Possibly the best headphone cables ever made ;) taking a look at our latest design.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2022
- You can find our range of ultimate cables here
customcans.co.uk/shop/?s=ulti...
When designing these I tried to tick as many boxes as possible. High-end audio cables are always going to be contentious. Some people swear they make a difference and some people get upset that they even exist.
So... I decided that if I was going to design a new high-end range, one of the top priorities would be for it to look and feel like a high-end designer creation. The cover on these is made from heavy-weight embroidered silk, so looks and feels special as well as having exceptional performance.
This cable has incredibly low capacitance due to the distance between the cores and the silk covering. It has a relatively large cross-sectional area of copper to give it a very low impedance but by using litz wire we can stop the skin effect coming into play even at frequencies well above 100khz ( overkill for audio ;) This means the impedance is not only low but flat across all frequencies that even the highest rez audio players can kick out. This ensures the signal that leaves the amp gets to the headphones unchanged, which is what you want from a cable ;)
I know this is unnecessarily high end and each cable will cost more than most of the headphones I look at in the videos but sometimes it is nice just to make something where money is no object and see what is possible
The hardest part of this was figuring out how to coat a wire in graphene. I ended up mixing graphene powder with various binders to create a graphene ink that would soak into the silk-wrapped litz. It needed two coats to get full coverage so I had to design a machine that would submerge the litz in the ink, then dry it before going back through the vat of ink for a second coat, and then finally going through an annealer to help it fuse together.
The graphene coating does not have a huge effect on things but it is a material that I find fascinating and it does offer some RFI and EMI shielding without raising the capacitance too much. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Wow. SO incredibly overkill. I love it. Overengineering is probably my favorite kind of design. I'm curious, what kind of durability testing have you done with these? I don't doubt you guys would make a durable product, but I've had a few cables like these scrunch and fray.
We only got the 1st prototype out at the beginning of July but so far, no issues. Silk is pretty tough stuff. It is a bit tricky as customers always end up doing unexpected things to them. We have a few out in the wild now with some beta tester / early adopter types which should help make sure they are OK
I would hope that if someone owned a set of silk-covered headphone cables, they would take good care of them and not be rolling over them with the chair kind of thing.
@nickkendall3764 I also like to over engineer things and can appreciate the idea behind this cable, but you also have to realise that this is completely unnecessary for the application of headphone wires and will make no difference to what you can actually hear. Over engineering something to be stronger than it needs to be usually makes sense, as you can always find a way to apply more force. But you cant extend the range of your hearing, so sacrifices are being made in the shape/size/durability/cost for no gain, almost making it more like under engineering
Wow just wow iv never heard of anyone talking capacitive coupling and inductive coupling in headphone cables i live in the rf world with transmitters and recivers and antenna design this is very homely to me and you are 100 % right it's overkill but in the most glorious way I doff my cap to you sir bravo bravo indeed
Thanks - If nothing else, I have found the most expensive way for me to win at headphone cable top trumps ;)
@@CustomCans without a doubt you win hands down .thing is if you run overkill stuff you know for sure it's as good as it will get and therefore can be confident your not leaving performance on the table that kind of comfort is rarely found in audio its a hobby full of questions with vague intangible answers so in this regard you truly are makeing something unparalleled as well as its physical construction and electromagnetic performance that's the dream team trio
Just wow. This is incredibly awesome, love it! Nothing wrong with sometimes having a beautiful thing. And this is definitely a beautiful thing.
Thanks - All this positive feedback is making the past few months of work worth it
Goodness gracious those cables look amazing! Thanks for the behind the scenes look at how they're made!
Thanks, I am rally pleased with them
I love the design that you guys came up with,hope to see how it will fly out the stock once is out on the market!
Thanks - Yes, we have had quite a few enquiries since the video cam out so it seems like there is a market for this kind of thing
Subscribed. These cables are so unique! Love them.
Thanks for the sub!
That cable looks absolutely gorgeous!
Thank you very much, I am very pleased with it
@@CustomCans Gotta give credit where it's due.
You should be excited - there's nothing more satisfying than your work come to live.
Being a nerd myself, and one with a lot of work and experience under my belt I congfratulate you on your success.
Thanks ;)
Love the design man!
Thanks ;)
Ok wow. Never thought I'd be impressed by headphone cords but damn. I'm quite impressed! Keep up the great work!
Thanks ;)
This is the audio cable of all time
Yes - I reckon it will be difficult to beat. If you are going to design a thing, why not over-design it ;)
This is what happens when you mix passion with ingenuity, awesome work my friend 👏
Thanks ;)
amazing work
Thanks ;)
really cool idea, never seen anything like this been done before!
Thanks - I have got a bit carried away but it is fun doing something nobody has done before
Great work man🔥 you're one of my favourite channels happy to see you grow and achieve more followers milestones❤️❤️❤️
Thanks ;)
Some pretty amazing looking cables! Well done 👍 expensive
Yes - they are a little pricey but there are much worse cables that cost a lot more ;)
The coolest damn cable that I've ever seen.
Thanks
Phenomenal work
Thanks, I am very pleased with the look and feel of them
Wow, these look nice!
Thanks ;)
Truly a one of a kind cable.
I do plan on making more than one of them hopefully ;)
looks great!
Thanks ;)
Sick stuff man
Thanks
Looks very nice 🤙
It is always nice to watch one of your Videos and follow along with my own paar of headphones and do your mods
Nice work 👍
Thanks - glad you are enjoying them
@@CustomCans yes, on my dt 880, 990, 770 and dt990 600 ohm 🤣🤣 all of them are fitted with your mass loading and damping kit and two of them with your 4pin mini xlr kit 🤙
Yeah,its a beautiful thing!
Thanks ;)
Damn this looks so fucking cool! One of a kind cable. Looking forward to the reviews :)
Yes - I will have to get some in the hands of a few reviewers
Can you please make a version of this cable in black? The blue/yellow will really distract from the beauty of many headphones. Thank you :)
Probably but maybe not for a month or so - the coverings have to be made in 40m batches and they are ludicrously expensive to make. I will have to save up my pennies to get a batch made in a different colour.
Hi, I'm new to the Audio file scene and enjoying so far.
Welcome aboard!
@@CustomCans Thank you Sir, I Enjoy your wit and repartee. On the serious side your passion is is a pleasure to Behold.
They look FANTASTIC 🎧😎🎶👍 & they will stay slung over my shoulder without slipping off., but will snag a little too (can't have it all). I am sure the quality is there. Depending on price I'd love to get a set, but I'm not going to kiss arse to get a freebie 😁😁
Lol - We have been using then all day in the office over the past couple of months to get a feel from them and you forget they are there quicker than you would expect - they don't seem to snag on most clothing. It has been hot here though so I have not tried them with a wool jumper yet.
As you can imagine - they are quite expensive to make so they are probably going to start from around £200.
I wanna see you do a mod of a headphone cable that goes under your desk for your desktop, and is held and can retract while staying out the way
This might be the thing you need www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134055462753
This is beautiful, how do I sign up? I will make videos, post anything and everything! The cable is elegant and looks stunning!
We are just making a custom one off pair of hifiman sundara closed back and we will be giving them away along with one of these cables in a future video - ( should be out in around a week)
I would absolutely love if you made a 3m reflective cable cover to match the Yaxi Spacerays. Maybe weave with other colors as well?? :D I will literally give you one of my kidneys
We do make our Ravemaster cables in black with reflective stripes to match them
jfunk.org/wpc/product/ravemaster-super-strong/
Can do a comparison between standard cable and overkill cable with graph? On difference headphone that compatible with it.
The differences between cables would probably not be detectable on a headphone frequency plot unless you had very low impedance headphones and then it would mainly look a bit louder on the fancier cables due to their lower impedance. You may see a tiny extra increase right up at the top end due to the lack of skin effect and low capacitance. A lot of people claim to be able to hear a difference but that could just be placebo. That is why I designed it to look and feel nice, have low microphonics as well as keeping the weight down and flexibility high. Those are all undeniably good properties for a cable to have. Despite me thinking I can hear a difference and a lot of the feedback we get saying how much difference it made to their setup... The placebo effect can not be ruled out. I did all the work to get measurably lower capacitance and the super flat response just in case it is a real thing - that way you know you are definitely not missing out on anything
Wow, never seen cables like that before, very cool design. I'm sure these things will get you guys noticed more and hopefully a lot more business from all round the world...graphine is next level tech. Probably way outta my price range, but best of luck with them, I'll just drool over them, lol
Thanks ;)
Heeey you do good work BUT question: I see all the labor you’re putting into making sure the Litz is coated in graphene but what do YOU think that does ..? I ask because you’re apparently not soldering to it (the graphene), nor are you treating the enameled Litz before soldering, so I’m just kinda’ wondering if I’m missing something
Graphene is desirable because it’s a super-conductor, isn’t it ..? What are you using it for in this specific application ?
I just want to add a little to what I mean:
Take away the wire & coat, say, a string in graphene. Then solder the graphene at both ends.. say it’s used in a closed circuit because the graphene is uninterrupted
But @ 2:22, there’s this shot where it has cracks & breaks in it, nor is it even soldered to the plug
If you pulled on the graphene-coated string, & the graphene is so fragile that it cracks, wouldn’t that break or open the circuit ..?
So my question is more… to what avail does the graphene matter, the way you are using it..? That’s what my curiosity is, I suppose
In this cable the signal is being carried by the copper and the graphene coating is used as shielding. This is essentially covered in tiny graphene particles and as they all have joins in-between it is not a great conductor over the length of the cable but it does block a lot of RFI and EMI without raising the capacitance as much as normal shielding.
I know it seems like a bit of a waste, not using it to carry the signal.We make the same style cables without the graphene coating as well.
At the moment we are using electro mechanically exfoliated graphene, which is made by pumping ions in and out of the layers in graphite to flake off tiny pieces of graphene and the flakes are tiny. I have seen people working on growing graphene directly on copper foil so it may be possible to make a decent conductor from that in the future but it has to be done under crazy pressure and in the correct mix of gasses so it beyond our current resources / engineering ability.
I seeee…. -it was my understanding that one end of the shielding needs to be soldered to the source end in order for shielding to work properly.. & even then, if there are breaks in the shielding… man, I dunno
I love that you’re trying it, tho
And hey don’t get me wrong, I really love your work & I’m not trying to give you a hard time or anything but some of your fundamentals feel a little wonky haha
You make a better artist than an electrical engineer
@@theIMMUNICORN Thanks, and yes, floating shields are much less effective. I had seen a few other people using graphene coatings as shielding in electrical products and I think the theory was that it acted like a very lossy antenna absorbing and re-emitting the radiation and turning some of it into heat in the process reducing the amount that got through ... It seemed to make sense and people with much more expensive setups than mine were getting results. I tend to get over excited buy designing stuff and overcoming the challenges and this seemed like a fun thing to try.
We do make turntable cables with normal grounded shielding but it increases the capacitance of the cable quite significantly and we always try to keep that low where we can and obviously makes it a lot heavier and less flexible. I, personally don't feel that most headphone cables need shielding but a lot of people asked for it and this seemed like a good way to tick that box by adding a certain level of shielding without adding too much weight or capacitance.
We also gave cables out to testers and they said they preferred the graphene coated ones - obviously, knowing they were more expensive and involved a sexy material like graphene probably had some kind of subconscious effects.
A lot of the high end cable market is based on dubious theories and I do try an keep just the right side scientifically plausible while still giving people something they can brag about to their friends but I may have over stepped the mark on this one, and if I have, I apologize.
Great design. With this cable I can finally see the point of a balanced headphone connection. Dual entry headphones and a dual XLR output on the headphone amp should lead to minimal crosstalk. Will I hear any difference, no way, but I wouldn't mind giving it a try. :-)
That has been the hardest thing .. Trying to make a high end cable that will tempt the cable disbelievers ;)
@@CustomCans Send me a sample one and if I can hear any difference I will shout it from every rooftop. 😗 😁
@@st200ol come on dude buy it hope your lucky and win it in the give away but scabing for it have some class dude just no !
@@nickkendall3764 What does it have to do with you what I type in a comments section of a social media site as long as it is not abusive, like your post could be interpreted as toward me. :-)
Hey Jason, i bought a Mod Kit for my DT990 from you. Now i am very interestet in your HIFIMAN modding, do you think you will mod the HE400i one day?
Yes - I should have a video with some mods for them next week some time
thats cool ngl
Thanks ;)
got to pick these up for all my headphones - other 3rd party cables just don't compete..
🎧 Hopefully all the testing will be done soon and then I can get them up on the website
@@CustomCans Was just looking at the site and then came back here to find the right link!
May have to go for the non-graphene cables... except for one... try and convince myself of a massive difference :D
The design is also unique putting the sound aside for a minute..
Cheers
some people are not going to be without these cables thats a guarantee. Bit too hippy rug jumper wearer for me but it would be interesting to see what other sleeve colours you could sell. Like the xlr connector with the larger hole though i'd be more interested in just those tbh lol
Yeh - a couple of people have shown interest in the XLRs - I have not reviewed a connector before but I may have to ;)
Is that Viborg connector? If so can we please get a closer look, maybe even a review if you have the time. Please…
I have a crazy week or so ahead but I will try to get our technician to do a review and I will send you a link
@@CustomCans Thank you so much.
Is it possible to make one of these cables with the Cardas HPSC plugs for HD-650, please?
Yes, We have made a few for the HD650
@@CustomCans ❤️
Hey Jason can I cancel my current order to get this beauty instead?
Maybe - we are doing a few cheaper for people at the moment to get a bit of feedback - it is worth popping us an email
Yall should definitely send one of these to dankpods so he could give it a good review I would be ecstatic to see him get his hands on one of those
I don't know if he is a fancy cables kind of guy ;) But.. we owe him a massive favour for giving us a shout out so he can definitely have one if he asks for one
Yeaaah, i don't even understand more than half of the things you say, but it looks cool:D
My Business plan is coming along nicely...
Stage 1) Make cool looking things.
Stage 2 ) ????
Stage 3) Profit.
I am hoping to figure out stage 2 at some point :)
@@CustomCans nice
This is better than the fanciest of ties someone could buy!
👔
When will this cable be available? It’s not on your website yet…
We are just waiting for some special parts to arrive - hopefully they should be available to buy next week some time.
Where can I buy one of those guys?
They are not up for sale yet but will hopefully be on our shop in the next couple of weeks.
jfunk.org/wpc/product-category/home/cables/
Are they in production yet?
Yes, we have the focal and audeze versions up on the shop ( links in the description ) if you need a different connection, email us and we can make it for you
Because the effect is so small, I've never cared about inductance and crosstalk, but what does this do to cable noise? I find that the cable noise on my HD25 set is absolutely awful
Yes, i think what you are talking about is "cable microphonics" where the cable transmits vibrations to the headphone when it rubs against your clothes and things. This one is pretty good as it has a little stretch to it which absorbs a lot of the vibration. The HD25 it a bit of a nightmare for microphonis because the cable is hard mounted to the back of the driver module so it picks up vibrations from the cable like crazy... I have been meaning to try to do something about that so I may try and make a fix for that next week in a video.
@@CustomCans That would be absolutely incredible if you could remedy. I'd easily pay 60% more for the HD25 if it didn't have that problem. In my job as a location sound mixer for film, having the cable rub against my jacket is a surprisingly big problem.
A note on calling it microphonics: I've heard this used for this concept before, but according to the sources I've seen online, microphonics is about mechanical vibrations being turned into electrical noise, rather than mechanical vibrations transferring through the objects. But I might be completely mistaken.
Where can these cables be purchased?
They are not on sale just yet, we are waiting for a few more parts to arrive and they are still going through testing but hopefully they will be on our shop in the next week or two.
jfunk.org/wpc/
it's a bit off topic but since it's about overkill and i've been wondering for a while, have anyone tried to use tefzel wire for audio cables? it is race car stuff
I think the tefzel is used as a coating on the wire to make it chemical and heat resistant. A lot of headphone cables are made from teflon coated wire so it should be possible. Probably unnecessary unless you are already wearing a fire suit ;)
We have just purchased a "race car" to have some fun with so it could be funny to make a headphone cable from tefzel and do a video just for giggles
Is it 22 awg wire?
It is 168 strands of 0.071mm wire which ends up being around 0.66mm2 cross-sectional area of copper which equates to somewhere between 19 and 20 AWG
Headphones Cable? Nah, that's a Headphones Strap my dude.
Yes, or a very expensive lanyard ;)
when's the giveaway?
watched the next vid, in a few weeks he said i think
I am hoping to have everything ready early next week so the vid should be edited and up wed/thurs hopefully.
You forgot nice cable's for Audiophiles have to be sprinkled with magic fairy dust, so you can charge megabucks...jokes aside, what are they gunna set me back ?
These can come with a graphene coating for the audiphiles ... The graphene is made by electromechanical exfoliation of pyrolytic graphite. Surely with that may long words it must be better than you run of the mill fairy dust ;)
We are still looking at pricing. As you can imagine, they are not cheap to make. I suspect the normal litz ones will be in the £200+ range and the graphene coated litz ones will be a chunk more.
So expensive, but a fare price for what you get and by no means the most expensive ones out there.
They look like they brake faster than an iPhone charger
Silk is pretty strong stuff - I am really tempted to see if I can swing off one during testing to see if it can hold my weight. It could be expensive and painful if it breaks but would make a good video.
Lets see, i got Israeli pure single crystal silver airforce communication wire, parallel with single crystal gold plated copper on the positive, and gold filled copper on the return (gives s special body to the mids, same as silver gives clarity). Individual cotton braided (special audio cotton wrap for the gold wire (cotton provides the highest space and clarity other than stringing it out across a room with nothing within 1m of it , soft cotton shoelaces for the rest) and then wrapped in balanced config. Purple and pink shrink. High silver content solder. About $80 all in all..$100 with mini aviation connectors ☺️
Interested in how the graphene affects the sound though, has to be either clean as hell or diffuse as hell.
..off to the bay i go
Oh my, you should go mad with designs. These are like canvas.
We will have to see how they go but we may well do some other colours / designs on them if we sell enough of them
Poor soldering job there mate.
Yeh ;) Trying to hold the soldering iron at odd angles so it does not interfere with the camera combined with silver solder on litz wire did not help. I kept this one for testing and have used it every day since and it has held up so far so... maybe the bigger the blob the better the job is true ;)
I promise, James our technician does a much neater job on the custom ones than I did in this video.
@CustomCans Yes, silver soldering is much trickier.
#muchwant #imanoldmantryingtolookcool #itisntworking
LOL ;)