More.......
"That's That" - Cass McCombs
"I Can See my House From Here" - The Glands
"Hollywood Hopeful" - Loudon Wainwright III |
"You Were on my Mind" - Colvin and Earle"
"Mountain of Mind" - The Suitcase Junket
"Slipping (Into Something)" - The Feelies |
"Me and Magdalena" - The Monkees
"Southtown Girls" - The Hold Steady
"Looking for the Northern Lights" - The Belfast Cowboys |
Hope the trip was not too arduous Reubent.
I will be out Monday for the week again so enjoying this week at home.
Disciplined Breakdown ... Collective Soul.
NAS |
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly, Qobuz Hi-Res |
Pat Metheny - From This Place, Qobuz Hi-Res
Trying out a new (to me) headphone cable this morning... |
Greg.
Let me know if you think the headphone cable makes any difference.
Been tempted by Nordost cable they have on sale at Parts Connexion. |
Uber, will do. I've just been listening this morning. I haven't been doing any A/B comparisons, but it does seem like I noticed some things I haven't before in music I'm familiar with (The Nightfly is one of my most listened to albums). I bought a Nordost Heimdall 2 for my LCD-4. I'll probably spend some time tomorrow doing comparisons with the stock cord and will share my impressions. |
Spotify daily mix 6 in the car |
Ordinary Man ... Ozzy Osborne.
Qobuz hires |
Beausoleil- “Cajunization”
Various Artists- “Forro Total!”
Ahmad Jamal - “The Legendary Okeh and Epic Recordings” |
Feel Euphoria ... Spock's Beard.
Tidal |
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@uberwaltz I did some listening this morning with the Nordost Heimdall 2 cable, comparing it to the following:
- The "stock" single-ended Audeze cable for the LCD-4 which retails for $600 and is very nice in its own right.
- Cardas Clear balanced (two separate cables the entire length) cable which I believe retails for $750 in the configuration I have (I bought my pre-owned).
- Impact Audio balanced cable (bought for $100 on Etsy).
I listened to Ruby Baby by Donald Fagen to do my comparisons. I probably should have tried a few different songs with different characteristics, but that's something I'm really familiar.
I'll cut to the chase... they were more alike than different.
The Heimdall sounds a little better than any of them, it seems to let the music through with the least amount of distortion. Not that any of them sounded distorted, it just seemed clearer and had a touch more "air" and solid well defined bass.
The Cardas cable seemed to have a little more "body" and drive.
The stock cable was a little hard to judge because of the difference in volume between the balanced output on my headphone amp and the single-ended output. It sounded just a little "less than" the others, no obvious sins or major differences in sound quality.
The same could be said for the Impact Audio cables, they sounded very close to the Heimdall 2 and Cardas Clear.
The biggest difference are more in build quality.
The Heimdall 2 is really pretty, very light, and I don't think you would ever have issues with microphonics from the cable rubbing against itself. It's very smooth and seems not to curl up. It also comes with two single-ended adapters, one 1/4" and one mini. The terminations on the headphone end are _really_ thin and I could see damage happening if you're not careful.
The Cardas cables are built like a tank! The connectors on the amp end are huge, and since there are two separate cables, the thickness of the cable is the same the entire length. It's heavy and you notice it's there.
The Audeze cable is well constructed and uses a nice Neutrik connect on the amp side and Rean connectors on the heaphone end. The way it's braided, I could see it being a little noisy if it rubs against itself. This hasn't been an issue for me, my amp is a few feet away so it is always uncoiled.
The Impact Audio cable is also braided (I ordered mine in Seahawks colors!) and has an Eidolic connector on the amp end, not sure what's on the headphone end. Build quality is solid, the cable itself feels a little lighter than the Audeze braided cable. I had one nit with this cable, the splitter is pretty far from the headphone connections and when I'm sitting at my desk it sometimes catches on the edge of my desk.
So there you go. If you want to splurge and have a pretty cable that is really detailed and airy, the Heimdall 2 is the way to go. If you like your music to have a little more body and a really robust cable, the Cardas Clear is cheaper and really well made. If you want the best value, and want a custom cable, have the guy at Impact Audio make you a cable. He doesn't make any claims about sonic magic, he just builds affordable well made cables. All in my humble opinion as they say.
I continue to be somewhat of a cable agnostic. I can and have heard differences between them. Only in a couple of cases have I heard fairly dramatic differences. This was not one of those cases. I'm sure there are those with better hearing and/or gear (although mine is no slouch) that might hear larger differences. Go browse the head-fi forums for a while and you'll find that the "sound" of cables matters a lot to many of their members.
To me what matters more about cables is form and function.
In case anyone is wondering about the upstream equipment, I was streaming Qobuz from my PC via a fancy USB cable (I forget which one) to my MHDT Labs Orchid, using the Simaudio 430 HA headphone amp.
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Grimes - Miss Anthropocene, Qobuz Hi-Res
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Ozzy - Ordinary Man, Qobuz |
Greg.
Outstanding review my friend.
Makes me question about splurging on the Nordost especially when my headphone listening is likely in the order of couple hours per week at best. |
Uber, save your money or get some different headphones. What do you have now and how do you like them? |
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Greg.
They are nothing special but still was curious as to how much difference a change in cable might make.
HiFiMan he-4xx |
Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies .... Volbeat.
NAS |
Uber, unless you need a different length or connector, save your money. The headphones and amp I was using to compare cables retail for over $7K (not including the Orchid) and I could barely notice any difference in sound quality. I've heard good things about those headphones, but I don't think you'd notice much difference in sound quality. For the price of the Nordost cable you could get some nice cans like the Focal Elex, or get some Sennheiser HD-6XX and have money left over. |
Sonny Landreth - Blacktop Run, Qobuz Hi-Res
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World's Apart .... And you will know us by the Trail of Dead.
NAS |
Greg.
You are probably right on the headphone cables, as cost would be more than the cans!
Not that I have not done that before on CD player and DAC etc. |
Hallucination ... Shaw/Blades.
Qobuz |
Right Between the Eyes .... Icon.
Qobuz |
Feels Like Rain
John Hiatt
Tidal MQA |
Greg Dulli - Random Desire, Qobuz |
Agnes Obel - Myopia, Qobuz Hi-Res
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Simon Phillips - Protocol II
Lots to like on this one. Good compositions, excellent musicianship, fantastic sound quality streamed from Tidal (and that seems to be less of a given, recently).
Can't recall who planted the seed for this one...owe 'em a "thank you". Good stuff. |
Going to have to give that a listen too Ghost.
Many thanks!
Not much else to do in my hotel room tonight!
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Hope you like it, u.
FWIW - been there, done that.
Way too many Holiday Inns in way too many "garden spots" across the USA during a 30+ year career.
You have my sympathy
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Toots and the Maytals - Funky Kingston
Slade - Slayed?
Can - Tago Mago
All on Qobuz |
Second Life Syndrome..... Riverside.
Qobuz
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Ghost
Been at the travelling engineer game since 1997 and its starting to wear a little thin.
Soon be time for a change of pace though but honestly getting back to the hotel room at 9pm after leaving at 7am is tiring.
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Uber, been doing it 35 years this July.
20 for one company and 15 for this one. My youngest following in my footsteps since October 2014.
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It's a hard life Laser and takes a special mentality and breed. Not for everyone.
All week has been Spotify daily mixes to and from work/hotel etc.
All good stuff! |
King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black, Qobuz Hi-Res
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Ice Cream In Hell .... Tinsley Ellis.
Qobuz
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Carlos Santana - Love Devotion Surrender, Qobuz
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She Hangs Brightly.... Mazzy Swan.
RIP David Roback.
Qobuz
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Santana III, Qobuz Hi-Res |
Charles Lloyd - 8: Kindred Spirits - Live From The Lobero, Qobuz Hi-Res
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Won't be much time for music this weekend.
20th wedding anniversary and away to enjoy the time.
Keep up the great work here and everywhere! |
Congrats on the 20 years uber! |
Funeral March? Just kidding...🤗
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William Onyeabor - Who Is William Onyeabor?
Mahavishnu Orchestra- The Inner Mounting Flame
Qobuz |
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Thx Greg and GK ( I think....🙄🙄) |
