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Hello, This is my first post to this forum, as I have just revived my interest in higher quality audio. This came about in an odd way. I recently remodeled my office to add more storage for my family. In doing this, my Alesis M1 studio monitors (fed by the sound card build into the gaming motherboard in my PC) could no longer fit in the room, at least not in an ideal listening position, so I had to start the search for something smaller, but I couldn't find anything that could be mounted to the wall that was less than 5 inches wide and had any chance of sounding good, so I decided to go another route. I started to researched headphones, which lead to suggestions for amps, which lead to suggestions for DACs... With a budge of about $800 I decided on the Schiit Jotunheim with the balanced DAC module, powering the Sennheiser HD600 headphones, and a balanced headphone cable from Custom Cans. I also purchased a USB cable from Schitt to connect the DAC to my PC. Once everything came in, I hooked it all up and was blown away by how much clearer things sounded. But there was a problem... my music mostly sounded like crap. Much of it was ripped from CD into my FLAC collection, but then I learned that it has a lot to do with the mastering and mixing process. I started to look for some new music to listen to and tried a variety of genre, finally settling on smooth jazz being my favorite. It's been about a month since my purchase and everything is starting to sound better. I don't have experience with this, and my ears are not trained, but the music just started to sound more open and full bodied if that makes any sense. After reading many posts about this subject, all of which seem to turn into arguments, I just want to say that I don't really care what it is that made it sound better, I'm just very happy that it does. So, that's where I'm at now, and I have a few questions that I've searched for without finding specific answers. I'm pretty handy, and I love DIY projects, so I decided to make my own headphone cables since the connectors to the HD600s on the Custom Cans wires are a bit too long; they hit my shoulders when I turn my head (other than that they are awesome). Many people choose to use the wires found in the Mogami Neglex 2534s so I went with those as a starting point. The question is, why do people only use the wires, and not the entire cable? The cable is designed to minimizes the things that would effect the analog audio signal, such as capacitance and inductance, and it has what looks like well thought out dielectric and shielding. It's also within the optimum wire diameter to reduce the skin effect. If headphones used speaker level signal strength, I would not be as concerned, but I think the relatively low signal strength over my required 7 foot run would benefit from keeping the cable together up to the point where it needs to split to each driver. I'm new to this and learning as I go, so I may have this all very wrong, please let me know. Is there a better wire I can use that would still produce an audible sound difference given the equipment I am currently using? I'm not looking for Teflon coated silver here... And finally, does anyone have any suggestions for high quality smooth jazz recordings and where I can get them? Thanks!
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Ayre Codex Headphone Amplifier/DAC/Digital Preamp AVAILABLE WITH HEADPHONE CABLE BUNDLE 30% OFF CARDAS BALANCED HEADPHONE CABLE of Your Choice With Purchase “I don't know if it's due to the "zero negative feedback" design or the killer digital filters Charlie Hanson dreams up, but with file resolutions of PCM up to 32/384 and DSD128 the Codex is just plain musical. Can't wait to get one up here for a long hard listen.” – Tyll Hertsens, innerfidelity.com Built in Boulder, Colorado, the Codex is Ayre’s most affordable and versatile product. It performs equally well as a stand-alone headphone amp, DAC and digital preamp. As a headphone amp it offers the latest state-of-the-art technology for which Ayre Acoustics is so well known. This includes featuring dual 3.5mm mini jacks that can be configured for balanced mode headphone listening, a fully-balanced signal path throughout the analog circuit that provided a whisper quiet background, Ayre’s exclusive diamond output circuit and a audiophile grade linear AyreLock power supply. When combined with their zero negative feedback design and minimum phase digital filter, the Codex provides pure musicality that is almost hard to believe and unheard of at its price. The Codex can also be used as a standalone DAC with fixed output and/or as a standalone digital preamp if you need a volume control. Whether being used as a headphone amp or as a part of a high performance home stereo, the Codex is an astounding achievement and is already one of our choices for product of the year. If you’re looking for a headphone amp or a new DAC, the Codex will definitely make a great addition to virtually any system. Ayre has been designing products like this for over 20 years. Listen and experience what Ayre and your music are all about. Output Level Headphone or Preamp Modes 7.2 volts balanced, 3.1 volts single-ended Output Level DAC Mode 4 volts balanced, 2 volts single-ended Input USB - PCM 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz, 352.8 kHz, 384 kHz (up to 24 bits), DSD64, DSD128 Optical input (Toslink) Dimensions 2.25"W x 9"D x 5.25"H (5.5 cm x 23 cm x 13.7 cm) This product qualifies for Free Shipping and 5% back when you register for Club Ciamara Membership Rewards Program 1.844.CIAMARA (1.844.242.6272) High End Audio Store NYC - Experience Ciamara
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I received an Audeze LCD-X earlier this week and currently look into buying a replacement for the stock cable that was included. Now I have the choice of copper versus silver cables and wanted to know what you would recommend? Since I will be using the headphones mainly for critical mastering work I want to avoid any kind of sonic pimping. I'd like to get the best from what the Audezes have in a linear way. The cable will be balanced, so I can connect to the main output of a Sound Devices USBPre2. Thanks a lot for your time, I look forward to hear from you. Stephan
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