Audio’s dragon cables or on the same level?
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried the Moon Audio cables and I’m in the camp where I think cables don’t make that much of a change. There is some good information here, one is this post which I have bookmarked:
There was another which I found useful, but can’t seem to find it right now.
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