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HE60 pinout?

post #1 of 10
10/19/08 at 9:53am
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to make a HE60 to Stax adapter cable, but I'm confused by the pinout of my HE60.
It says here 'left front' etc. but I don't know whether front is + or -. I can't compare it with the Stax output that's also mentioned there because I believe it's wrong.
The output of a Stax amp is always expressed in + or - instead of front and back. When you look into the socket, it looks like this, right?
Code:
  3
2   4
 1 5
1: right -
2: left -
3: left +
4: right +
5: bias
When you look to the front of the Stax plug, it's mirrored.
When you look to the front of the HE60 plug, it looks like this, but which is which?
Code:
 _____________
/             \
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 |
---------------
Thanks a lot in advance for any help!
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post #2 of 10
10/19/08 at 12:51pm
You have the right Stax pinout but a picture is always better:


+ is the front stator or the one closer to the ears on 95% of all ESP's (some play phase tricks) but the HE60 falls into the former category. It's been far too long since I recabled my last HE60 but they use the same wiring scheme as the HE90 so the info in the He90 service manual works for the 60 as well. The cable is double insulated and underneath the black covering are 6 color coded wires which are:

Red = R+
Green = R-
Black = Bias (tie both wires to the bias pin on the Stax plug)
Yellow = L+
Blue = L-
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post #3 of 10
10/20/08 at 5:33pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you very much! Unfortunately, I will not cut the cable, so I can't see the colored wires. If front = + however, and Kevin Gilmore is right in saying that the outer pins of the connector are for the front stators (thus being +), that's all I need to know.
This results in the following, when looked into the HE60 plug from the front:
Code:
 _____________
/             \
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 |
---------------

1: right +
2: right bias
3: right -
4: left -
5: left bias
6: left +
Again one step closer to putting away the HEV70 for good.
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post #4 of 10
10/20/08 at 7:46pm
Isn't there an inline resistor recommended for sennheiser 'stats on stax amps?
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post #5 of 10
10/21/08 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
Hmm, I never heard of it before. I made the adapter last night without resistor and it works beautifully. I assume it's for the bias and if it is, is there a risk I'm damaging my HE60 now?
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post #6 of 10
10/21/08 at 11:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericj View Post
Isn't there an inline resistor recommended for sennheiser 'stats on stax amps?
I always put in a 5m resistor on the sets that I reterminated but I'm not quite sure if there is any big difference in SQ. I always did some other tweaks at the same time so isolating the effect of one is tough.

For the record the 5M resistor goes in series with the bias line so that the phones get the recommended 10M load. The resistor doesn't lower the bias voltage and I've never had any issues running a HE60 on the Pro bias.
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post #7 of 10
10/21/08 at 3:18pm
Thread Starter 
Am I (or is my HE60) safe without one, or should I fix this? How important is the 10MΩ load?
I assume there's already 5MΩ in the Stax amp and that I have to add 5MΩ more to reach this 10MΩ value.
Do Stax 'phones also have a resistor somewhere, or do they require only 5MΩ?
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post #8 of 10
10/21/08 at 3:23pm
The Stax amp has 5M built in so the phones are fine with only that. Stax phones only require 2-5M depending on model.
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post #9 of 10
10/21/08 at 4:03pm
If i were building it, I'd include the 5 megohm resistor strictly because sennheiser recommends it, and because there's been some reports of he60's with a slight channel imbalance when used on a stax amp w/o the added resistor in the adapter.

It's cheap, can't hurt, might help.
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post #10 of 10
10/21/08 at 4:52pm
The resistance controls the constant charge mode of the diaphragms so I can't see any reason to leave it out either. It certainly can't do any harm if you use a good resistor that can handle 600v.
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