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Articles and Reviews
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Zu
Pivot 1/8-inch Mini to RCA & Zu Mobius Sennheiser Headphone
Cables $200 for headphone cables?! I could feel the mocking overtones from my friend over the telephone when I confirmed that I was going to order in some upgrade cables for my current Sennheiser HD580 headphones. And indeed one would have to wonder about the efficacy of spending an amount worth more than 50 percent of the value of my elderly cans, just for a set of wires. Way back in the mid 1990s, before headphone listening was cool, when Sennheiser rocked the audiophile community with the much lauded HD580s, I bought a set for CAN $400. Now about a decade later, I’m spending US $200 for a two-meter length of Zu Mobius cables to upgrade the stock cables for the headphones. Is it time for me to see a shrink? Now, I do have plans to upgrade the cans to the current top offering from Sennheiser, the HD650, because, as I spiral further into the world of high-end headphone listening, I want to ensure that every part of my kit is up to par with no weak links, including the cables. Cables are a vexatious topic of discussion for many audio nuts. Some take an engineering stance and expect that as long as the cable uses good material, high quality conductive copper, and are terminated with good jacks, that there should be little to differentiate between one brand versus another. But, cables are also filled with what the engineers consider as voodoo technology and pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo. We have, or have had, silver cables, carbon cables, cables with boxes of resisters and capacitors built-in to filter the signal, cables insulated with liquid, cable lashed together with light emitters, cables with massive amounts of insulation and shielding, cables with almost no insulation and shielding, cables bigger than garden hoses, cables thinner than your shoe string, cables as flat as a few sheets of paper. In short, cables are an over crowded market with dozens of companies all claiming to offer audio nirvana and telling us their six nines copper is better than another brand’s six nines copper (six nines = 99.9999 percent pure). Me, I tend to fall more towards the engineering side of things. Don’t feed me mumbo jumbo, just give me a cable that has high-quality copper, good insulation and shielding, high quality jacks and please, price it so that I can actually afford it. My opinion is that cables should be looked at as a component onto itself, not as a mish-mash of wires that one scrounges from here and there. I believe in a system approach to audio and today, would likely go with a series of components from one brand, e.g. Classe source with Classe amplification. As such, I would want to use the same brand of cable to connect the source to the pre-amp, pre-amp to power amp, and power amp to speaker. I would also use the same cable brand for the power cords for the equipment. The idea is that system components and cables will have a “house” sound and work best together because the designer will have balanced the components with each other for a neutral presentation. BUT, neutrality is all in the ear of the beholder. Neutrality to Tom could mean bright and edgy to Dick, or slow and sloppy to Harry. If I were besotted with one particular brand of speaker, I would also take seriously the cable recommendations that the speaker designer recommends, e.g. David Wilson has suggested MIT and Transparent cables for his extravagantly priced transducers – anyone care to spend US $8,000 for a pair of bookshelf speakers (the Duet). While one might be able to justify the high cost of system components such as a CD player, or power amp, or speakers; cables of the high-priced variety, seems absurd to spend thousands of dollars on nicely wrapped plastic and rubber over large gauge copper wires. I priced out what it cost me to rewire my system with the top cables from a relatively new, but very promising player in the market, Zu, and the amount was about what my Classe amp is worth. It’s not out of line for high-end audio, in fact there are single sets of cables, which would cost more, a lot more than my whole future kit of cables, but we’re still talking about over four thousand dollars. It is rather hard to stomach paying so much for wires all at once, which is why I’m not likely to rewire the system anytime soon. However, I’ve reached a point where I’ve decided that continuing to slum it with cables of questionable pedigree is no longer acceptable and while I can’t afford to do it all at once, I’ll start slow and do it piecemeal, as can be afforded. To start the process, I’m reporting back on the Zu Mobius upgrade cable for Sennheiser headphones and the Zu Pivot mini-jack to RCA cable to mate my iPod’s docking station with my headphone amps. The Zu Pivot The Pivot is not a thick cable, but it's well built and it has a hard and somewhat stiff mesh cover. The RCA and 1/8-inch mini-jacks look pretty nice too. I let my friend test it out with my iPod to connect the iPod’s docking station to my Headsave Classic amp. In previous sessions, while I could hear a difference between using the iPod’s headphone jack and the docking station, I hadn’t been blown away by the difference. This was with a low cost Prisma cable hooked up to a 1/8 inch to dual RCA adapter, so it’s not ideal. Could the Zu Pivot have a greater impact? According to my friend listening via his Sennheiser HD600 cans, there is indeed a difference and it’s meaningful. This is a very good start and I couldn’t wait to do my own comparison testing with my cans. I pulled out a few different samples and options to compare the Zu Pivot to; a cheap mini to RCA cable, the kind that comes free with consumer electronics; a Radio Shack mini to RCA cable that can be bought for all of CAN $20 or less; the aforementioned $40 Prisma cable using a mini to RCA adapter. Straight off, I’ll state that none of the cables offended my ears and while I heard differences, they were for the most part, subtle. I started with the cheapest and moved up until I got to the Pivot and each step up did offer a benefit that the previous cable did not have. I used
the Northern Exposure theme song from the soundtrack CD for most
of my testing. I loved the early 1990s era show in its first few
seasons when it was a spark of originality and creativity with quirky
characters. The show eventually went downhill as its star character
wanted out to become a movie star (big mistake, because he never
became one) and jumped the shark in a rather bizarre sequence in
which the doctor sees Manhattan appear in the frozen Alaskan bush
and he wanders into it and finally goes home. The soundtrack offers
a delightful mix of eclectic tunes from the playful theme song to
sultry jazz to southern rock. The theme song is a mix of seemingly
disparate instruments from a harmonica to clarinet to
The
Cheap Consumer Cable Radio
Shack Mini to RCA Cable Prisma
Cable plus Mini to RCA Adapter Slightly less bass weight than the Radio Shack cable, but also slightly more clarity; however, I’d say it’s toss-up between the Prisma and the Radio Shack cable. Zu
Pivot For the approximately CAN $50 I paid for it, the Pivot’s a very good buy, but even at it’s normal price of about CAN $100, it’s still a meaningful purchase that provides more “jam” than the other cables. I highly recommend prospective buyers needing such a cable head onto eBay and buy via auction at far less than regular price. And apparently, the people at Zu are even good enough to adapt the cable from mini to RCA to mini to mini, if you need such a configuration, as I do for use with another headphone amp. The Zu Mobius
If US $200 is extravagant for a headphone cable upgrade, then spending many thousands on a car system is black hole of a money pit that I want nothing to do with…yet. But we each have our own priorities. I don’t spend much time in my car and my car is also not the kind worth the effort and expense of tricking out with an audiophile approved system. I can just see it now, Edwin in is his Mazda MPV, bopping down the road with a custom rack of subs and amps taking up the entire rear section of the van. Having heard my friend’s car system though, I have to admit it is quite superb with incredible clarity and digital processing to ensure that the imaging was centered on the driver’s side. Bass response was ample and more importantly, appropriate as compared to other car audio systems that just pound out one note bass beats. Quality over quantity. The Zu Mobius cable is nicely packaged with a relatively stiff protective mesh weave just like the Pivot cable. I bought a two-meter length, which is shorter than the 10-foot length of the stock Sennheiser cable, but for day-to-day listening I don’t expect to miss that extra meter of cable. The thickness, quality, and build definitely gives one tremendous reassurance that this cable will outlast your Sennheiser cans and can be migrated over to new cans. Thankfully Sennheiser has used the same type of connection from the HD580 through to the HD650, so there’s no issue for upgrading.
I admit to some trepidation in using the Mobius cable because of some posts at Head-Fi.org. I’ve been following a discussion about the Benchmark DAC-1 versus the Apogee Mini DAC and what I found interesting was that most considered the stock HD650 to be a very good match to the Benchmark unit, but not with the Apogee. Once the Mobius cable is thrown into the mix then those in the know considered the HD650 to be a good match with the Apogee. Wow, that would be a significant change in the tonal characteristics of the headphones merely by replacing the cable. The postings indicated that the Mobius would make the HD650 more forward sounding which of course would allow it to mate more compatibly with the darker sounding Apogee. As my interest is in the Benchmark DAC-1, I wondered if using the Mobius would be too much of a change? I won’t know until I have the Benchmark DAC-1 and HD650 in-house.
The Mobius, like its Pivot stable mate, does provide improved dynamics, clarity, and bass impact, as well as bass definition. The old stock cable was smooth and like the cheap cable comparison to the Pivot, the stock Sennheiser cable erred on omission, as in being a barrier to letting all of the expressiveness of the music to flow through. While this is all good and the Mobius is an improvement over the old cables, for some US $200 is going to be a lot of money to pay for a modest improvement in sound, e.g. my skeptical friend, who was actually more worried that he'd be forced to spend $200 for his own cans than about the improvement in sound. You can also buy a used, mint condition set of HD600 cans for the same money and if you go for new set of HD650s with the Mobius upgrade, geez, we’re getting close to a Canadian k bill just for a set of cans, albeit widely considered to be the best overall cans in the world. There are probably some audiophiles out there that would pay a lot more money to achieve a similarly modest improvement in sound, so I’m not sure if my ears are just too brass tarnished, or if my expectations demand much more for the money paid. The difference I heard was along the lines of the improvement offered by the Pivot versus the freebie cable, but then the Pivot retails for less than half the price of the Mobius, so it provides a lot better bang for the buck. The Mobius is very well made, its quality is certainly not in question, but it’s still US $200 for two-meters of cable. My friend, upon hearing of my opinion just said, “I told you so!” He then went on to brag about how he won an eBay auction for two ten-foot pairs of Zu’s Julian speaker cables for US $160 – that’s 40 feet of thick speaker cable for less than my six feet of headphone cable, because Zu was not offering the Mobius for eBay auction. Sigh! I guess what’s nagging me about the Mobius is that I had the Pivot available and knowing the price discrepancy between the two, I’m less enchanted. However, the Mobius, physically, is a lot more cable than the Pivot, so cost is relative and more than likely appropriate. And for serious listening at home, I don’t intend to return to the old cables and in the end, that’s all that’s going to matter.
Conclusion While the Mobius is a tad bit more than I’d like to see them sold for given their level of improvement with my HD580s (other competitive cables sell for less too), together with the Pivot, they offer a meaningful improvement in sound and when looked at as a whole, the cost is more bearable and more inline with my expectations. Also, if one is headed towards building a reference level headphone listening setup, one cannot skimp on any aspect of the sound quality, including cables. While my current headphone kit is not of reference level, as I work my way towards such lofty heights, I’m much more comfortable with having the Pivot and Mobius as part of my kit and knowing that they won’t be the weak links in the chain. And again, I’m much happier with the cables in my kit than not. However, I would also note that system matching is important, because, as I was completing this review, my new portable amp, the Go-Vibe was delivered and initial impressions are that the Mobius equipped HD580s is not an ideal match compared to the HD580s with the stock cable. But more on this in the future Go-Vibe review. Why
Headphone Listening This was with the stock and elderly HD580, but I was gob smacked by the details I was hearing and the incredible low frequency energy that just gets your head swaying back and forth and your foot tapping along to the drive. I had never heard this song played back with such energy even though I’ve owned the CD since it first came out. As I thought about this revelation, I admit that I had not listened to the CD in a number of years, but back in the day when it was a hit record, I had never heard it played back through a good hi-fi, not even my own (blushing with embarrassment). It was always via cheap TV speakers watching the video, or through cheap headphones via cheap CD players. When I heard it during those times, the song seemed like just so much distortion and a cacophony of noise. No details, no subtleties, no indication that the band was actually constructing a song with so many layers. Even a relatively decent pair of cans like my Grado SR100s cannot do justice to the Fly because the Grado’s have no low bass quality to speak off, just completely gone once you start getting below 100 Hz. Hence, a big part of the song that gets your foot stomping is gone and TV and radio speakers can be even worse off for offering low bass impact. And I don’t mean boomy bass, but bass with definition that’s an integral part of the song. Having full-range headphones driven by a good headphone amp is like listening to your favorite music for the first time again and it’s addictive. I know and understand why it is that some people get so hooked that they own multiple amps and cans in search of audio nirvana. Heck, I’m headed there myself with three amps (M-Audio, Headsave Classic, and Headsave Go-Vibe) and will eventually have three cans in-house (Grado SR100, HD580, and HD650) and another amp in the form of an outboard DAC unit. I think this could be the start of something very bad (in a good way) and very expensive. On top of that I’m still working on trying to improve the sound of the regular hi-fi. I’ve fallen into the abyss and I can’t get out… |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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If
a friend hadn’t led me onto the fact that Zu was selling a number
of their cables via eBay auction, I would have spent US $89 for
a one-meter length of this cable. Instead, I got it for less than
half price via the eBay auction that my friend conducted on my behalf
(I've never bought or sold on eBay until very recently, so have
no positive history to work with). 
The
test rig was my 
This
is the cable that my friend mocked me for, but I quickly countered
with asking him how much he’s blown on his car audio system for
which he said something along the lines of, “yah, but that’s different.”
Not from my perspective 
The
¼ inch TRS jack is massive and is just another inspiring part of
the Mobius’ construction.
With
my current headphone amps the first quick impression with my HD580s
connected to the Mobius (and without a point of reference) was of
a louder and more dynamic presentation of the music with greater
detail and clarity. I was definitely looking forward to doing some
real comparisons to see if the quick first impressions would remain
true. However, when I was finally able to sit down and do some more
considered comparisons, I found that initial impression was not
quite as great as expected.
