Cables for Audio Mirror Tubadour III

@arafiq  I had to look up IIRC, I do have the Empy. My frame of reference is the Empy and a Sennheiser 600 10 years ago. So not much experience with headphones. 

I bough the Empy because a dealer told me to get that instead of the Focal Utopia which he also sells. I bought the Benchmark HPA4 and DAC3B from the same dealer and he said the Empy is great with the HPA4. He was correct. 

I am prone to fatigue with bad sound and I was worried that the Empy would do that as the Sennheiser, which I had to give away. I was very happy to find that the Empy has 0 fatigue even after hours of listening. The Empy is a little dark on top with the stock cable, which is made of copper. It is more than enjoyable but I felt there was some restriction in the sound. I think the lack of fatigue was because of the darkish sound.

After some discussions with guys on Head-fi they steered me to the WyWire Platinum copper cable (on sale 40% off). When I first plugged in the cable I could hear a lot more detail but also got a ton of fatigue. This never happened with the stock cable.

I let the headphones play on the stands for a few days and then listened again to the same album that gave me fatigue (forgot which it was now). After the burn-in I heard the same details but also a more relaxed sound without any fatigue, even after every long hours of listening. There was  a sparkle in things like drums that I was missing with the stock cable.

So these 2 copper cables had a different effect on me and sounded very different. I sent the WyWire cable back to WyWire to get a longer version since they have a buy back program. Great company and cables.

@pastorbob -- did you mean to say 2P is safe for any application, or were you referring to 3P? Based on what I read on the website, it looks like 2P is a better choice for DACs, but I'll certainly reach out to the AE.

So for Curious Cable, right now I don't notice any differences apart from a maybe a bit more bass. Unfortunately, I have been super busy lately and have not been able to burn in the cable yet. It'll probably be a couple of weeks for me to put on 50+ hours, at which point I will share my impressions. But right now, I honestly cannot hear any differences.

BTW, I have never had a power conditioner in any of my systems -- headphone or 2 channel. That's another avenue I still need to explore. Maybe after upgrading ATM3.

@yyzsantabarbara Thanks for your detailed response. Once I'm done with upgrading the DAC in my 2 channel rig, I might refocus on my headphone system. I really like the R2R sound, so I might be getting a similar DAC for the headphones too. Although, I've heard great things about RME. Or maybe a used Benchmark.

BTW, have you tried using Roon's DSP for your headphones? When I first got the Focal Clear, I really did not like the sound at all. But I set the bands based on rotary 1990's published settings and it made a world of difference.

I recently looked at the ROON DSP settings and did not try it for too long since it was for Audeze. However, now that you mention it for Focal. I will check it out. Though I must say I like the way the headphone sounds in the current ROON  configuration.

I also use the headphones for FM tuner over the air and my SACD player that can only output analog (due to mods). So no ROON DSP available for those 2 sources. They also sound great,

BTW - PM me when you are ready to get your next DAC.