Hi everyone
Good evening / good morning everyone
NAiF SignaturE
https://iem-world.com/ar/oZDBraQ
Ever since I started out in the cable world, I dreamed of designing and making my own headphone cable
one that gives me the sound signature I love and lifts the level of any headphone I connect to it
and carries the best performance of the gear in my chain
I set an open budget to get to the cable I wanted
and started a series of experiments, so many I stopped counting, some worked and some failed
Finally, after 8 months of testing and tweaking
I reached the point where I’m completely happy with how this cable performs
and it was time for it to go out to the world
Note:
This article is long and has explanations and analysis you won’t find anywhere on the internet
all of it I picked up over time working in this field
and the reason I’m going to talk about everything to do with this cable
is that I want anyone thinking of buying it to be fully informed
about everything I went through and every step I’ll take with the cable they order
As for how to order:
I’ll cover it at the end of the article
After trying most of the metals used in making audio cables of all kinds
I mean headphone cables, iem, XLR or RCA
and getting a full picture of how each metal affects the sound
I started mixing metals and writing down the results I got
Some metals are very expensive, so every now and then I’d order a small amount, try it, test it and write down the results
until I reached the combination that gave me excellent performance and, most importantly, the sound texture came out exactly the way I want it ..
Here are some photos from the assembly and the first tests ..
I cut the cables to equal lengths = 2 meters and 20 cm because the length drops by 10 to 15 cm after braiding
The cable has 4 conductors, or let’s say signal lines
each conductor has three cables of different metals inside it:
– First: UP-OCC Pure Silver / single long crystal = the purest silver used in cables on the face of the earth, and the most expensive of the three ..
– Second: UP-OCC Pure Copper / single long crystal = the purest copper on earth
– Third: OFHC one of the rarest metals and one of the most beautiful in how it affects the sound – and I’m proud to say the NAiF Signature cable is the only headphone cable in the world with this metal inside it ..
Now a second round of research started, this time on plugs, both on the amp side, which is XLR 4Pin
and on the headphone side, which is 3.5mm
Let’s start first: with the headphone plugs, 3.5mm
I was focusing my search on mono plugs like the one you see in the photo, a TS Plug
Sadly the options are very, very, very limited
but I managed to find a really excellent option at a very reasonable price from a specialist company
it’s from REAN which belongs to the Swiss company NEUTRIK that needs no introduction
and I’ve relied on them in most of the cables I make
but I wasn’t convinced they belonged on this cable in particular .. even though I fitted them on it and tried them .. I felt they were putting a ceiling on the performance ..
So I figured the only option left was TRS plugs
because the variety there is huuuuuge and lots of companies known for their quality make them
but what bothered me was that they’re made to carry sound as Stereo and my goal is Mono
To make clear what I mean, look at the photo:
Two things bothered me:
First: the divider between the (-) and the (G) signals
because I’m going to use both of these lines to carry only the (-) signal from the plug that connects to the amp
Second: inside the plug, where the solder goes, each line is separate from the other, so I’d have to use an extra jumper to join the (-) and (G) lines, and that’s something I don’t want to do so it doesn’t affect the sound in any way at all .
Here I got lost in a maze, God only knows how long, figuring out the best way to connect the two points
and thank God I reached the best possible solution: connecting them with the solder itself, without adding any jumper or extra metal
and I was sure the result would satisfy me because I use the best solder in the world
from the German beast MUNDORF® – MSolder SUPREME
It contains the following metals: gold + silver + copper + tin
and having tried a lot of types of solder, it’s the best at carrying sound, no contest
its downside is the crazy price .. the 100 gram roll cost me close to 200$ delivered 😓 so 400$ for the two
but it doesn’t matter because my goal is for my work to be the best by every measure
This is how I connected the two points ..
After solving all the problems that had me stuck ..
I finally decided to go with plugs from the Taiwanese company aeco @aeco_tw
https://www.aeco.tw/
who need no introduction .. any DIYr has heard of them or tried their plugs
And I say it with full confidence, after trying them, no company reaches the quality of their plugs, whether in build quality or in how they affect the sound
From here I want to give them all my thanks, appreciation and respect for their cooperation and support .. honestly, they were so great to deal with it was almost embarrassing
and I decided to use their plugs across my whole Hi-End line
and I started ordering from them in big quantities, and big money too , and right now there’s an order in production worth close to 3000$ – all of it plugs ,, it’ll be ready on 1 April God willing .
and this is one of the earlier orders
And the second set of plugs: the Amp side
because of how thick the cable is, it only fits an XLR plug
and as for using it with other plugs
thank God I found a solution with adapters that connect straight to the plug with no extra cables ..
Back to the XLR plugs
I tried plugs from different companies and sadly, even with their high prices, I always felt the performance was falling short with them
until I got aeco’s plugs
each metal has its own sound character, different from the others ..
I tried all three metals: gold, silver and rhodium
Gold: has a purely musical character and brings out the low frequencies like nothing I’ve come across before
in my opinion it suits headphones that sound completely neutral or bright
Model: AX4-1611G
https://www.aeco.tw/products/ax4-1611g?_pos=10&_fid=e09b9768d&_ss=c
Silver: has a technical character, or it brings out the technical side like detail, separation and layering, lifts the high frequencies a little and doesn’t sacrifice the beauty of the bass at all, the sound opens up with it and the airiness goes up
My opinion: it suits headphones that sound dark or too warm, or headphones that are weak on technical performance in general
Model: AX4-1611S
https://www.aeco.tw/products/ax4-1611s?_pos=12&_fid=e09b9768d&_ss=c
Rhodium: I’ve started calling it the king of metals after trying this company’s plugs, my past experience with this metal from other companies was almost all bad, except Viborg’s plugs, those were excellent .. but aeco’s plugs beat all my expectations and it’s the one I went with on the NAiF Signature cable .
Its sound character gives you gold and silver in one plug and beats them both in stage size + depth + imaging
My opinion: it suits any headphone with any sound signature
Model: AX4-1611R
https://www.aeco.tw/products/ax4-1611r?_pos=11&_fid=e09b9768d&_ss=c
And as for the 3.5mm
I went with gold as a trial and I don’t think I’ll change it any time soon – and if I do, I’ll fit rhodium like the XLR
Model (gold): AT3-1351G
https://www.aeco.tw/products/at3-1351g?_pos=1&_fid=b8b3fc0f4&_ss=c
And now I’ll leave you with some photos of the cable
As you saw in the photos, the cable is XLR 4pin
Even though my favorite way of connecting is Dual 3Pin XLR – Mono Balanced
I didn’t use it directly on the cable, for a reason I’ll explain in a bit
Not many devices support this method, but believe me, anyone who tries it just once will know how far ahead it performs compared to any 4Pin XLR output
and it’s available on my gear:
Secondary unit: Cayin iHA-6
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c4KsZo5h
And my main unit:
The beast: HIFIMAN x GoldenWave PRELUDE
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3VQxm9D
The reason is that for any order I get, before I start making the cable, I’ll send the customer my own unit to try (only for customers inside the Kingdom and the Arab Gulf countries) and few users own either of these two devices .. because I don’t want anyone to buy this cable in particular unless they’re completely convinced .
The terms are explained below
The solution is to make an extra adapter of the same quality using the same materials, so there’s no change at all in the sound texture
And even on this adapter I used a combination that made the cable perform even more beautifully
on the cable side it comes with an XLR 4Pin Female plug, and I picked a gold one for it
Model: AX4-1623G
https://www.aeco.tw/products/ax4-1623g?_pos=19&_fid=80602c3d7&_ss=c
And on the amp side I used two XLR 3Pin Male plugs – and I picked them in silver
Model: AMI-1040G
I wanted to add a photo of them but I hit the max number of photos for the article – but you can see them clearly in the earlier photos
So thank God I managed to get past all the obstacles I ran into while working on the NAiF Signature cable
And before I wrapped up my work on it, I did one thing I can’t talk about because it’s one of the trade secrets 🙂
only one person knows about it .. and I trust him completely not to tell anyone, otherwise I wouldn’t have told him
this thing made the cable perform scarily better, I’ve never done it before, never seen anyone do it, and for now I won’t do it on any model except this one ..
After I finished the cable it was time for the real testing
and since I’m the one who made it, I was worried I’d be biased if I wanted to pass my impressions on to anyone ..
The solution: I sent it to 5 of the guys, all people whose opinions I trust, I know their setups, and I’m completely sure not one of them would flatter me, and I made a point of telling them that, their testing went on for about two months
and thank God, every one of them was shocked by how it performs after their long testing
and after I got their impressions I said that’s it, it’s time for it to go out to the world 🙂
OK, now we’ve reached how to order for anyone who wants to buy – please read all the terms:
– First: the price starts from 1413$ = 5299 Saudi riyals .
– When you order there’s a trial period for the cable (for a fee), only for customers inside Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries – meaning the full amount is paid by bank transfer to my account , with the order registered in the store so the buyer’s rights are fully protected , and I’ll send the customer my own unit to try for 3 days – before the order is confirmed .
The reason I chose bank transfer is that payments through Visa, Mada, Tabby or Tamara come with mandatory fees on me as a merchant .. so to avoid any loss for me or the customer I went with bank transfer ..
– After the trial period, if the customer likes the cable and decides to go ahead with the order: it gets confirmed, and the build time is about 5 weeks, it could be less but it won’t be more ..
– And if after the trial the cable isn’t right for the customer and they want to cancel the order, we’ll charge the trial fee of 200 riyals = $53 + shipping costs – and the rest of what they paid goes back to them .
Of course that’s after the cable comes back to us and we make sure it’s in the same condition it was received in – if the cable gets damaged or changes from its original condition in any way during the trial period, the customer covers the full repair costs whatever they are .
– The cable comes with a two year warranty (24 months) .. on the internal cables + the plugs + the solder / the sleeve (the fabric covering the cables – its warranty is one year) – and the warranty doesn’t cover misuse
– Opening up the cable or any of the plugs voids the warranty completely .
– The customer can ask to change the sleeve (fabric) for free before work starts .. and if they want to change it at any time after that, we’ll do it for a fee we agree on .
And here’s the order link:
https://iem-world.com/ar/oZDBraQ
Note that shipping is available to most countries in the world, including all Arab countries ..
And with that we’ve reached the end of this article
Best regards
Your brother,
Naif
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