I’m a headphone newbie, currently running

MacBook Air -> Wyrd -> GO450 -> Vali -> HD800 (stock cable, unmodded)

I’ve heard that XLR > TRS and aftermarket cable > stock cable. The latter topic is controversial, with a huge debate raging continually regarding the merits of recabling. I’ve always been curious, but I’ve never had the opportunity to listen to my 800s via XLR as the Vali only has a TRS jack. However, I’m planning to order an EC Black Widow which sports both XLR and TRS jacks. This seems like a good opportunity to test both XLR vs TRS and aftermarket cable vs stock cable, so I’ve ordered an aftermarket cable terminated in 4-pin XLR, and an XLR-to-TRS adapter. With this, I’ll be able to make a bunch of comparisons.

On the Vali:
TRS + aftermarket
TRS + stock

On the BW:
XLR + aftermarket
TRS + aftermarket
TRS + stock

This is purely subjective – I’m not going to be performing any measurements. I just want to find out whether the recabling improves my listening experience, and if that improvement is worth the price of the cable.

I’m also planning to purchase the upcoming Anax mod kit for the 800s. I’ll install it after I’ve done the initial termination and cable comparisons, and see what effect it has with the various combinations.

I thought that other people, especially fellow newbies, might find my foray into recabling informative or at least entertaining, so I plan to document the ongoing process of acquiring and testing the cable here.

I decided to give Norne Audio http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/ a try, based mostly on a HeadMania cable comparison

http://headmania.org/2014/06/18/aftermarket-cables-for-sennheiser-hd800/

and a Head-Fi thread

http://www.head-fi.org/t/606500/norne-audio-was-norse-audio-feedback-impression-thread

I’ve ordered the Draug v2 cable and Draug v2 adapter. The total cost, including USPS Express International shipping to Canada, was $408.44 ($287.49 for the cable, $85.00 for the adapter, and $35.95 for the shipping). Currency–wise, this is a really horrible time for Canadians to be ordering stuff from the US. Converted into Canadian dollars, my total cost ballooned to $549.76! I’d heard our dollar was low, but I had no idea it was this bad. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

The Norne website is pretty confusing and can be a little out of date, as I found when choosing colors for the primary cable and the adapter. The only choice in the menu for the primary is clear with copper showing, even though other colors are shown in the pictures. I didn’t care because that’s the color I wanted. However, the adapter color choice menu had a bunch of other colors, but not the clear, which seemed kind of odd. I chose one of the other colors and included a note in the comment section of my order asking whether I could get the clear color for the adapter even though it wasn’t in the menu.

I placed my order yesterday, at about 10:30 on a Friday night, and got a response within half an hour to the effect that my order had been processed, it had been updated to specify the clear color for the adapter, and that it should be shipped within 13 to 21 business days. The next morning I noticed that the clear option had been added to the adapter color menu on the site. I was favorably impressed by Norne’s quick response to the color issue.

So, now I wait.

You spent 500 dollars on a cable and you are still using a Vali?

There might be a debate on whether or not a cable makes a difference but there is zero debate on what you invest in first for a headphone rig.

Cables are the last thing you buy in a system. You pour money into your headphones, then amp + source, and then you use what's leftover for cables/rack/etc.

Why is xlr > trs again?