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Anyone made cables for the Hifiman headphones?

post #1 of 7
1/10/12 at 3:15am
Thread Starter 

Hi, 

I got the spare connections for my Hifiman headphones and I was wondering how people were terminating the ground wire on these plugs? 
Soldering the inner hot wire is obvious, but the outer ground connection is not. 

 

Do you simply force the sleeve over the connection and pinch the wire in place, or is there some way that this can be soldered? (Which is what I would prefer)

In my case it will be a little more challenging because I'm using enameled wire that has to be tinned before use, which makes the wire stiff. 

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post #2 of 7
1/11/12 at 2:54am
Thread Starter 

Anyone?

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post #3 of 7
1/12/12 at 4:05am

Do you have a picture of the connector?

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post #4 of 7
1/12/12 at 8:44am

 

You can solder directly to that knurled portion that the sleeve fits over.

 

First though, you should pre-tin both the center pin and the knurled portion where your ground wire will be soldered.

 

Put the connector in a vice or similar tool to hold the connector steady and with the open portion facing up. Apply a little flux to the center pin. I use a paste flux and a toothpick, but you can use a flux pen too if you have one. Then clean the tip of your iron, prime it with a little bit of solder, then run your solder through the ass end of the connector and lay the end of the solder over the solder cup of the center pin. Then hit it with your iron for a couple of seconds. Make sure you don't leave any solder stalagmites sticking up. Then apply some more flux to the tinned center pin, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, then insert your pre-tinned lead into the ass end of the connector and lay it over the solder cup. Then hit it with your wire for a couple of seconds. You shouldn't need to use any more solder than you'd applied to the tip of your iron.

 

I wait until this point to tin the knurled section because I don't know exactly where the ground lead's going to end up once I get the leads fully twisted again. So figure out where that place will be and apply some flux, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, and apply it to that portion of the knurled section. You shouldn't need any more solder than what's on the tip. Wait for the knurled section to heat up enough that the solder flows down into the "valleys" of the knurl. Then apply some more flux, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, lay down your ground lead and hit it with your iron for a couple seconds. Again, you shouldn't need any more solder than is on the tip of your iron.

 

That's how I do it anyway.

 

Good luck!

 

se

 

 

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post #5 of 7
1/12/12 at 2:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Eddy View Post

 

You can solder directly to that knurled portion that the sleeve fits over.

 

First though, you should pre-tin both the center pin and the knurled portion where your ground wire will be soldered.

 

Put the connector in a vice or similar tool to hold the connector steady and with the open portion facing up. Apply a little flux to the center pin. I use a paste flux and a toothpick, but you can use a flux pen too if you have one. Then clean the tip of your iron, prime it with a little bit of solder, then run your solder through the ass end of the connector and lay the end of the solder over the solder cup of the center pin. Then hit it with your iron for a couple of seconds. Make sure you don't leave any solder stalagmites sticking up. Then apply some more flux to the tinned center pin, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, then insert your pre-tinned lead into the ass end of the connector and lay it over the solder cup. Then hit it with your wire for a couple of seconds. You shouldn't need to use any more solder than you'd applied to the tip of your iron.

 

I wait until this point to tin the knurled section because I don't know exactly where the ground lead's going to end up once I get the leads fully twisted again. So figure out where that place will be and apply some flux, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, and apply it to that portion of the knurled section. You shouldn't need any more solder than what's on the tip. Wait for the knurled section to heat up enough that the solder flows down into the "valleys" of the knurl. Then apply some more flux, clean your tip, prime it with some solder, lay down your ground lead and hit it with your iron for a couple seconds. Again, you shouldn't need any more solder than is on the tip of your iron.

 

That's how I do it anyway.

 

Good luck!

 

se

 

 

 

Thanks Steve, 

That sounds about like the way I do cables too. 

My concern was how the sleeve was used. Is it soldered on after the ground wire is connected to the knurled section or Is it just held on with heat shrink?   
 

 

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post #6 of 7
1/12/12 at 9:08pm

 

The connectors chosen by HiFiMAN are a standard RF connector intended to be used on coaxial cable. The braided shield of the coaxial cable goes over the knurled portion of the plug and the sleeve slips over that as well as over the exposed portion for the center conductor. Then the sleeve is crimped onto the connector, compressing the braided shield onto the knurled section.

 

However if you're just using a pair of wires to terminate the plug, then the sleeve is optional. If your wire isn't so large that you're able to get the sleeve over it, then go ahead and use it. Otherwise, leave it off. But in either case, you need to use some adhesive lined heatshrink over the connector and your wires.

 

se

 

 

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post #7 of 7
1/13/12 at 2:48am
Thread Starter 

Thanks Steve

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