First post to show off my DIY portable setup. I've been lurking here for months now and it's time to try to give something back.
I picked up a second pair of MDR-V6s from Sonystyle for $40 refurbished this week to use as part of a portable setup. I also bought a FiiO E5 from head-direct thanks to this forum.
The big problem I had was that the setup wasn't as portable as I had hoped. Putting the mass of MDR-V6 coil in my back pocket didn't work so hot, so I decided it was time to slap a straight cable on there. I did my research here and found lots of people using the Canare StarQuad cable on their Beyers, Denons and Sennheisers.
The recable process
Given the fact I've some lowly $40 V6s, I thought I'd attempt with some parts I had lying around in case I didn't get it right. I had this random Monster Car Audio patch cable lying around from an old car and iPod setup that seemed to fit the bill; I went and bought a bunch of heat shrink tubing as well as some nylon multifilament and went to work. I cut the cable to about 5 feet in length.
Once I was on the path to recabling and had the V6s disassembled, I decided that I might as well go all the way and do a dual-entry setup. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the right can (which appears to be made of a soft metal, possibly aluminium) and cut off the original overhead cable that goes to the right driver from the left can.
This is my first time ever opening a set of headphones, but I found it kind of surprising that all four wires from the stock V6 cable were actually mounted to the left driver: there are 6 solder pads on each driver split into three sections, ground, what appears to be a pass-through set to ground/right channel and left channel. The left driver has six wires going to it total: left ground, right ground inbound from cable, left signal, right signal inbound from cable, right signal outbound to right, right ground outbound to right.
On the right driver, only the source and ground were hooked up. If you are going to attempt this recable yourself, desolder everything from both drivers: you will only need to hook up signal to the patch that's outlined in a reddish colour and ground immediately to its left past the insulation goo. I wish I had taken pictures of this process, but I didn't know how it would go
I stripped the Monster interconnect and then ran twisted pair under heat shrink to each channel; over the pair+heat shrink and main monster cable is nylon multifilament loom. The splice joint is double heat-shrinked and I even have some electrical tape over it for good measure to make sure the nylon doesn't come out. At each can, the nylon multifilament stops and the heat-shrink/pair enters the can, at which I have strongly cable tied the outside and inside junctions for stress relief. I cable tied the nylon multifilament at the 1/8" connector end as well and added some elec. tape to keep it all in place.
Results
I tested this pair of MDR-V6s against my Beyer velour-padded ones and a co-worker's stock ones at my office with my tube-rolled Qinpu Q-2 hybrid (using a JAN GE 5671, I don't even know much about this stuff yet and I thought the stock tube sounded terrible) and FiiO E5 (I know neither are amazing amps, but I'm still on beginner mode.) The sound difference in the recable seems minimal, with barely perceptible tighter bass response and a bit more balanced midrange on both amplifiers from the non-recabled versions. YMMV; there's a chance that this perception is just psychosomatic. I'm a big fan of what people around here call "over-analytical" headphones for the most part, because I find that I focus on individual details of a recording more than I really pay much attention to the whole.
They're definitely way more portable than the coiled mess that came with the V6s, feel very balanced thanks to the dual entry, and I'm happy for a budget job… mostly.
Yeah, there's one drawback to my first recable: microphonics. Once I get about 14 inches from the 1/8" connector, I can hear any tap on the cable. I suspect this is due to my nylon multifilament, which I've done very tightly over the main cable.
Possible improvements to the V6 recable.
To reduce microphonics a bit, I'm tempted to attempt Dynamat placement behind the drivers. I'm also definitely going to add the Beyer velour pads I have on my V6s at work with next month's audio-gear budget.
My iPod+FiiO E5 setup
In keeping with my "decent audio on a budget" philosophy, I wasn't about to buy an iMod or another audio player. I only have a 2G Shuffle, 3G Shuffle and an iPod Touch 2G. (I also have a 6G iPod Classic, but it always stays in my car.) After some research, the 2G Touch appears to have the best sound quality, so I dug it out of a box (I've been using my Shuffles for months) and charged it.
I've heard some things about the E5's battery not lasting very long, so I treated it as disposable and decided to "integrate" it into my setup.
I bought a small clip-on rear case from Fry's for $12 (whatever the cheapest of this variant they had was.) This just covers the back of the iPod and makes it look gloss black:
I grabbed some epoxy and literally glued the E5 onto the case back permanently, a little more than halfway up from the middle of the iPod (so I'll get a nice incline effect when I want to read something on the iPod. I did something a little weird and put the input on top, away from the iPod dock/headphone jack, since the headphone cable will always weigh more than the iPod interconnect and I wanted to reduce physical stress on the setup. Right now I just have the FiiO running from the headphone jack, but I'm going to run a FiiO L1 LOD next month as part of my setup.
Pretty cheap?
If you wanted to recreate my setup, minus the iPod, it'll cost you about $130 in refurb. headphones, cable, the FiiO, and heat shrink / nylon multifilament for the recable. You'd probably get better SQ out of the RE2/E5 combo, but I've never been a fan of using IEMs; I find them really uncomfortable to wear for more than 15 minutes at a time.
Anyway, I hope this helps others if they'd like to attempt it on their V6/7506s. I'm pretty happy with the result overall, and it was a great learning experience. If you guys have any recommendations for me moving forward, I'd love to hear them. I'm currently looking for a good DAC for my KRK RP5s that will also adequately drive some good monitor 'phones for a home setup.
I picked up a second pair of MDR-V6s from Sonystyle for $40 refurbished this week to use as part of a portable setup. I also bought a FiiO E5 from head-direct thanks to this forum.
The big problem I had was that the setup wasn't as portable as I had hoped. Putting the mass of MDR-V6 coil in my back pocket didn't work so hot, so I decided it was time to slap a straight cable on there. I did my research here and found lots of people using the Canare StarQuad cable on their Beyers, Denons and Sennheisers.
The recable process
Given the fact I've some lowly $40 V6s, I thought I'd attempt with some parts I had lying around in case I didn't get it right. I had this random Monster Car Audio patch cable lying around from an old car and iPod setup that seemed to fit the bill; I went and bought a bunch of heat shrink tubing as well as some nylon multifilament and went to work. I cut the cable to about 5 feet in length.
Once I was on the path to recabling and had the V6s disassembled, I decided that I might as well go all the way and do a dual-entry setup. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the right can (which appears to be made of a soft metal, possibly aluminium) and cut off the original overhead cable that goes to the right driver from the left can.
This is my first time ever opening a set of headphones, but I found it kind of surprising that all four wires from the stock V6 cable were actually mounted to the left driver: there are 6 solder pads on each driver split into three sections, ground, what appears to be a pass-through set to ground/right channel and left channel. The left driver has six wires going to it total: left ground, right ground inbound from cable, left signal, right signal inbound from cable, right signal outbound to right, right ground outbound to right.
On the right driver, only the source and ground were hooked up. If you are going to attempt this recable yourself, desolder everything from both drivers: you will only need to hook up signal to the patch that's outlined in a reddish colour and ground immediately to its left past the insulation goo. I wish I had taken pictures of this process, but I didn't know how it would go
I stripped the Monster interconnect and then ran twisted pair under heat shrink to each channel; over the pair+heat shrink and main monster cable is nylon multifilament loom. The splice joint is double heat-shrinked and I even have some electrical tape over it for good measure to make sure the nylon doesn't come out. At each can, the nylon multifilament stops and the heat-shrink/pair enters the can, at which I have strongly cable tied the outside and inside junctions for stress relief. I cable tied the nylon multifilament at the 1/8" connector end as well and added some elec. tape to keep it all in place.
Results
I tested this pair of MDR-V6s against my Beyer velour-padded ones and a co-worker's stock ones at my office with my tube-rolled Qinpu Q-2 hybrid (using a JAN GE 5671, I don't even know much about this stuff yet and I thought the stock tube sounded terrible) and FiiO E5 (I know neither are amazing amps, but I'm still on beginner mode.) The sound difference in the recable seems minimal, with barely perceptible tighter bass response and a bit more balanced midrange on both amplifiers from the non-recabled versions. YMMV; there's a chance that this perception is just psychosomatic. I'm a big fan of what people around here call "over-analytical" headphones for the most part, because I find that I focus on individual details of a recording more than I really pay much attention to the whole.
They're definitely way more portable than the coiled mess that came with the V6s, feel very balanced thanks to the dual entry, and I'm happy for a budget job… mostly.
Yeah, there's one drawback to my first recable: microphonics. Once I get about 14 inches from the 1/8" connector, I can hear any tap on the cable. I suspect this is due to my nylon multifilament, which I've done very tightly over the main cable.
Possible improvements to the V6 recable.
To reduce microphonics a bit, I'm tempted to attempt Dynamat placement behind the drivers. I'm also definitely going to add the Beyer velour pads I have on my V6s at work with next month's audio-gear budget.
My iPod+FiiO E5 setup
In keeping with my "decent audio on a budget" philosophy, I wasn't about to buy an iMod or another audio player. I only have a 2G Shuffle, 3G Shuffle and an iPod Touch 2G. (I also have a 6G iPod Classic, but it always stays in my car.) After some research, the 2G Touch appears to have the best sound quality, so I dug it out of a box (I've been using my Shuffles for months) and charged it.
I've heard some things about the E5's battery not lasting very long, so I treated it as disposable and decided to "integrate" it into my setup.
I bought a small clip-on rear case from Fry's for $12 (whatever the cheapest of this variant they had was.) This just covers the back of the iPod and makes it look gloss black:
I grabbed some epoxy and literally glued the E5 onto the case back permanently, a little more than halfway up from the middle of the iPod (so I'll get a nice incline effect when I want to read something on the iPod. I did something a little weird and put the input on top, away from the iPod dock/headphone jack, since the headphone cable will always weigh more than the iPod interconnect and I wanted to reduce physical stress on the setup. Right now I just have the FiiO running from the headphone jack, but I'm going to run a FiiO L1 LOD next month as part of my setup.
Pretty cheap?
If you wanted to recreate my setup, minus the iPod, it'll cost you about $130 in refurb. headphones, cable, the FiiO, and heat shrink / nylon multifilament for the recable. You'd probably get better SQ out of the RE2/E5 combo, but I've never been a fan of using IEMs; I find them really uncomfortable to wear for more than 15 minutes at a time.
Anyway, I hope this helps others if they'd like to attempt it on their V6/7506s. I'm pretty happy with the result overall, and it was a great learning experience. If you guys have any recommendations for me moving forward, I'd love to hear them. I'm currently looking for a good DAC for my KRK RP5s that will also adequately drive some good monitor 'phones for a home setup.
Easily fixed though in the future 
