recabling fancy headphones

[Rroff]

The cable manufacturers would have us believe that the best cables are made of silver, the next grade being oxygen free copper and the cheap cables of ordinary copper. The reason they claim is that better conductivity leads to better sound quality.
Sadly this is mostly nonsense as the conductivity of the purest oxygen free copper is only 1% better than the most common oxygen free copper, which would make no audible difference.

The main reasons for getting a good cable are build quality, convenience and aesthetics. Basically OFC cables tend to use higher quality plugs and solder and just look better. Silver cables can also come in handy as they are usually thinner and lighter than copper cables.

Once you have a cable that uses high quality components and is competently constructed, then there is little to no reason to spend more money on a replacement.

The only reason I would get a replacement cable for my HD650s is if I broke the standard cable, which is already high quality OFC or for convenience, in that I usually sit less than a metre from my amp, so something shorter than the standard 10 footer would be nice.

Only place that silver, etc. really has a potential to make a difference IMO is in the feedback loop of amps and stuff like that where short, high quality, traces/interconnects can significantly reduce noise and distortion (or rather poor quality can significantly increase it). You'd need significant resistance in an audio cable for it to really become a factor.

 

[Kei]

You can use standard DT880/990 pads on the original T1 as they fit perfectly just grey rather than black. The VB version is black. (cost a shade over £20 on thomman) There is some debate on headfi regarding if it affects the sound or not though. They are "fun" to replace though. I get the job of maintaining all of the headphones in work which are primarily DT770 Pro's, because I'm the only one with the patience to repair them. To be fair to beyer, their professional kit is pretty well made and lasts well. My personal DT770's are nearly 20 years old.

Replacing the cable is pretty easy if you are handy with a soldering iron and generally doesn't cost more than £20 in parts. All you need is some decent twin core screened microphone cable and a nice neutrik TRS jack plug. Belden 1800F would be equivalent to the original cable but the overall diameter is probably too large for two of them to fit into the jack plug. Canford HST-M is another option but similar thickness. The problem is that the tougher the cable, the thicker the insulation. Thinner cables can't take the abuse. It'd be easier if the T1 used a single entry cable and ran the other ear cable via the headband like they do on all the other models.

 

[Phal]

You can use standard DT880/990 pads on the original T1 as they fit perfectly just grey rather than black. The VB version is black. (cost a shade over £20 on thomman) There is some debate on headfi regarding if it affects the sound or not though. They are "fun" to replace though. I get the job of maintaining all of the headphones in work which are primarily DT770 Pro's, because I'm the only one with the patience to repair them. To be fair to beyer, their professional kit is pretty well made and lasts well. My personal DT770's are nearly 20 years old.

Replacing the cable is pretty easy if you are handy with a soldering iron and generally doesn't cost more than £20 in parts. All you need is some decent twin core screened microphone cable and a nice neutrik TRS jack plug. Belden 1800F would be equivalent to the original cable but the overall diameter is probably too large for two of them to fit into the jack plug. Canford HST-M is another option but similar thickness. The problem is that the tougher the cable, the thicker the insulation. Thinner cables can't take the abuse. It'd be easier if the T1 used a single entry cable and ran the other ear cable via the headband like they do on all the other models.

Yeah, the pads are easy enough to swap. The only reason I need new pads is because I put the last set I had on an old pair of DT 990s that I was selling. I could probably fix it myself but my soldering isn't great and I'm a bit paranoid about screwing it up.

I bought a custom made MMX 300 headset years ago and chose leather earpads. They were ok but after a while, the oils in your skin change the leather and it doesn't look great :/ They're also rather warm in the summer! The MMX 300 is the reason I'm down a pair of earpads lol.

My MMX 300 was custom made, that needed repairing (was done under warranty). It's still not perfect since the mic seems to pick up noise from somewhere (tested on another pc etc).

My T1s needed repairing (under warranty) not long after I bought them because one of the drivers had a weird rattle on higher volumes. Now I need a new cable :/

I'll probably buy another cheap snap on headband like I put on my MMX 300 to put on my T1s. The proper headband looks nice but not worth over £100 including labour/parts and VAT!

 

[Phal]

Well in the end I just got them to replace the cable. I also asked about them replacing the earpads and fixing the loose leather headband but the quote for that came to £300 including the cable work their answer was just to replace the whole headband rather than actually fix what's there.

I told them to just fix the cable and got a headband pad and earpads from Amazon!