Audeze Cypher Cable and Audeze Presets

[KMan]

As the Cypher cable, apparently, alters the sound of Audeze headphones even without using Audeze’s iOS app for EQ, should the Audeze preset in Roon then be applied as well? In other words, would using both at the same time have an unintentional cascading effect?

The answer is it depends:

• If you are using Cipher with iSine10/20/LX or i4 for iOS playback, then you do not want to cascade them, turn off the Audeze presets.
• If you are using Cipher with El-8 open or El-8 closed or Titanium, then leave the Audeze presets on as the Cipher has a simple bass boost while the Audeze preset brings them very close to a neutral response. With the El-8s +Cipher you may want to use Roon Parametric EQ bring down the bass a little .

Similarly, is the Roon Audeze preset for a given headphone meant to replicate the impact of the Cypher cable, while using a typical analog interconnect?

Yes for iSine and i4s. But, Roon has a much more powerful DSP engine and using the linear presets in Roon is significantly better than the presets in Cipher cable. Also with Audeze presets and Roon, you can pair your cans with a better DAC and Amp and easily surpass what the Cipher can deliver when using analog cable.