I do have one headphone which I did not change the wiring through the head band.
It is my 30€ Superlux HD662 Evo 2, which I use for testing amps before risking expensive ones.
Modded as per DIYaudioheaven, plus a 9kHz notch.
HD662-EVO | DIY-Audio-Heaven
Superlux HD662 EVO im Test bei kopfhoerer.de
But then I am also using box standard 3€ TRRS extension cable.
Klinkenkabel, 3,5 mm, 4-polig, schwarz online kaufen | Pollin.de
Plus a TRRS to Lemo converter which is convenient for testing any other phones with 3.5mm TRS.
Patrick
.
It is my 30€ Superlux HD662 Evo 2, which I use for testing amps before risking expensive ones.
Modded as per DIYaudioheaven, plus a 9kHz notch.
HD662-EVO | DIY-Audio-Heaven
Superlux HD662 EVO im Test bei kopfhoerer.de
But then I am also using box standard 3€ TRRS extension cable.
Klinkenkabel, 3,5 mm, 4-polig, schwarz online kaufen | Pollin.de
Plus a TRRS to Lemo converter which is convenient for testing any other phones with 3.5mm TRS.
Patrick
.
Attachments
After quite a few iterations to improve upon the original AKG K701 four wire cable I started out with, I finally settled with dual MOGAMI 2330 each channel.
The shields do not carry any signal, but are grounded at the headphone side as can be seen at the picture of the test setup.
This way I found the presentation to be spot on in time-coherence, translating into great colours, clarity and intimacy, unobstructed "3D" clues and acting very homogeneous over the entire audio band.
Great listening to the "singing" of soft hit drums not getting any mudded in wobbling "acoustic space"
"Dino Salluzzi - Kultrum"
"Dave Brubeck - Take Five"
"Zakir Hussain & Rakesh Chaurasia - Live at EtnoKrakow"
Attachments
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After a lot of intense, yet very enjoyable listening I'm even more happy with this special cable arrangement.
Using two shielded cables each channel and separately grounding them one sided down-streams - at the headphone side in this case - really did the trick.
I already developed this scheme some decades ago, but until recently it didn't cross my mind that it could work that well also on headphone cables.
By then I followed some more than vague hypothesis of mine to solve quite comparable SQ problems to the mentioned above in an all battery supplied setup.
At this time, only bulky lead acid batteries being available for me, I had to work out a rather lengthy interconnect to that batteries that didn't compromise SQ. For obvious reasons one doesn't want that acid haze spilling blocks nearby ones HiFi gear. The usual approach using monster cables or a bunch of caps afterwards did not work for me, but the above scheme did come out great.
So far so good.
What I now would like to share is, where I run into SQ troubles in an attempt to make this headphone cable arrangement versatile for a variety of different plugs.
No problems at the headphone side, as there I have the cabels going straight to the point where the transducer connects. I really dont need detachable headphone cables, nor would I recommend to use plugs of any sort at the headphone side.
But at the other end of the cable I need a solution with standard 3.5mm TRS for my desktop DACs with headphone OUT, and as my dedicated headphone amp is a dual mono design, I strongly prefer to have separated plugs for each channel there.
So I decided to terminate my headphone cables with standard 4-pin mini-XLR plugs to directly connect into the headphone amp, or attaching a mini-XLR to TRS adapter for use at my desktop DACs.
The 4-pin mini-XLR's are barely big enough for two MOGAMI 2330 plus the two grounding wires, but its worth the effort as those have reliable strain relieve, are of good quality, widly available, reasonably priced and backed up by NEUTRIK / REAN, an innovative company with excellent reputation for audio plugs.
So I soldered a short - about 10cm long - mini-XLR to TRS adapter.
For such a short distance compared to the 2-3m of the headphone cable, I thought that using simple stranded wire should be of no problem. Far from it, the benefits in SQ from above scheme were gone almost completely!
Uhhhh?
So I did a second run for the adapter, again using MOGAMI 2330 shielded cable, grounded down-streams.
SQ now is as good as it is without adapter.
Only drawback is, I have to figure out, how to reliably cramp 4 shielded cables plus 8 stranded AWG22 cables into a 3.5mm TRS plug.
Using two shielded cables each channel and separately grounding them one sided down-streams - at the headphone side in this case - really did the trick.
I already developed this scheme some decades ago, but until recently it didn't cross my mind that it could work that well also on headphone cables.
By then I followed some more than vague hypothesis of mine to solve quite comparable SQ problems to the mentioned above in an all battery supplied setup.
At this time, only bulky lead acid batteries being available for me, I had to work out a rather lengthy interconnect to that batteries that didn't compromise SQ. For obvious reasons one doesn't want that acid haze spilling blocks nearby ones HiFi gear. The usual approach using monster cables or a bunch of caps afterwards did not work for me, but the above scheme did come out great.
So far so good.
What I now would like to share is, where I run into SQ troubles in an attempt to make this headphone cable arrangement versatile for a variety of different plugs.
No problems at the headphone side, as there I have the cabels going straight to the point where the transducer connects. I really dont need detachable headphone cables, nor would I recommend to use plugs of any sort at the headphone side.
But at the other end of the cable I need a solution with standard 3.5mm TRS for my desktop DACs with headphone OUT, and as my dedicated headphone amp is a dual mono design, I strongly prefer to have separated plugs for each channel there.
So I decided to terminate my headphone cables with standard 4-pin mini-XLR plugs to directly connect into the headphone amp, or attaching a mini-XLR to TRS adapter for use at my desktop DACs.
The 4-pin mini-XLR's are barely big enough for two MOGAMI 2330 plus the two grounding wires, but its worth the effort as those have reliable strain relieve, are of good quality, widly available, reasonably priced and backed up by NEUTRIK / REAN, an innovative company with excellent reputation for audio plugs.
So I soldered a short - about 10cm long - mini-XLR to TRS adapter.
For such a short distance compared to the 2-3m of the headphone cable, I thought that using simple stranded wire should be of no problem. Far from it, the benefits in SQ from above scheme were gone almost completely!
Uhhhh?
So I did a second run for the adapter, again using MOGAMI 2330 shielded cable, grounded down-streams.
SQ now is as good as it is without adapter.
Only drawback is, I have to figure out, how to reliably cramp 4 shielded cables plus 8 stranded AWG22 cables into a 3.5mm TRS plug.
Attachments
Last edited:
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