NiceHCK 4 core pure silver cables

This review was originally published at www.audioreviews.org

INTRODUCTION

The NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable is the company’s budget offering in terms of pure silver Litz wire at around $20. In this price category, most earphone cables are either pure copper, occ copper, or silver-plated copper. Since different materials harmonize differently with different earphones in some (but not all) cases, it is always good to have a cable of each material in your modding box.


SPECIFICATIONS

Product Name: NiceHCK 4N Litz pure silver cable
Material: 4N pure silver
Internal Core Structure: 0.08*10, 4 Strands 40 Cores; 1.2m±3cm, Internal Core 0.092mm with Litz
Cable Diameter: 28AWG（Inside Diameter 0.33mm，Cross Sectional Area 0.0553mm²）
Outer Material: American PVC
Insulation Material: Litz
Length: 1.2 m ± 3cm
Impedance: < 0.3ohm
Inudctance: 0.4uF/ft
Solder : WTB Solder Silver Solder
Plug Types: straight 3.5 /2.5 /4.4mm
Connector: MMCX/0.78mm 2Pin/QDC 2Pin/NX7 2Pin
Plug material: Carbon Fiber & Stainless Steel
Splitter Material: Carbon Fiber & Stainless Steel
Tested at: $20
Purchase Link: Nice HCK Store



Photos:
https://www.audioreviews.org/nicehck-litz-4n-pure-silver-earphone-cable-photography/


PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY

TECHNOLOGY

The important technologies used in the NiceHCK 4N cable are “Pure Silver” (material) and Litz (internal cable structure).

Litz is a special type of multistrand cable designed to reduce skin and proximity effect losses in conducturs at below 1 MHz. It consists of many thin wire strands, individually insulated and twisted or woven together, following one of several carefully prescribed patterns frequently involving several levels (groups of twisted wires are twisted together, etc.). The result of these winding patterns is to equalize the proportion of the overall length over which each strand is at the outside of the conductor. This has the effect of distributing the current equally among the wire strands, reducing the resistance.

The “N” number in 4N refers to degree of copper purity. 4 refers to five nines as in 99.99% pure copper (5N would mean 99.999% and so on).


HAPTIC & BUILD

NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable is rather filigree: it is thin, light, and inconspicuous. The braid is rather loose. The wire is is covered with PVC, which makes the cable soft and pliable, and that shiny outer material appears to be dirt and grease repellent. The MMCX connectors are of good quality…they clicked in snug wherever I tried. The memory wire is also thin and of intermediate tension. The wires were comfortable around my ears. The headphone plug is also robust and the chin slider comes in handy. I underline my description with some photos below.









COMFORT

The memory wire fits snug around the ears without pressure and the cable is as light as it gets so that the NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable is as comfortable as it gets – it is also comfortable against the skin. The chin slider helps holding the cable in place.


NOISE TRANSMISSION

There is zero microphonics. Very good.


COMPATIBILITY

The NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cablecable comes with a variety of connectors to fit any conventional earphone shells: MMCX/0.78mm 2Pin/QDC 2Pin. You can also choose the plug: 3.5 /2.5 /4.4mm.

LOOKS
The NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable – as said – is on the subtle, inconspicuous side. The silver-and-black connectors are neutral enough looking to fit any earphone.


SOUND?

I had expressed my informed opinion on cable sound differences in my recent NiceHCK Blocc 5N UPOCC Copper Litz Cable review [HERE]. My main points are summarized as follows:

1. Cables can make a sonic difference, mainly with multi-driver earphones
2. This difference possibly relates to impedance, wire material, and wire structure
3. Impedance differences may in some cases be large enough to result in different sound volumes and can also alter the earphone’s frequency response; such changes in the frequency response can be calculated
4. Cables may not make any difference with some earphones
5. Listeners often mistake volume increase due to lower impedance for sonic improvement
6. The sonic differences between cables are largely independent of price
7. If sonic differences between cables exist, they are not universally valid but only relate to that particular earphone and the cables used in that particular comparison
8. Eartips are the cheaper alternative to achieve a different sound
9. Expensive upgrade cables may sound worse with your favourite earphone than stock cable
10. One may be better off spending the upgrade cable’s price on better earphones

From my experience, a silver-plated copper or an occ copper cable may add brightness, and therefore some sparkle to a warm sounding earphone, and a pure-copper cable helps taming boosted, piercing upper midrange peaks. This is just a rule of thumb that needs to be re-confirmed for every earphone. But these sonic differences are independent of price. The NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable works very well with the rather polite KBEAR TRI I3 earphone that requires amplification and has an early treble rolloff – and I just kept this cable on as my go to. With this earphone, the pure silver cable works equally well or better than the NiceHCK Blocc 5N UPOCC Copper Litz Cable at 5 times the price (but was certainly not worse sounding) – but this is only valid for this particular earphone.


CONCLUDING REMARKS

The main characteristic of this cable is its pure silver conductive material at a relatively low price. Pure silver may have – but not always – favourable sonic effects on certain earphones. It is therefore good to have a pure silver cable in the toolbox, along with pure copper, occ copper, and silver-plated copper. With any given earphone, cable materials may make no difference at all or they make a big difference — but potential sonic improvements are mostly not correlated with price. What makes no difference is price — and looks are not correlated with sonic quality either. Don’t get carried away by snake oil, buy responsibly, look for deals, and be aware that your earphone and “upgrade” cable don’t harmonize or that the cable is pure jewelry. And why not.

Until next time…keep on listening!



DISCLAIMER

The NiceHCK Litz 4N Pure Silver Cable was provided unsolicited by NiceHCK store – and I thank them for that.

Get it from NiceHCK Audio Store

Our generic standard disclaimer.

NiceHCK LitzPS 4 core pure silver IEM cables.

New cable item on their website. NiceHCK has come out with a new pure 4n litz silver cable for IEMs for the very easy price of $20ish. No real name associated with this model but I was given a review sample for purpose of review. So how does this budget cable do? Let's find out.

These cables can be purchased on NiceHCK site here. They are already very popular among enthusiasts but I figure I would add to the praise on these. I would like to thank Jim at NiceHCK for the review sample of these cables. This is my honest take on them.

Silver has always been a luxury among enthusiasts and for good reason. It is the best conductor for sound among all materials. The allure of shopping on the express is the idea of getting a lot for not much money and I think NiceHCK has done just this with these cables. Considering how much boutique vendors sell their pure silver cables. I was in disbelief that a good pure silver cable can be purchased at the $20 price point. I mean these can’t be any good right? Build must be terrible right?

Nope and more nope. What you're getting in these cables is sheer value. My tester for silver cables happens to be an earphone that excels with silver based cables. It has a particular sound by only using silver The Penon Orbs. It will let me know if fake is involved. Because silver based cables make them shine and bring detail the stock cable just does not.. So when I got this cable from NiceHCK. I had a hard time understanding how it is that they can offer a pure silver cable of this quality for this little. More disbelief was that not only did this cable shine with my Orbs but it clearly was showing me it has the resolution of a pure silver cable for any earphone I was going to use it on.

There is no faking pure silver folks. You can tell the difference in sound characteristics. Sound resolution is by far the best with pure silver cables. And this $20 cable has replaced a $200 silver cable I was using before it. Too good to be true you say?

Silver cables have its use for earphones. You have a warm smooth full bodied sounding earphone that can use a bit more treble energy and overall detail sound? Try a pure silver cable. Earphones with ample bass but not enough treble energy? Try a pure silver cable. Need your mids to be less warm with a cleaner presentation? Try silver.

Not any silver. These silver cables. Because they are identical to silver cables that cost 5X as much. I do cable reviews here on Headfi and own my share of silver cables. This is based on extensive tests using my warmest earphones I own and against many other silver cables head to head. My advice. Silver cables for earphones is like having a set of your favorite ear tips on hand. Cable rolling is essential to getting the best out of your earphones and who don’t want that? These are cheap enough to get one in every type of connection of earphones you own and will still be cheaper than the cheapest silver cable from a boutique vendor.

The only real negative I have is that the 4 cores are thin covered in a clear soft shielding. The Shielding seems as thick or thicker than the cables. You can’t expect a thick portion of silver for the money here. These do look a bit frail but as long as you're not handling these like they are made of a kevlar coating. You will be fine. It is the sound they help produce that make them a valuable tool in getting that sound just right for your earphones.

In the end it is items like these for the enthusiasts that end up making it worthwhile to take a gamble on shipping from Aliexpress. To be fair it is the sign of the times. You should eventually get your items but as a disclaimer.. There are no real guarantees you will get them in a timely manner nowadays. Well there is the 90 days or so you gotta wait till you can claim you never got your item. That is another problem altogether. In any case, these cables are worth owning a few sets for your earphones especially if you're a collector of earphones like many of you guys and gals are. Thanks for reading and always happy listening.