Headphone Cable Length

[Jsmith]

With my new headphones I am thinking of ordering custom cables. Being new to the whole headphone thing, not sure what the thinking is here. I can see why shorter might be better, but don't want to limit myself too much.

 

Moon Audio and ALO Audio have like 5', 8', 10' options. 5 seems a little short, so leaning toward 8' to 10'.

[JohnMH]

3 meters (9.8 feet) - the stock cable on AKG702 seems good for me. Kind of long for a portable source perhaps, but good with fixed sources.

[AudGuy]

Also considering this change ... longer or just long enough ... I found there are companies that will assemble quality cables in whatever type and/or length may be desired. What you can get may depend somewhat on the type of connections that your headphones use.

 

For my HiFiMAN phones, they come with quite good Canare copper and connect to individual connectors on each side. In addition, the maker also offers this same cable in 5 or 8 meter lengths. Since I want to route cabling around the periphery of the room I am considering the 8M length although, I am unsure if a cable this long will have any sonic influence. It is not expensive though at about $150 so I am thinking this is the route I will take.

 

Custom cables I found were similar and made with perhaps better cables but were all considerably more expensive. Since this is an analog feed I think that better cables can/will result in better sonics so I may buck-up and buy the more expensive solution. I am currently using an inexpensive headphone extension cable and that is working quite well although there is a slight change in the sound from my headphones. Somewhat softer and overall a bit less extension, but not by a significant amount.

 

Overall, the currently in use extension cable came from a musicians store and cost $30 for 20 feet. Grado makes something similar commonly available for about $35 ...

[Jsmith]

Also considering this change ... longer or just long enough ... I found there are companies that will assemble quality cables in whatever type and/or length may be desired. What you can get may depend somewhat on the type of connections that your headphones use.

 

For my HiFiMAN phones, they come with quite good Canare copper and connect to individual connectors on each side. In addition, the maker also offers this same cable in 5 or 8 meter lengths. Since I want to route cabling around the periphery of the room I am considering the 8M length although, I am unsure if a cable this long will have any sonic influence. It is not expensive though at about $150 so I am thinking this is the route I will take.

 

Custom cables I found were similar and made with perhaps better cables but were all considerably more expensive. Since this is an analog feed I think that better cables can/will result in better sonics so I may buck-up and buy the more expensive solution. I am currently using an inexpensive headphone extension cable and that is working quite well although there is a slight change in the sound from my headphones. Somewhat softer and overall a bit less extension, but not by a significant amount.

 

Overall, the currently in use extension cable came from a musicians store and cost $30 for 20 feet. Grado makes something similar commonly available for about $35 ...

 

Audguy,

 

Thanks for the input. I am definitely looking into the custom cable route on this. This is partly what is driving my question here. Custom cables cannot be returned, and as you pointed out can be expensive. I have made mistakes in my past so trying to see what wisdom others have to avoid a potentially costly one.

 

Right now I am leaning towards longer to give most play and room.

[SoundQcar]

Really depends on how far you are from your headphone amp, whether or not you plan to pass them around in order to share, move around the room while listening, etc...etc.

 

My wife doesn't listen to headphones, and my rig is right next to my chair, so I went short....about 5ft. It's been more than enough for me.

 

By the way, make sure to check out Q-Audio if you're looking for a custom set of headphone cabling. After owning about everything out there, I've definitely settled on these. They really get out of the way and allow the headphone to show you what it's capable of. The fact that they're extremely light and flexible is simply icing on the cake.

[KDinsmore]

X2 on the Q-Cables. I own Q Cables French Silk cables for my LCD2.2's in a 2 meter length. I sit in front of the amp so I don't need more length than that but definitely wouldn't go shorter. What I really like about these cables is their flexibility.......like the cable isn't even there because it's so light.

 

An over statement: you can always have them shortened up for a nominal fee.

[Jsmith]

So I went with a longer cable (10') to give me flexibility in the design since I was not 100% sure how I wanted to lay things out.

 

Right now I am happy with the longer cable. Since it is a bit heavier than the stock, the extra length allows most of the weight to rest on the ground or desk before making it's way up to me. I think a shorter cable that was solely suspend from the headphones would have cause some discomfort after a while with the weight pulling directly down.

 

This weight was something I had not accounted for, but seems to have worked in my favor.

[bobbmd]

why not buy one of the higher priced sennheiser wireless phones or even lower priced ones that give 360ft through walls or out to your yard and solve all your problems bobbmd

how much different can they possibly sound bobbmd

[NOMBEDES]

why not buy one of the higher priced sennheiser wireless phones or even lower priced ones that give 360ft through walls or out to your yard and solve all your problems bobbmd

how much different can they possibly sound bobbmd

 

 

 

YIKES! Does not wireless foster COMPRESSION? We do not like compression. Compression sucks the life out of music.

We want big, uncompressed files, high rez music which requires storage farms the size of Idaho.

 

Or

 

You could just go wireless and not worry.