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Shortening the ath-m50, need some general cabling advice.

post #1 of 8
10/9/10 at 3:34am
Thread Starter 

Hey,

 

I recently ordered an M50. Sadly it's the M50s and I was planning to chop 40% of the cable off and use the other 60% as an extension cable by soldering a female and male jack on.

Unfortunately I was unable to find a gold female connector, so I was wondering if it would be ok SQ wise to use two male jacks and a gold female coupler, so;

 

HEADPHONES -> MALE PLUG -> FEMALE COUPLER -> MALE PLUG -> SOURCE/INPUT

 

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250693070924&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320599946985&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

The alternative is to buy a cheap adapter, but unfortunately I can't be sure of the cable quality. Does it even really matter?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/3-5mm-Male-Auxiliary-Extension-Cable-Audio-Female-Gold-/280420188077?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414a587fad

 

Help appreciated! It seems safer to use the cut off cable as the extension to me, but I would really need a female 3.5mm connector which I can't find.


Edited by Leee - 10/9/10 at 3:35am
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post #2 of 8
10/9/10 at 5:25am

Is there any specific reason to why you want a gold connector?

 

In any case I think a NYS240BG should work


Edited by limpidglitch - 10/9/10 at 5:28am
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post #3 of 8
10/9/10 at 8:54am
Thread Starter 
Not particularly. Friend in car audio mentioned that it had better conductive qualities
Personal exp is too little to tell
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post #4 of 8
10/9/10 at 9:21am

Gold coating contacts is usually done to prevent corrosion, which in turn would cause bad connections.

Nickel works just as well in this regard, it just doesn't look quite as 'bling'.


Edited by limpidglitch - 10/9/10 at 9:30am
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post #5 of 8
10/9/10 at 12:35pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks,

 

As far as SQ goes, would there be any reason to use a decent extension cable other than to protect against corrosion? I was told that SQ only really degrades in excess of say, over 3m of cabling. Why do you see so many people recabling?

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post #6 of 8
10/10/10 at 2:37am

Often plain vanity, but some are due to practical considerations or just to give the headphones a more personal look.

And it can't be denied that the perceived improvements due to psychoacoustics can be quite significant.

 

The audiophile community abounds in myths and dubious claims, I suggest you take a few moments to browse this thread to get a rough overview of this side of the hobby.

 

How long the cable have to be to degrade your listening experience depends on the electrical properties of your amplifier, cable and headphones. The details are a bit complex, but you can read a bit more about it here. Just think of your headphones as downscaled higher impedance speakers, your M50s are rated at 38Ω.

 

The short answer is: No.

At the lengths you're looking at just go for decent build quality.


Edited by limpidglitch - 10/10/10 at 7:23am
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post #7 of 8
10/10/10 at 3:18am
Thread Starter 

Got it. 


Thanks a bunch for taking the time to provide me with the info above.

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post #8 of 8
11/9/10 at 5:49am

My ATH-M50s for my 2009 160GB iPod Classic just arrived. I am very happy with the SQ of this combo for Smooth Jazz listening. I just find the straight cable long for portability reasons. I do not have any use for a 1/4 plug so I am not interested in keeping the original 1/8 plug with 1/4 threaded adapter.  It is good to know that a nickel coated plug is as good as a gold plated one where SQ is concerned and plan to have a similar length chopped off. Can someone point to discussion threads regarding the pros and cons of shortening of the ATH-M50s cable for iPod use.

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