State of the Collection - My budget cables from KZ, TRN, KBEAR, NiceHCK, Yinyoo
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- čas přidán 7. 02. 2020
- A few people have asked about cables recently and it reminded me that I should put the cables I own on video so you can get a feel for what they look like more than an image on the store page.
Here are the links for reference only,:
KZ Pink gold: www.aliexpress.com/item/32952...
KZ Gold Silver: www.aliexpress.com/item/33009...
NiceHCK Copper: www.aliexpress.com/item/40002...
Yinyoo Silver Blue: www.aliexpress.com/item/33053...
TRN T2: www.aliexpress.com/item/33025...
Yinyoo Black: www.aliexpress.com/item/32984...
Yinyoo High Purity Copper: www.aliexpress.com/item/40001...
Yinyoo Silver Blue QDC: www.amazon.com/Replacement-Ea...
KBEAR Balanced: www.aliexpress.com/item/33043... - Hudba
Just came across this channel, great the last 2-3 years I been collecting headphones amps - dacs 4 headphones , you can get good cables thick too for,$$ not bad.
Great look and intro to cable swapping fun. I grabbed a bunch last 11.11. I've also gone a little higher up the hakuzen ladder, to get one of his highly recommended ones (UP-OCC KUPFER litz struktur 4Core), sadly it didn't blow me away. Is very nice and light though.
I am afraid of the Hakuzen ladder and the diminishing returns, but we will see about this 11-11. There should be some new cables even in the budget range so I am looking forward to it. Thank you
Great video!, I'm eyeing the TRN T2 , hope it goes on sale soon
I didn't notice it last sale, but I am sure it was on sale. Next big sale is in June
Thx for a video on IEM upgrade cables...i have not seen a video yet done by anyone else...long overdue, glad u did this!
My first upgrade cable for my KZ ZST was the white KZ 2 pin cable....was about $6-8....prob with it the copper inside was not sealed, it oxidized and turned green in spots. Never affected performance , but butt ugly. Took me a coupla yrs after that to buy another upgrade cable. The controversy of electrical experts saying upgrade cables do NOT improve the sound, maybe w less resistance they said perceived volume was a bit louder, but not better? Experts said only buy an upgrade cable for aesthetic appeal , feel , better connectors, and less tangle prone better braiding! Seriously? Some said go balanced cables to elim bkgrnd noise....others said they did notice a sound improvement w upgrade cables. I remained skeptical, not worth more than $15 for any cables i thought...
Well around the big China sale day....i had done a bunch of research on upgrade cables (i agree u found many of the cables i found too...), drastic price drops, so i got upgraded 16 core copper balanced KBEAR cablesand yes...it sounded better...than OEM cables....few days later i went the full monty....deep dive...into UPOCC NEOTECH 26awg, single crystal copper 4.4mm balanced....yeah Head-Fi and others said single crystal copper (higher purity copper) thicker gauge balanced is the sweet spot....i figured if my P1 planars could not detect a sound improvement w their clarity ...nothing would .
P1 noticed a moderate improvement in sound, more treble sparkle, details, instrument separation....not huge, but a noticeable improvement, at least for me....i am very happy, i recommend them, but only on sale deeply discounted....for all my other IEMS your choices, i chose also....for < $16 for balanced copper uprade cables these are the best of the best, excellent upgrade choices!
Hope u do a followup video on balanced vs non balanced cables, maybe another on single crystal copper balanced cables.
Thank you so much for that story. The inspiration was a question the other day about someone was recommended a $30 cable for a $30 iem. I am hesitant to go as far as you did, but I agree, the big sales are tempting to buy one to try. Especially at the end of last year, crystal copper was popular. Hakuzen mentioned a gold, silver, copper blend he favored. I do hope the kz,kbear,trn,NiceHCK teams continue to raise the quality of their entry/budget lines. I will admit life has interfered with my time with balanced cables. I know people swear by them so I bought some on 11-11 without much research. I will admit that the Earstudio ES100 is extremely quiet, I am not sure there is any noise to remove. At 11-11 prices, worth a try but I am trying to avoid chasing the endless upgrades perpetrated by reading too much Headfi. Thank you
Just a Few Words with Paulwasabii yes, do not get wrapped up in upgrade hype...especially cables costing same or more as an IEM. My formula to buy an IEM upgrade cable = only buy cables on 11/11 sales ...if they are > 55% off THEIR normal not MARKED up price they never sell at they list for comparison ( in other words do your research for 10-11 months in advance so u know what they really sell for before 11/11) + cost of the upgrade cable should NEVER BE > 1/3 cost of the IEM.
Don't waste your money on upgrade cables for EVERY IEM in your collection...if OEM cables sound fine....unless they tangle a lot, or sticky. Collecting upgrade cables for every IEM in our collection is a waste of $$$. If we have to upgrade, let it be for 1-2 fav IEMS, and for $12-20 each we can buy a 16 core, balanced, better quality copper, or copper/silver blend....Head-Fi, and others can cause your head to spin on upgrades....
Bruh id love an oxidized copper cable tbh that shits dope.
Id argue cable value tops out at 50 MAYBE 100 euro, where you get a combo of great build and great conductivity.
@@MrWkendwarrior i disagree. While i dont think iem's improve sound quality or signature, they definitely improve conductivity. And more certainly, they have better build quality. Its def worth getting a strong, sturdy and reliable 50-70 dollar iem cable for your fave 30 dollar iem, so you dont have to buy 10-20 dollar iem cables every month.
Hey, great video! Can I ask where you got those cases and velcro straps from? I'm guessing a few came from the same place, I like the size and texture. Cheers
The cases are from Aliexpress, just search for KZ bag case. They used to drop down to 70 cents but now are more like $1 each. The velcro is just a roll of velcro but harder to find as it is not called velcro. www.aliexpress.com/item/32991756945.html
so upgrades cables are like tube amps : it colors the sound in a pleasant way ? i have no experience comparing the effect of cable material on sound quality, i just noticed with my entry level studio monitor that they bothered providing balanced audio inputs but delivered them with a ultra cheap tiniest cables for the slave speaker as if cable had very little impact on sound quality.
Yes, sometimes. It is more difficult to talk about it from a reviewer side because I would not want someone to spend $10 and then not hear anything. It is a YMMV and whether your IEM and/or source will be affected by the cable at all. I meant to include this link, two well respected ears described their experience: www.audioreviews.org/kbear-diamond-i1-tuning/
No. Cable does not color the sound, because primary school physics pretty much. It's used for transmitting signal from A to B. Longer the cable or/and thinner it is, higher the resistance added is, resulting in lower gain (volume). So thick cable with more material will have lower resistance ideally, changing ever so slightly volume. It's usually up to + - ~200 miliohms difference between cables of 1.2 meter length, with rare exceptions, which is almost completely negligible, and affects gain only, *not* color of the sound (that is impossible, lie that some uneducated placebo driven plebs spread). So how can it change sound if it's only affecting gain almost completely negligible? Well with multidriver earphones, hybrids especially with badly implemented crossover or no crossover whatsoever (which is often the case with Chi-Fi) have drivers of different impedances, for example tweeter can have ~2 Ohm impedance and bass DD can have 20 Ohm impedance, 0.2 Ohm added in cable will affect tweeter by 10% while it would affect bass driver only 1% (not like this but for the sake of easier explaining), so tweeter would be 10% lower volume while bass driver would be only 1% lower volume: resulting in a "warmer", "bassier", "less clear" sound. However, cable does not affect tone COLOUR (timbre), nor it does affect QUALITY of sound - just mere slight volume differences between unmatched drivers, sometimes in rare occasions resulting in an actual change and perception of improvement. But that's about it. Cheap thick copper wire can work sometimes much better than 7N silver plated OCC braided by the hands of an angel that is thinner (despite silver having slightly lower resistance), or if you actually want to add resistance resulting in bright harsh earphones being slightly warmer that you can prefer? Cheapest worst thin wire will be better than 1000$ cable.
@@NiohNiohYT We can messure a lot and explain a lot, how sound and electrons are transported through specific types of matter or vakuum. But mostly we are talking only about the electrons, which is just one type of elementary particle, that we can measure today with our ordinary instruments and those instruments and measure techniques, the hifi world is referring to. This is only the tip of the iceberg to explain the energy of sound, its type or quality and its behaviour, fluctuation etc. Quantum physicists find more than 90% of the interactions of all elementary particles, like the electrons, photons, quarks, leptons, bosons are unexplained. All of these particles and further more even smaller "particles" (as centuries ago Einstein and Planck already had shown) are interacting with each other in matter and i.e. cables to transport energy and information. Electromagnetic interference is part of that and is just one commonly known example of many others, on which we just began to get a superficial understanding. It's a wide but very interesting topic and fundamental to more accurately explain every device build of/working with matter and energy, light and information e.g. sound devices and amplifiers, compute units, quantum computers.
I additionally want to give a good and practical example of our modern world, to show implications of the above: In the development and manufacturing process of smaller nodes in computer chips the quality of the silicon and its crystal formations is crucial, to either have a working compute unit or a failing one; because of a more smooth and better controllable path of particles through the crystals or a rougher and worse path for them, causing the particles to fluctuate too much, resulting in failing chip functions and/or its computations. Copper is formed by groups of crystal formations of specific matter and every particle has to find its path through it. A bigger cable and/or a better quality crystal formation will result in a smoother, a more even, a less fluctuable throughput of all particles moving inside it. To negate that, would mean we also deny all findings in modern chip production and all the technological breakthroughs, which gave us laser technology, internet, mobile phones and so on. Warm greetings from Germany!
@@NiohNiohYT best explanation i read about audio cable impact on sound, thanks
If I upgrade my cables will it change the sound of the IEM? Will it gain or improve it's sounds?
It might, but I would consider it more of a cable upgrade than any sound upgrade. If you aren't going to be 100% happy if the sound is the same, then I wouldn't buy one. I like the look of fancy cables, if the sound is unchanged, I am still happy, no regrets. If there is a very subtle sound change, that is a bonus.
is it worth buying such headphones for a regular phone?
Can I use the nicehck 16 core copper cable for the Blon BL03?
You can use the 2 pin but it will not cover the connectors on the Blon, it will sort of stick out. They do have one that fits the Blon (NX7 / TFZ) but it's expensive ($36 on Ali) and will need the pins clipped if you want it not to stick out. Yinyoo make a cheap ($8) 8 core cable specifically designed to fit the Blon BL-03, and it fits PERFECTLY with no mods to either IEM or cable while being thicker/less tangle than the stock cable. I have it, in silver which looks great with the IEM, recommend it.
They also I believe have a 16 core with the sort-of right connector, he has a video covering it here. It doesn't quite fit perfectly as the pins seem to be too long. Their silver 8-core DOES fit perfectly, I think I'd take the 8 core that actually fits flush over the 16 that doesn't. If you snipped the pins though it might fit better.
czcams.com/video/qLnFZL9FFSU/video.html
Pity for me I can’t buy from AliExpress, being in South Africa means something from China takes a hell of a nag time and shipping can eye watering. Getting most of the ChiFi from Amazon cost about $16+ dollars for around $20 dollar items.
Hey, what cable would you recommend to replace the cable from ikko oh10, cause it doesn't really feel prenium at all, want something better build
The one on my list was mentioned here, look on Aliexpress for FAAEAL 4Core High Purity Copper cable. $18ish. Cheaper I would pick a flavor of TRN T2. More expensive, maybe the $30ish Yinyoo or Nicehck C16-3. But I would either get the T2 or Faaeal now, wait for a sale on the $30 cables
@@PaulWasabii k thanks a lot
My TRN T2s Cables failed me in like 4 months.
I'm going to try the Yinyoo ones now, they seem to be more durable/better soldered, but the T2s were really cheap so I don't expect the best QC
Recently one of my T2 shredded apart. There is a jump in durability from $10usd to the $20usd. I have 2 24 cores and I think they are more durable too, just a bit stiffer but basically the same thickness as 16.
AAAAHHHH I JUST BOUGHT THESE!! :(
I want to upgrade stock cable of my zsn pro x to improve sound quality?
Kbear 16 core is my choice.
Just want to know one thing that will the 16 core cable improve the sound quality of my iem far better?
My personal opinion on cables and the KZ budget sets is the cable can sometimes make it sound sharper. I wouldn't say they investing in 16 cores is going to improve the sound quality, but you may notice a small change if any. I would also look at the recent KZ 8 core cables, they are very nice.
@@PaulWasabii i was wondering, i also want to upgrade my cable, cause mine has been breaking, but does a 2 pin connector and the zsn pro x work together or do you need a c-pin connector?
Can I ask? Among those cables, which one is the softest cable? You reply will greatly help me in my decision in buying upgrade cables.
Generally, the 16 cores are the softest but not that different from 8 core. Really it comes down to the wire size is quite thin and soft.
@@PaulWasabii Thank you so much!
where did u get the velcro straps
Just velcro tape www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001553057675.html
does zsn and zs 10 pro
have the same qdc connection ?
Yes, QDC is a "standard" in that there is only a single version of it.
Hiya, just got the KZ ZSX and from what I understand, you need an upgraded cable in order to truly appreciate the quality.
What is the best cable for 14$ and under? Right now I will either buy the KZ Gold and Silver or the YINYOO 8 core Black.
Thanks :)
You understand wrong. You do not need to "upgrade" (change) the cable as it will not make them better quality.
Is tripowin c8 a good cable
Sorry I do not have that one.
Im looking for a sturdy, preferably also nicely conductive, cable for my soon to arrive a6 mini, any recs?
Did you catch BGGAR urbanfun video? I didn't watch it closely if he mentioned it, but I thought it was the Faael Hibiscus cable. That one is on my list, $16ish but no mmcx. My rec for dipping your toe in the cables is trn t2 because its widely recommended decent cable, great price. Above that, nicehck, yinyoo, or kbear at the $16ish price, whichever is cheapest with your connection. Above that, I would wait for a big sale. I think there were a couple comments here on more pricey cables. Not sure you can go wrong with black IEM shells and copper cable, black connectors.
@@PaulWasabii hmm ive read bad things about t2 build quality on head fi though :s
@@PaulWasabii currently im most innterested in the faael and nicechk 8 core
@@jayjaygolden5123 I am going to get the Faael, just not in a hurry. Assuming China returns to normalcy, there might be a sale period to make up for lost revenue. I think since the T2 went through the rough spell, more people bought and recommended them. I thought there was a mention or two here also. I have a few but I do not stress them much at home. Perhaps if you stress the fittings a bit more, there might be a issue. I bought nicehck before my t2 but I baby them more as they were expensive at the time.
@@PaulWasabii i actually had the t2 on order when i read it has some build flaws (despite beinh true 16 core tho) and most importantly the seller was problematic anr lotsa people in a budget iem fb group im im reported bad delivery times
Man, can you connect a 2 pin .78 cable on a iem with .75 entry ??????
Short answer is yes but you are stressing a small bit of plastic. I have a few iems that have stress cracks around the 2pin or qdc. So yes it will work, but you may see small cracks after a bit.
@@PaulWasabii OK thank you so much... You save me
Very dumb question - maybe - but how does one differentiate the positive and negative pin on a 2 pin cable? :'D
And will it change the sound in anyway if I get it wrong?
Look closely at the connector for a blue dot. I wish I had a handy picture but google 2 pin blue dot. It determines an orientation but not all iems are the same. I have tried the audiocheck.net polarity test but I believe it only matters if you are not consistent, blue dot facing forward on one, back on the other. Then I read it's really only for speakers. I tried but never heard them out of phase.
@@PaulWasabii Ohh I used to get them facing the same side, I'll check it out, thank you! Keep the good content coming!!
Get the Faaeal Hibiscus 4 core Litz cable, costs around 15 usd only.
That one was on my radar when the Hibiscus was announced, I did not know the cable was that affordable. Thank you
@@PaulWasabii np and electro acousti on aliexpress also have some cheaper cables that are very good.
Like this one: US $39.90 | 6N OCC + OCC Silver plating 26AWG Special Offer Headphone Upgrade Line MMCX 0.78MM 2PIN
a.aliexpress.com/_sZlNZU
@@RikudouGoku The CS Series from those guys was the one I was disappointed in - found it had a very dark sound over some of the others ones. With the warm sounding AAW CIEM I use it didn't work that well. de.aliexpress.com/item/1000007909452.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000060.1.6bc44b5bzVDjQn&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.146401.0&scm_id=1007.13339.146401.0&scm-url=1007.13339.146401.0&pvid=4e80bcc4-036b-4dbb-b571-38688219748b
@@simonadams6640 well synergi is a important part too, combining a pure copper cable with something that already is warm might make it overly dark.
Which one is the softest? NICEHCK or KBEAR?
In the 16 core version, both are the same or very close. I would wait for the next sale period 6-21 and pick the more affordable one.
@@PaulWasabii Thank you so much!
Is 16 core really so heavy?
No because the wires are very thin
@@PaulWasabii Ohhh. Okay. Thank you! 😊
TRN T2 vs KBEAR cable ?
T2 is usually more affordable and a nice cable. Both are nice though.
Sony 😂😍🎯👍
TRN T2 now has qdc connector - search for T2s
Very cool, thank you for the tip.
Scientifically cables cant effect sound? Like i dont believe in cables changing sound but ive never heard of scientific proof for anything. I thought the idea of cables changing sound had to do with higher material amount, purity and density = lower conductiveness. But i guess the argument against it is that internal cables are the bottleneck?
If you only look at Hakuzen's opinions and measurements, there is conductivity and material characteristics. Copper is bassier, silver is sharper, blends are something else, etc. I always say if you are curious, buy a nice budget 16 core. If you don't believe it will make a difference, enjoy your stock cables. Some people are just into it, small upgrades even if they are purely cosmetic.
@@PaulWasabii yeah ive looked at them. Im not sure about copper vs silver as it doesnt seem to be based on any measurements. There arent really any cheap silver cables though are there? Ive cable swapped on full size cans a lot, but never really noticed a difference between cables in sq. Only on loudness- this is not counting the incredibly shitty cables that sounded worse than stock.
@@PaulWasabii @JayJay Golden "Change is not necessarily improvement. Perceiving a difference does not mean it sounds better." - Someone.
You kind of sweating small things a lot, man. Who needs that many cables? I understand an upgrade or two, but this many is silly IMO. After all: they are swappable.
Thanks for the reality check. I actually did stop buying cables for a while. I acquired a lot of $7 up to about $20 and stopped. I will own up to a slight cable addiction back then but doing better now. Thank you