Headphone cable crosstalk - how to avoid?

[valveluver]

There are people who are supposedly "in the know" that will say many things.

I saw an advertisement proclaiming that a 200 dollar power cord could improve high frequency definition. Never mind the fact that it is plugged into a 99 cent residential grade duplex outlet and feeding from an electrical distribution pannel with 5 dollar circuit breakers.

I see many haedphones in my line of work. Sharing a common ground is commomplace. My headphones are not the best either. I use KOSS POR-4 ear crushers. I listen to a lot of mid 1960's stereo. There is defineatly separation there!

[EC8010]

The flexible cables used for headphones will have significant resistance, so a common ground will cause some crosstalk. For music, most people would say this was advantageous because it reduces the "hole in the head" phenomenon. If, however, you are attempting to test people's hearing, you need to avoid this crosstalk.

It's easy enough to calculate roughly what the crosstalk due to a common conductor will be. Measure the resistance of the ground cable with a good DVM or component bridge, do the same for one transducer, and you have a potential divider. Convert the loss into dBs, and that's your crosstalk.

Probably the easiest way of solving the problem is to buy some cheap Sennheisers with their individual cables, remove the cables, and wire them into your expensive headphones.