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Cheap headphone cable suggestions?

post #1 of 12
3/2/11 at 8:24pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

I just bought a cheap pair of Sennheiser HD201s. They sound great to my ears, (for the price). But they have a ridiculous 6 foot cable which is way too much even for most studio use.

So I'd like to recable it, which actually seems to be pretty easy. Pop off the foam pads, unscrew it to reveal the driver. Desolder old wire, resolder new, put back together. Can't possibly be that hard...

Anyway. I need about 3 feet of cable per channel, so about 6 feet total. By cheap I mean $10-20 shipped. Good quality would be nice, but most of all cheap and the right length. Presoldered 3.5mm jack would also be a plus but I can handle that if not.

Thanks.
Edited by TheLaw - 3/2/11 at 8:25pm
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post #2 of 12
3/2/11 at 10:47pm

for the short term, why not chop off the the current cable to length and solder on a new end?

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post #3 of 12
3/2/11 at 10:50pm

That ^ Or maybe consider these?

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/CORDCTRL-NO-MORE-TANGLED-HEADPHONE-CORDS-CABLES-/360184144560?pt=Other_MP3_Player_Accessories&hash=item53dca5e2b0

 

They've helped me in some situations where my cable off my cans were too long or easily tangled.

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post #4 of 12
3/3/11 at 8:28am
Thread Starter 

Why can't I use regular wire? Like non-headphone wire?

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post #5 of 12
3/3/11 at 9:52am

One time, I made an HD650 cable out of a huge Monoprice mini-RCA cable just as a joke.  Just chop off the RCAs and figure out which is +/- and then add your headphone connectors.  There's nothing special about a headphone cable other than it needs to generally have 4 wires, be flexible and likeable to the owner, have headphone connectors on one end and your amp end on the other.SUBMIT

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post #6 of 12
3/3/11 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
Oh alright. Is there a particular gauge that is too big? Like too much resistance or something? The only stranded wire I have right now is 18AWG. I can of course get some more, but I was just wondering if that was too big (or small)?
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post #7 of 12
3/3/11 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
How do you wire 4 wires into a 3.5mm/1/4inch jack?
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post #8 of 12
3/3/11 at 11:43am

In a single-ended cable, the ground is shared.  So, the right and left ground/negative wires get connected to the ground/sleeve contact.

 

18awg is on the big side for headphone cables, but whatever you find comfortable.

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post #9 of 12
3/3/11 at 12:37pm
Thread Starter 
I'm not sure if I really know what a normal gauge would be. 22AWG perhaps? 24? They are 24ohm drivers...if that makes a difference.
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post #10 of 12
3/3/11 at 2:58pm

I'd start with 24awg, it's the most popular size overall.  22awg will fit in certain situations, and 18awg you really have to plan for the strain relief and other engineering related issues to make it work, depending on the headphone.  26awg is on the smaller side, as it gets higher the wire gets more fiddly and possibly less durable.  

 

Driver impedance isn't important here.  Really all that means is how difficult the cans are to drive, with high ohmage requiring more current and very very low ohmage requiring high voltage. ~32 ohm is like your typical portable headphone that is easy-ish to drive.  


Edited by scootermafia - 3/3/11 at 3:00pm
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post #11 of 12
3/3/11 at 7:52pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks. Should I use speaker 24AWG speaker wire and sleeve it with some 1/8in sleeving? Not sure if there's a general consensus on that...
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post #12 of 12
3/4/11 at 9:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLaw View Post

Thanks. Should I use speaker 24AWG speaker wire and sleeve it with some 1/8in sleeving? Not sure if there's a general consensus on that...


You can.

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