thanks for your patience.. i think i got confused b/c the wiki article links to a store that sells minixlr's but they use the same generic photo for 3, 4, and 5 pin.. i get it now..
so bottom line, the mini's going into the headphones themselves are 4 pin, which would mean the mini at the termination would be 4 pin also... right?
i dont understand the various wiring configurations and how to know which one to use, but looking at alo's page it seems they use only 4 wires to do the exact cable i want to make, which is good news for me!
so i guess they must only utilize 2 pins on each connector going to the drivers - L+G and R+G , .. but i dont understand how you configure the 4 wires on the terminated mini xlr though.. oh bother.. this is why people shovel out the big bucks for cables...
No. You can choose what kind of termination you want. in ordered to have a completely balanced setup where the left and right sides are electically seprated you will need to use either a 4 pin XLR, dual 3 pin XLRs, or dual 1/4" TRS plugs. This is what people called a balanced connection, there is said to be some audio benefits when using this configuration. You can ALSO choose to ignore that and solder on a typical TRS plug, which will combine the grounds of the left and right sides (and hence, electically combining the left and right signals), this is called an unbalanced termination.
For a 4 pin XLR, there are a few different pin configurations, but byfar the most widespread/common one is to use the AKG K1000 pinout reference, which is:
1 - left channel +
2 - left channel -
3 - right channel +
4 - right channel -
HOWEVER, this is all dependent on your amp/source because manufacturers are free to assign connections, there is no standard. BTW, mini-XLR's are electrically identical to the bigger XLR plugs.
Brendan
