In this review, I’m taking the ddHiFi BC130 Net (Nyx Net) IEM cable out for a whirl. The cable retails for $399 USD.
Disclaimer: ddHiFi sent me the BC130 Net (Nyx Net) free of charge to be featured on Headfonia.com.
ddHiFi
Established in 2017, ddHiFi is now a well-established brand with an extensive range of devices, including cables, adapters, travel cases, and, more importantly, DACs. Demond Ding, a former member of FiiO and Oppo, leads the company. The brand has become increasingly popular over time, with many products out in the wild.
The goal of the company as worded by ddHiFi is:
“To use concise and brief design language to make user-friendly accessory products, abandon any decorative design that is irrelevant to practical usage and pay more attention to product material and craftsmanship details with cost-controlled”.
While this is my first tango with a ddHiFi creation, my colleagues have reviewed numerous of their products, and some have received their highest recommendations.
Enter the BC130 Net (Nyx Net)
If you look at what ddHiFi has to offer, I’m sure you will be flabbergasted and say, “Hmm, I actually might need this,” sooner or later. A regular IEM cable is one of their more pedestrian offerings if only in format alone, as the BC130 Net (Nyx Net) has some surprises up its sleeve.
A successor to the Nyx IEM cable, the Nyx Net is ddHiFi’s demi-flagship offering in the IEM cable genre. Superseded by the $100 more pricy Nyx Pro, the Nyx Net also comes in two flavors – one terminated by the regular 4.4mm straight TRRRS jack with a titanium alloy barrel sleeve and the more premium version with a Pentaconn 4.4mm ohno-continuos casting (OCC) plug that will cost $50 extra.
Both versions of the Nyx Net use the same high-purity OCC copper wire with coaxial-wound shielding and a mesh sleeve. The more costly Nyx Pro cable adds silver to the mix, hence the extra cost. The input side termination of the Nyx Net is hard-soldered, bringing the advantage of lower impedance compared to swappable connectors and the extra surface-to-surface contacts required.
Where it gets interesting is the IEM connection end. The Nyx Net comes with four swappable options so every scenario is covered – be it MMCX, flush 0.78mm, or recessed 0.78mm 2-pin interface. Heck, there’s even a long and shorter 2-pin option! All connectors use a proprietary 2-pin connector to interface with the ear hook cable and are held down by a screw-down ring.
Package
The BC130 Net (Nyx Net) comes in a nice hard cardboard box that holds a foam cutout protecting two plastic cases. One holds the actual cable and the second smaller case has all of the IEM connectors inside plus the connector removal tool. We also got a few pieces of paperwork showing that our cable has indeed passed the quality control and some info about contacting ddHiFi.
Together with the cable we also get a nice-looking cable tie that clamps shut with two magnets. It sure looks nice but I get a feeling that it’s a bit clunky for tying the cable up for more compact storage. For swapping out the IEM connectors ddHiFi might consider adding a pair of needle-nose tweezers as the operation requires grabbing tiny parts. I grabbed my own soldering tweezers but others might find using fingers a bit cumbersome.
Build Quality
The Nyx Net is a medium gauge 4-wire cable with a symmetrical Y-split. The initial part uses a paracord-style braid of the 4 wires which after the splitter changes to a 2-wire twist braid. Covering the individual wires is a synthetic fabric mesh sleeve. Unfortunately, the cable is quite sensitive to rubbing noise microphonics and I personally blame the fabric covering for that.
Both the jack and the splitter use a similar design of two-tone metal parts. According to ddHiFi, the silver portion is made out of a titanium alloy, and as with all titanium parts it’s eerily light and warm to the touch due to the thermal properties of titanium (steel, for example, usually feels cold to the touch). The brass or gold-colored parts probably are probably anodized aluminum. Everything is well-machined with no imperfections or sharp edges to speak of.
A curious design choice is the triangular shape of the ear hooks. Initially, I was doubtful whether my ears would agree with the unusual geometry but all was fine once I got to wear the IEMs. The very ends of the cable house the proprietary 2-pin interface which holds the mounted connectors for the 2-pin or MMCX standards. Swapping the ends can be a bit fiddly but using the included swap tool and employing a bit of wiggling did the job just fine. All of my IEMs were able to take the 2-pin connector without any problems.
Sound Quality
I’ll start with a preface that I’m not a huge cable sound connoisseur. With that said, I’ll never judge someone for preferring this or that leash for their darling headphones or IEMs. My guilty pleasure is a pure-silver DIY IEM cable which I got from a local builder by bartering a dongle DAC for it. I got it purely for bragging rights and to shoo away people who say that my impressions about this or that IEM don’t count because I’m using a super pedestrian cable.
So how does the BC130 Net (Nyx Net) sound? The short answer is – fine! Superb, even. The slightly longer one is that it depends on the IEM and the cable you’re comparing it to. I’ll elaborate more in the comparisons section. Overall I’m very happy with how the Nyx Net performs sound-wise. There is nothing tonally that makes my golden ears perk up and object and the technical performance is also consistently excellent.
Comparisons
VS Rudi’s DIY pure-silver IEM cable
It’s the first IEM cable where I could consistently hear a sonic improvement over certain stock cables. It’s also pure silver, so I can barter it for canned meat if the war starts, so that’s a huge plus! Ergonomically the cable is a nightmare because the wires are stiff and like to retain any shape I bend them into.
With the BC130 Net (Nyx Net) I was expecting a similar sound improvement but without the ergonomics penalty. The sound is similarly excellent in all regards, however, the Nyx Net is also fairly microphonic which makes both of these cables desktop queens because under a jacket the noise can be too much. The Nyx Net is more pliable and makes my DIY wonder cord feel like it’s made out of [silver] chicken fence wire.
VS Simgot EM10 stock cable
All Simgot higher-tier IEMs ship with the same silver-plated copper cable. I generally love Simgot’s IEMs but I also love to hate on this cable. Ergonomically it’s fine – no microphonics to speak of but I’m not a fan of how it looks and feels. The version that ships with the EM10 (review coming soon!) has a swappable jack which is mounted using the now-common miniature 4-pin connector.
When using the EM10 with the Nyx Net I noticed a marked improvement in the clarity of the sound and in most recording the phantom sound sources became more clear. Again – it’s not something that completely transforms the listening experience but it was nice to get those extra last percent of the performance.
VS Yanyin Carmen stock cable
I’m also a fan of the Yanyin IEMs I’ve heard but contrary to Simgot, I’ve never had any qualms about their choice of cables. The cord here is made out of four strands, single crystal copper 22AWG wire with 140 cores. It also employs a paracord-style braid in the bottom and a twist braid for the individual IEM side cables. Under the translucent polymer isolation, we can see the metallic copper.
When comparing the stock Yanyin cable to the Nyx Net, the sound quality improvement wasn’t evident to my ears. Both cables performed equally well with all sound sources I tried and even when hooked to other IEMs the results were consistently similar. Therefore I’ll have to admit that choosing between the two is a matter of aesthetic taste. Or maybe you have better ears than me.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Nyx Net. The sound of this cable is consistently excellent and my only reservation is the propensity for microphonics. It’s not an issue for stationary listening but for on-the-go, I’d rather go for something else. There’s also a good chance that outside noise will mask the sonic benefits ddHiFi have engineered in there.
Do I recommend the Nyx Net? If you’ve found a high-end set of IEMs you’re fond of, the Nyx Net can help suss out some extra sound quality. Realistically – depends on the quality of the stock cable. If you like how the Nyx Net looks, it’s a great buy. I also appreciate the thought that has gone into the mounting mechanism of the IEM connectors.
Of course, the proverbial elephant in the room is the asking price. There are more affordable cables out there that also look pretty and work fine. On the other hand, there are also some way more pricy options! I won’t pretend that a $399 IEM cable is a great value. For most scenarios upgrading the IEMs or the source electronics will make a more audible impact. But what if you’re already in sonic heaven? Then the ddHiFi BC130 Net (Nyx Net) is a great way to get the last few percent of performance from your favorite setup.
Summary
Pros:
- Great sound quality in every aspect
- Superb build quality of all mechanical parts
- Feels great in hand
- The ear hooks are comfy
- Ingenious IEM connector swap mechanism
Cons:
- Not exactly affordable
- Fairly microphonic
- Only 4.4mm straight termination




