E500 Cable Cracked

[Fungi]

I hear the stock cable has quality issues.

[Torpedo]

I hear the stock cable has quality issues.

Really? which ones?

[Fungi]

Really? which ones?

Something about it breaking at a joint or sleeving breaking out or something. It was a while back and I really didn't care about the Denons after what I read so I stopped paying attention, but it could have been just the D2000.

[Sherwood]

Luckily, the cables I build also have quality issues.

[wrecked_porsche]

This is also beyond confusing:

I was reading the first two lines of that on his site, then I thought:

Why should I even give a shit?

Confusing is an understatement...

[Torpedo]

Something about it breaking at a joint or sleeving breaking out or something. It was a while back and I really didn't care about the Denons after what I read so I stopped paying attention, but it could have been just the D2000.

The main quality issue with the D5000 is the piece holding the yoke to the headband which tends to break and letting the cup-yoke unit to fall. Fortunately I haven't had this problem. Also the units out the first production runs had the lettering easily erased, but that seems to be improved.

The stock cable is quite good, a bit stiff and hard to route, but looks solid. The plug, besides it's a 1/8" with a 1/4" threaded adapter, is well built and holds firmly into the jacks. Soundwise, as everything, it's arguable. I don't think you can get much improvement by recabling them whatever the wire you use, but YMMV.

Regarding Mark and his business venture... I think that the guy honestly noticed the D5000's potential and did his best to improve the flaws he noticed, which I concur exist.

I got a "basic" modded pair from him for three reasons

- I listened the stock D5000 and found their bass kind of "overexcited", with too much decay, energy and poor tone. If the mods could improve that, why not?

- So I wanted the mods done by the person who has more experience and had tweaked them to death. This sounded more sensible than wasting my time to find the correct amount of everything to get the sound right.

- The D5000 in Spain/Europe were very expensive (still are) so ordering the D5000 to Amazon USA, having them sent to Mark to make the mods and then shipped to me, was more or less the same price than buying them stock here, specially considering the USA/euro ratio was very favorable to me.

I think that many people started to show interest asking him to mod their pairs, so he clearly saw a business potential he's now getting some profit from. You may dislike the guy, his taste in sound or whatever, but I wouldn't say he's a scammer or that he's getting a huge profit from his mods. Those Jena wires are very expensive. I don't care much about their performance, and I dislike their looks, however if he and other people find it a worth improvement, I don't see why the recabling service shouldn't be offered. Also I'm sure some balanced nuts believe that balancing the cans would do some good. I don't think so, but who knows.

Anyway, I don't get the whole of the criticism to Mark, but maybe this comes from the old times when I didn't use to frequent HF.

[n_maher]

You may dislike the guy, his taste in sound or whatever, but I wouldn't say he's a scammer or that he's getting a huge profit from his mods.

Here, let me break it down for you. 22ga Jena wire = $6.25/ft (if bought retail from a dealer, he probably gets it for less direct, or at least he should), Furutech 1/4" plug = $13.20 (again, retail). That's it, that's all of the parts that he uses. So if you figure that with braiding you get a 30% reduction in the length of the cable you'd need 14' of wire to make a 10' cable, and 4 of them for the type of cable he's making. So total that up and you'd need 14' x 4 = 56' total x $6.25 = $350. Add up the wire and connectors and I get a parts total of $363.20. For a 10' SE rewire he's charging $589. I'd say that ~$225 is a healthy margin for a pseudo-MOT and that's assuming he's not smart enough to negotiate at least some discount on the bits he's using. It wouldn't at all surprise me if he's able to knock 25-50% off the retail prices, I know I could without breaking a sweat. Then his margins start looking like $300+. Not bad for a job that takes a couple hours. And don't get me started on the $10/ft nylon multifilament. There's no way he's paying even $2/ft for that stuff.

Anyway, I don't get the whole of the criticism to Mark, but maybe this comes from the old times when I didn't use to frequent HF.

Research ALO for more information.

[Sherwood]

I'm assuming he's using the "cable pants" bullshit Y splitter because it's the first one he found and didn't have to fabricate.

I think that thing is ugly as sin.

[penger]

Agreed. It's just gross.

Ooo. Now ALO has hook up wire that costs as much as the 22ga Jena you just quoted. So if you had to buy one, which would it be?

[Sherwood]

"How often is plastic used in the construction of genuine musical instruments? The sad fact is that the plastic cups of the Denon AH-D2000 have a negative impact on that phone’s tone and timbre, producing a tainted sound that can only be described as “plastic-y”.

This really chaps me. Wood is used in instruments because it is resonant. Resonance is what you do not want in a speaker cabinet, unless it is specifically intended to augment certain frequencies.

I am so sick of the "real instruments are made of wood" argument.

[n_maher]

I am so sick of the "real instruments are made of wood" argument.

I would like to hear a plastic acoustic guitar.

[Fungi]

If you're going to stuff it with dampening material, might as well use something like titanium

[wrecked_porsche]

So if you had to buy one, which would it be?

Why?

What would force you to be under such circumstances?

[Sherwood]

Charlie Parker with his famous Grafton Plastic Alto. He only played it in France, as I understand it, because of contract and sponsorship issues. Great horn.

[Sherwood]

I would like to hear a plastic acoustic guitar.

Hopefully you got my meaning.

I agree that most quality instruments are made of wood. Headphones aren't instruments, though, they're transducers.

[Sherwood]

That is the legendary Maccaferri G40, made from Styron. Plastic never sounded better.

[penger]

Why?

What would force you to be under such circumstances?

If you wanted an expensive way to hang yourself. Why else?

[Pars]

Here, let me break it down for you. 22ga Jena wire = $6.25/ft (if bought retail from a dealer, he probably gets it for less direct, or at least he should), Furutech 1/4" plug = $13.20 (again, retail). That's it, that's all of the parts that he uses. So if you figure that with braiding you get a 30% reduction in the length of the cable you'd need 14' of wire to make a 10' cable, and 4 of them for the type of cable he's making. So total that up and you'd need 14' x 4 = 56' total x $6.25 = $350. Add up the wire and connectors and I get a parts total of $363.20. For a 10' SE rewire he's charging $589. I'd say that ~$225 is a healthy margin for a pseudo-MOT and that's assuming he's not smart enough to negotiate at least some discount on the bits he's using. It wouldn't at all surprise me if he's able to knock 25-50% off the retail prices, I know I could without breaking a sweat. Then his margins start looking like $300+. Not bad for a job that takes a couple hours. And don't get me started on the $10/ft nylon multifilament. There's no way he's paying even $2/ft for that stuff.

Research ALO for more information.

For a SE 5.5' he's charging $439; for a 7.5' $509, or a delta of $70 for 2'. Using Nate's pricing, figure 10' of wire to do 4 x 2', so $62.50. Either he's not good at math and using quite different margin calculations in his pricing, or this may give some visibility as to what he is really paying for wire from Jena. And after the R10 recable incident, I can't believe he's doing business with Jena.

Like ALO, etc., he'll find plenty of lemmings perfectly willing to pony up...

[Torpedo]

Nate, for your figures on the recabling job, that's a 40% gross benefit from the retail price, which by no means is excessive for any kind of business. Before I started working in my present job, I worked for an import company in Spain that traded with health products. Their gross benefit on retail price was about 50-60% depending on the buyer and payment method.

In any case I wouldn't call that 40% a rape or a scam. Perhaps it's an excessive profit from any DIYer's perspective, but maybe not that much if he's really trying to make of his company a profitable business.

Is there any connection in between Mark and ALO? I know you dislike ALO too, and I can guess why, but to be honest, it's none of my business. I have my own ideas about wires, none of them is spending on the cables more than in the device they will hook up.

Regarding the plastic guitar, you'll probably have heard some Ovation guitars. Their tone is quite distinctive and different from any full wood body ones. I prefer a Martin

[Sherwood]

Ah, Ovations are crap. The still have a wood top, though, don't they?

[n_maher]

Like ALO, etc., he'll find plenty of lemmings perfectly willing to pony up...

I'm not so sure, he's got a niche product (modded Denon's) as his hook, otherwise you can get the same service (recabling) for quite a bit less elsewhere. It's one thing to generate FOTM over a $100 mini-mini to suck in the Ipod crowd, it's quite another to charge ~$800 for mods to a $1000 headphone (~$439 5.5' cable, $159 markl mod, $229+ cups). Who would have thought there was a modder who could make Headphile seem reasonable.

[Torpedo]

Ah, Ovations are crap. The still have a wood top, though, don't they?

Yep. I guess if that's to make them looking better when you're on stage. Not sure how much the top material influences the final sound.

LOL@Nate. To each one his own I guess. There's "some" people willing to spend big bucks in top performance headphones. I haven't listened to the D7000 nor the fully recabled, recupped, balanced and modded D5000, so I can't offer an opinion about them. My basic modded D5000 have some potential, but I wouldn't be spending much more on them to see how far they can get. They still would have an excessive bass, and I already have quite good cans with excessive bass

[wrecked_porsche]

Who would have thought there was a modder who could make Headphile seem reasonable.

Oh how true!

[Sherwood]

Same same goes for the greenline oboes. Both are spectacular instruments.

[aardvark baguette]

Who would have thought there was a modder who could make Headphile seem reasonable.

QFT