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Beyerdynamic T1: DIY 1/4 to Balanced XLR mod anyone?

post #1 of 11
6/1/10 at 11:14pm
Thread Starter 

Does any one know of the wiring diagram / methodology to do a DIY mod to convert stock Beyerdynamic T1 cable to balanced XLR?

 

Would be very interested in knowing this.

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post #2 of 11
6/2/10 at 5:48am

Here you go.... look for my post in this page:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/440799/beyerdynamic-to-launch-new-top-headphone-at-ifa-called-t1/2190

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post #3 of 11
6/2/10 at 8:14am
Thread Starter 

Thanks @musicman59...one more thing

 

the reason I want to go balanced is that I have a Lavry Da10 which will be my headphone amp and DAC for some time to come (since I am travelling a lot).

 

Now the recommended minimum Ohmage for Lavry is 600 ohms and the T1s are also 600, so I was wondering instead of using an average inbuilt headphone amp I might use the amazing Balanced XLR outputs..

 

any thoughts?

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post #4 of 11
6/2/10 at 10:41am

The XLR outputs are carrying just singal not power to drive headphones. If you want to use the Lavry XLR outputs you will need an extranal amplifier with balanced inputs and balanced headphones output.

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post #5 of 11
6/2/10 at 10:50am
Thread Starter 

Thats what I thought. Looks like I am stuck with using the 1/4 headphone out because I am traveling so much in the next few months!

 

Atleast the T1s look a lot better than the GS1000 that I am trying to sell.

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post #6 of 11
6/2/10 at 1:48pm

I see that you have the GS100 with the Balck Dragon. I was very close to sell my T1 (even after re-terminated them ot balanced0 until I sent them to Robert at AphroditeCu29.com to be recabled with his Zeus cable. This cable totally change the t1 to the better. It is made based on OCC copper from WireWorld. I stongly recommned you to take a look into it. The sound get smoother, the bass gets faster and tighter and the soundstage becomes more holographic.

I have listen to a T1 with the Black Dragon from a friend and IMO mine with the Zeus sounds better.

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post #7 of 11
6/2/10 at 2:23pm
Thread Starter 

Now I will get panned for this..or maybe my ears and the gear is just not that sensitive but to me on my B&W 800D the Radioshack 10AWG copper wire and the $150 per foot 10AWG wire sound absolutely the same. No difference.

 

Maybe headphones are difference because they are a lot more sensitive, but I think as long as both the stock T1 cables are 24 AWG the SQ should be almost the same!

 

As I said..I dont have a great rig just NAD M3 amplifier running off the Lavry DA10 XLR outputs with DIY Homegrown Audio 18AWG silver interconnects.

 

 

Now once I buy Zana Deux and some Wadia DACs I will surely upgrade the stock cables :-)  (because if I can afford to buy the Zana Deux I bet I an also afford to buy the cable upgrade)

^^Wishfully thinking if I had a long lost uncle who would bequeth his billion dollar estate to me ^^

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post #8 of 11
6/3/10 at 6:18am

What are your electronics running your B&W 800D?

 

I am full of envy!! Those are the spekers I want. I have two stereo systems. The main one has a pair of B&W 801 Matrix S3 with a pair of Threshold T400 in monoblock operation, Threshold T2 pre-amp, Wadia 27 DAC and Wadia 20 transport . There I also have a RSA Apache.

 

I just recently changed my speaker cables for a pair of double barrel based on the top of the line OCC copper Furutech wire that Rober from AproditeCu29 made for me. IMO the sound improved tremendously. The bass got tigter but deeper and mainly the whole clarity and resolution increased. They just sound natural nad perfect.

 

In my other system I have a pair of B&W N803 with a REL Q401 sub. The electronics are a Threshold S550e amp, Threshold T2 pre-amp, Theta Gen Va (soon to be sold) and Teac VRDS-10 transport. There I havea Rudistor RP010B MkII headphone amp.

 

As you can see I love B&W sound and the 800D are the only speakers i would replace my modified 801 with.

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post #9 of 11
6/3/10 at 7:37am
Thread Starter 

Nice setup you got there..always cool to talk a fellow B&Wer

 

I am just starting out with building my dream system.

 

I have a primariliy digital setup Krell Evolution 402 as the power amp, Lavry DA10 DAC and Airport Express as the purely digital transport from my Macbook Pro (which is bit accurate).

 

Speaker wires are Acoustic Zen double barrel and Radioshack 10awg copper cables. The only mod for the Radioshack cables is that I had the ends dipped in 22 carat gold to ensure they dont corrode at the binding posts and loose SQ due to the Copper Oxide formation.

 

The 800D are simply amazing using both the cables and I dont hear even tiniest bit of difference.

 

Now as I said the Acoustic Zen and my DAC are not state of the art and must be upgraded before I upgrade my cables :-) But as an electrical engineer all my learning tells me that the inductance and capacitance for just 8ft of speaker wires that carry high voltage and high currant the impact will be minimal. I might be wrong for the headphone cables though because the currents and voltages we deal there are lot smaller compared to the output of Power Amps that drive the B&W

 

I surely dont have golden ears nor as much audiophile experience, no elaborate sound walls in my rooms and I listen to music only in the digital domain so may be thats why I cant appreciate the cables.

 

At some time in the distant future I would "upgrade" to Wison Alexandria..but that is wayyyyy too distant. *sigh*

 

 

 

 

 

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post #10 of 11
6/18/10 at 10:41pm

I think if you have some skills in soldering and some patience, you could get the cable and solder the cable to the drivers, the positive-negative will most likely be marked on the driver, and/or with color-coded cable insulation. Plus the headphones are already dual-entry correct? I would go for it, not many have the opportunity to own those beautiful headphones.

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post #11 of 11
10/4/10 at 10:27pm

are you happy with the t1 ballanced sound ?

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