Just received Utopias. Looking for decent cable upgrade for $500 or less. Any recommendations?
What are you driving them with.
What are you looking to get from the cable?
At that price point I’d probably go with one of the Norne or DHC, Copper cables.
I have a couple of Norne cables and one DHC both have great ergonomics, both take forever to ship.
From my very small sample, I’d give Norne a VERY slight edge in build.
I’m using a DHC Silver cable on mine, but it’s predominantly used on a DNA Stratus and that is a very specific pairing.
Cheap amp/dac. Using a Chord TT2 with Mscaler.
Then I’d pretty much stick with my original suggestion, unless you can stretch to Danacables Lazuli.
The Utopia might skew a bit bright with the TT2, I didn’t have the Utopia when I was still using a Dave, so I don’t have a point of reference.
Hoping this is sarcasm
I also have two Norne cables, and really like them. Both are Silvergarde S4 (different terminations), so slightly more than you’re looking to spend, but he has other lines that should be really great. I don’t have experience with other cables, so can’t be of more help other than saying Norne’s are good. You’ll have to communicate with Trevor (the owner/maker) by email, and it can be a bit hectic, but you’ll get a quality cable eventually.
Use a DHC for mine and am happy, one of the thinner ones as the price was already high and I didn’t want any cable drag (I’m cable agnostic for the most part) For me, the DHC turnaround was under a week including out of country shipping so these things can be variable; however, Id expect waiting to be more common than a quick delivery.
Forza, Norne and Danacables all make reputable stuff but pricing can be high. Danacables is a very lauded combo with the Utopia and I do know at least one person who was very happy with the improvement he got with the U - Lazuli combo.
My first Norne cable shipped in a week, the second took 7 weeks, when I ordered my DHC the lead time on the website was 3-5 weeks, it took 8 weeks to arrive.
Most of these places are small shops, and they get overwhelmed with orders, it can take some patience to work with them.
I just ordered a Lavri cable last week for my MySphere’s, shipped from Latvia, arrived yesterday, but I have no way to know if that’s typical.
It depends on the length, of course, but I use Moon Audio Black Dragon cables and they are reasonably priced and work very well for all of my headphones…
Best bang for buck is without doubt cosmic cables
I’d recommend Hart Audio, they’re the cheapest after market cables I’ve seen, sound better than stock, and the end connector is removable so you can use the same cable for XLR and 1/4".
Here’s the main cable for the Utopia HC-15: Dual Lemo Utopia Cable – Hart Audio Cables and then you add a “multi kit” (the different end connectors) Multi-Kit 2: Desktop Necessities (IC-1, 2 & 3) – Hart Audio Cables this would cost $125 USD in total.
Thanks. I wound up buying double helix complement c cable.
Have this, use it with Utopia. Love it.
Correction. Double Helix has an awful return policy and wanted to charge me $25 for an order that was cancelled within 5 minutes of ordering. Went with a Gladius reference cable from Arctic instead.