Although for HiFi burning friends, changing the line is a very common way to upgrade, but whether the line is really improved, there have been a lot of questions in the HiFi circle. Such as: Why change the line, the original line is not good? What's the difference from the original line? Why is wire so expensive? So many, how to choose? Can you really improve and enhance the sound quality after changing?

Why change the headphone cable?

1. Change of use

     In addition to the basic 3.5mm plug, you can choose a 2.5/4.4 balance for high-quality music, or turn your wired headphones into Bluetooth headphones, add call wire control, and interchangeable headphones allow one headset to achieve multiple use effects.

2. Improve tuning

     Most of these line changes are not like the sound of the original line, or want to try a different style. But this should not be the original intention of the manufacturer to design the interchangeable wire headset, after all, who will be a half-finished product. But the so-called difficult to tune, whether it is to change the line, change the set or on the player, the original intention of the enthusiast is to achieve the sound they want.

3. Renew your headphones

     This kind of wire change is generally due to often pulling the wire, resulting in poor contact with the wire, becoming intermittent or even not ringing on one side of the headset, and one is because of the trouble caused by the pet at home, resulting in the wire breaking and having to change the wire, which should be the most helpless reason to change the wire.

What is the difference between different headphone cables?

① Purity

     Upgrade line inside we often hear others say your line is what N? Among them, N represents 9, which refers to the purity of the wire, 4N represents 99.99%, 5N/6N/7N is 99.999%/99.9999%/99.99999%, and so on, the greater the value, the higher the purity, of course, the higher the price. The higher the purity, the better the audio transmission, but the higher the N, the better the sound, right? This may not be true. It depends on the material.

② Materials

1) Copper wire

     Copper wire is a more common kind of wire on the market, according to the purity can be divided into electrolytic copper (TPC), oxygen-free copper (OFC), crystalline oxygen-free copper (LC-OFC), single crystalline oxygen-free copper (OCC), etc. OFC and OCC are the most used categories in the audio industry.

     Copper wire focuses on the promotion of low frequency, and the overall balance is full; With the increase of purity, the lower the transmission loss, the better the sound quality; Although the high frequency of OFC is still not comparable to gold and silver, it has also reached an acceptable range, and OCC in maintaining the stable and solid foundation of copper, but also has the delicate, smooth and elegant silver wire, the overall delicate and pure!

2) Silver wire

     Due to the absolute advantage of physical properties, the resistivity of silver wire is much lower than that of copper, and the chemical properties are more stable and not easy to oxidize, which brings better transmission efficiency and stability, so pure silver wire is mostly more expensive. In order to reduce costs or to spend the least money or the best quality sound, most manufacturers choose copper plated silver or copper-silver mixed way.

     Silver wire resistance is small, in the signal transmission process, pay attention to the promotion of medium and high frequency, will have a lot of impact on the audio signal and timbre. The sense of hearing has a strong analytical power, more rich details, good high-frequency extension, the sound is delicate and transparent, giving people the feeling of a bright ear.

3) Gold thread

     This is a kind of wire that sounds very expensive, but its resistivity is higher than that of silver and copper wires, and it is not suitable for making wires alone, generally gold-plated, gold-silver mixed or copper-silver alloy wires. With the advantage of silver or copper wire, the sound color is more rounded, the treble is penetrating but not harsh, the longitudinal sound field is wide, the sense of power is strong, and the charm is more.

Does the wire manufacturing process affect the sound quality?

1. Weaving method

     Wire is the copper wire twisted together according to a certain way or density, in order to reduce its own signal interference, and the unique weaving structure can offset part of the vibration of the magnetic field, to prevent external interference with electromagnetic waves, so different weaving process theoretically will also have an impact on sound.

2. The length of the wire

     The length is different, the impedance is not the same, just like the water trough of different lengths of the same material, through the same speed of water flow, the short water trough is more time-saving and labor-saving, and the loss is less. Therefore, different lengths of wire, the sound will be different. But it does not mean that the gap between 1.2 meters and 1.5 meters is relatively small, and the difference can be heard at more than 3 meters.

3. Material of shielding layer

     The purpose of the shielding layer is to shield the noise caused by electromagnetic waves affecting the earphone cable. The headphone upgrade cable is mostly made of pvc material, which makes the headphone cable softer, thus reducing the stethoscope effect. In fact, the induction rate of PVC material is very high, and it is not suitable for signal transmission. (Inductivity refers to the induced charge generated by the applied electric field in the medium to weaken the electric field, and the ratio of the electric field reduction in the medium to the original applied electric field (in vacuum) is the relative permittivity or dielectric constant, which is related to the frequency.) The simple understanding is that the inductive rate is the ability of the dielectric to bind the charge, which will change with the change of the signal frequency, the higher the frequency, the smaller the dielectric constant, and the greater the dielectric constant, the lower the frequency, the more serious the signal loss. Therefore, the construction of different insulation materials and shielding can eliminate the influence of external factors, thereby reducing the impact on the sound quality.

The line change is for lifting, not for digging a bigger hole.

     There are thousands of reasons to change the line, in the end, it is still for a better experience, whether it is from the price, brand, material and other aspects of selection, do not blindly spend money, others say it is not necessarily good, it is best to personally listen, if you can not personally listen, you can look at the evaluation of other players, weigh the pros and cons, more suitable for their own most important.