this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Headphones

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I recently ordered some OPENHEART 4.4mm balanced cables for my Hifiman Ananda Stealth. I couldn't decide between the 8-core and 16-core cables, so I bought both.

The weights are as follows:

  • Hifiman original: 51g
  • OPENHEART 8-core: 37g
  • OPENHEART 16-core: 56g

I tried to measure resistance, but my DMM has some low-ohm drift. As far as I could tell, all cable connections were roughly somewhere around 200 milliohms end-to-end (correcting for lead resistance). I know there are methodologies for more accurate measurement, but honestly I think all these cables are sonically indistinguishable.

All three cables were extremely flexible. The Ananda Stealth came with Hifiman's updated cables that address the complaints about their previous stiff cables.

I was surprised at how flexible the 16-core cables were. The 8-core cables were so "stringy" that they had a tendency to tangle when unhooked. The relevance of this would depend on whether you left them connected all the time or connected/disconnected/packed them up in daily use.

Anyway, that's it. I figured I'd share since I had both in my hands.

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[–] Astr0bull@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I had picked up a couple of openheart 8 core cables 1.5-2 years ago, and they were nice and didn't tangle or kink, though it was hard to tell the left and right plugs apart. But the ones I bought were no longer available, so I tried a different version, and they were just so stiff, despite being slightly more expensive. They actually felt far worse and tangled/kinked more easily than the $4 cables I use when loaning to friends.
FWIW, there was no difference to my ears or on a frequency response graph (crude testing rig) between all the cables, including the old stock hifiman cables and even some regular electrical wire, lol.

[–] chrispitude73@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Totally. I've been known to hook up my Magnepan speakers with lamp cord in a pinch. Shhh, don't tell my audiophile friends...

[–] blorg@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I have that experience as well, I have several of the black/brown/brass hardware one that is nice but I have another OpenHeart cable that's very stiff.