I’d be interested in any thoughts people may have about this.
I listen to mainly jazz (Free) and classical (Avant-Garde) and with my main system I use Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables with Focal Clear MG and Naim Uniti Atom HE - I do like the detail that this set up provides.
For my desktop rig I use a Chord Mojo2 and Focal Celestee ‘phones. I want to upgrade the Focal stock cable and I was considering a 5ft Custom Cans standard copper cable but then I saw some silver plated copper litz cables and some silver copper hybrids at Cosmic Cables for around £200. Would the latter, or the Custom Cans Ultimate cables, be overkill for such a set up.
I’m not bothered about the cost as they’ll be a Christmas present to me from Mrs Dipper. But equally There’s no point chucking money away if there’s no benefit
I’d say, that all decent headphones come with sufficiently specified cables and any aftermarket “upgrades” don’t afford any real measurable and audible benefit, so aren’t worth the additional outlay - full stop.
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mjw
(Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper. Call that job satisfaction? I don't.)
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I replaced the stock cable that came with my Beyerdynamic T5p 2nd Gen. (circa. £1,400) because it was stiff and suffered from microphonics. The phones are for my Mojo.
The replacement cable came from Custom Cans. IMO, you don’t need to spend much for a quality cable. I opted for the copper ultra low capacitance cable.
Whilst silver has benefits, and makes sense in, for example, a moving magnet cartridge, in line level applications there is no benefit unless you listen to the (sponsored) audio press.
Replacing the stock cable on headphones because you don’t like the stock cable (too stiff, too long, too short, wrong termination, microphonics, etc.) are all very valid reasons.
Replacing the stock cable with an expensive cable thinking that there is going be a vast improvement in sound quality is not a good reason and will only lead to disappointment.
Replacing the stock Focal cables on my Clear MG ‘phones/Atom HE with Silver Dragon did not lead to disappointment for me. The difference is subtle but the silver cables are more detailed to my ears with a greater emphasis on the higher frequencies which is helpful when, like me, you have a slight hearing impairment.
The difference is not night and day and not measurable, but the Silver Dragon cable sounds better than the stock cable to my ears which is all that matters to me.
Regarding my original post, the main reason for replacing the stock cables on my desktop setup was because I wanted a slightly longer one.
