Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Headphones Extension Cable?

I’m looking for a personal recommendation for a Headphones Extension Cable (that is available in UK).

Hi,

It would help to know what headphones you have, and whether you have the original cable or have upgraded.

How long do you want your extension cable to be, what socket and plug do you want on it?

You shouldn’t get anything of much higher speck than what’s already on the headphones or you’ll be wasting money for no discernible benefit.

Look at my signature.

Please accept my apologies. I read your post on an iPhone where our signatures do not appear unless you dig deeper, so I was guided by the brevity of your question, and not a desire to be condescending.

I opted to go a custom route with headphone cables, both on the cans themselves, and with extensions. I have found Black Dragon Headphone Cable V2 to perform very well on my Grado GS2000e and Grado GS1000. I didn't think my ancient Grado RS1s were worth the upgrade. I use the former with Black Dragon Headphone Cable V2 custom length extension cables with 1/4 inch TRS Furutech connectors. The RS-1s are fine with 15ft Grado extension cables.

Upgraded cables in the Grados made a very discernable improvement and an A/B comparison between the Black and the Silver Dragon cable left me feeling the the silver were just too harsh.

I use different amps on these cans:
GS2000e through Prime Amp/Prime Power Supply (no speakers in the room)
GS1000 through old Grace 9001 attached to a balanced analogue out on my 818
RS-1 through an customized (new caps/valves, pot) Musical Fidelity X-Can V2 with custom external power supply.


This stuff is all in different rooms for different purposes.
Should you investigate Dragon cables, I'm sure you'll find a customizer in the UK.

Be well.

This is often a limitation driven by landscape or portrait mode on smaller screen devices. In these circumstances where a signature does not appear on a device, rotate to landscape and it normally appears, as it does on this forum.

Are you looking specifically for an extension cable, or simply a longer cable?

If its for the Focal Celestee's, then if they are like my Focals then the cables are interchangeable as you are I am sure aware. I wondered about getting a completely different cable for mine as the supplied cable is not very compliant. Maybe @MI' could help with a complete replacement rather than an extension cable?

Another consideration for a completely new cable is that the Prime can also be used with dual left and right channel cables to reduce crosstalk https://www.Meridian-audio.com/prod...faqs-3whyaretheretwoinchheadphonesockets

As you state, Focal are economic with the length of their cable - and with no option to buy extension cables from them.

I tried a Lindy extension cable, but it attenuated the volume. This is why I’m looking for personal recommendations.

There are slim pickings in the UK for quality extension cables. At the budget end, there’s QED (£30) - plus offerings from AudioQuest (£80) and Kimber (£84). Given my experience with the Lindy cable, I don’t to want spend unnecessary funds on blind testing alternatives.

As for replacing the whole set of cables; Chord have recently withdrawn their ShawCam Headphone cable. In the UK, the only ‘cheap’ option is Nordost (£370). If you want to drop a small fortune, then there’s Kimber Axios (£3k).

With no opportunity to home-audition such expensive replacement cables, I’m purely looking at extension cable recommendations.

Surely it would be less expensive to move your Prime, or if is this not possible, have I missed the point completely.

Treat me gently if my understanding is flawed.

Hector

Focal cables are 1.2m: I’m almost hugging my Prime listening to my Celestee.

I would see if MI' could recommend something that he could make as a total replacement. As far as I am aware, there is nothing special about the terminations. When I find a final resting place for my Prime I'll probably do the same.

My cable is much longer than 1.2m and is a little too ridged/weighty for my liking so over time it just starts to drop and/or drag on things.

Hi Spinaltap,

I have the Focal Clear headphones and it comes with 3 cables, one 1.2 meter and two three meter long, one terminated with RCA the other with XLR. Looking at the Focal website here in The Netherlands the Clear and the Celestee appear to have the same connection on the phones. If you are happy with the sound of the Focal cable you do not need to bother with an extension cable just order a longer lead form your dealer. In the Netherlands the cost of the three meter RCA is €139,= which seems quite reasonable.

Regards,
Fred

Unfortunately, Celestee is only provided with 1 x 1.2 metre cable.

A few days ago, I asked Focal for their suggestion on either a longer cable of the same type, or an extension cable.

They responded this afternoon, stating that I should purchase the 3 metre cable for their Clear Headphones (via my dealer).

Even so, the official 3 metre cable is XLR terminated at one end - which isn’t compatible with Prime.