[gnewcomer@strate]

This was a very challenging and productive afternoon in the DIY world for me. I recabled my Senn 600s, ditching the cheapy stock cables for something more substantial. In the forums, I'd seen a lot of Canare starquad being used, and some Belden starquad, so I thought I'd give the Mogami a try since there was comparativly little info on it. Slightly more expensive than either Belden or Canare, I bought all my supplies from Markertek.

The Cable is 2534 Mogami Neglex Quad. The conductors are 24g, and D shielded. Capacitance @1khz-20pf/ft.

The Shield and the conductors are all 100% oxygen free copper. Mogami uses a center-core to preserve twist geometry.

A photo of the shield:

http://www.pbase.com/gnewcomer/image/41587752

The Seperated Strands:

http://www.pbase.com/gnewcomer/image/41587782

The Neglex was a pleasure to work with. It as good flexability, is easy to strip, etc. For my cable, I used a Canare F-16 1/4 inch plug, and cannibalized my stock Senn Cable for those elusive little gold pins.

The hard part, of course, was coming up with a way to house the pins, after I got frustrated with the way they moved around in the plastic due to the heat from the soldering gun. I tried many different ideas involving tape, heatshrink, etc but all of these had two problems: In order to get enough rigidity to hold allow the pins to be drivin into their sockets in the headphones, I had to use so much tape that I could no longer fit the plug in the *small* hole in the headphones.

Finally, I hit upon a solution. A little research confirmed that JB Weld was not a conductor, and in fact is an insulator. I grabbed my tubes of JB QWIK-Weld 5 Minute glue-engine-blocks-back-together goodness, and went to work.

The Result:

http://www.pbase.com/gnewcomer/image/41587200

It's ugly at the tip, for sure, but it is also strong, the pins don't shift, and the geometry is correct. YeeHAw! I was about ready to pull my hair out and cry by the time I finally figured this out. The shield on this cable is active, being connected to the ground on the 1/4 inch jack.

The Complete Cable:

http://www.pbase.com/gnewcomer/image/41587658



The Sound:
Since my daily source is an Ipod, and I figured testing would demand something a little nicer, I dropped in my friend Jason and we hooked my new Pimeta up to his Marantz CD-7 cd player. The test disk was Joe Satriani's Strange Beautiful Music.

The Comparison Cables: Senn 600 Stock, and 650 Stock. Sadly, we don't have a cardas or Zu to throw in as well.

The Senn 650 is a gigantic improvement over the 600 cable. If you never buy another cable, at least throw down the 15 bucks and upgrade your 600 cable to a 650. Detail, soundstage increase noticably, and the Sennheiser veil gets thinner. Sennheiser completely cripples with 600s by shipping with that crap-ass cable.

The Mogami Cables were fantastic. Vs. the Stock 650, it was like changing rooms from a concert hall to a studio: Very intimate, very close. The veil, for all intents and purposes, was gone. Let me say hear that I've never been all that bothered by this viel thing... Esp. not on the relativly bright chips in my AD8620 Pimeta. This cable, however, strips it away. It felt like Satriani was sitting on a chair with his guitar, five feet away. I've not been bothered by the viel before, but now, having heard it mostly gone, it irritates me on the stock cord. The Senn sound is still the senn sound: Laid back, highly articulate. However, I would not describe it as "dark" anymore. Base is very tight, clean, and punchy, articulation and range are also very good.

Really, really cool. Worth the effort? And then some, since the materials cost for the cable was barely 25 bucks. HOWEVER: If you are at all squimish, prone to stress, have shaky hands, or are very knew to DIY in general, I'd recommend NOT trying to recable your senns: Dealing with salvaged pins is harrowing. Only perseverance and inginuity will make it come out well, and probably some luck as well.

Hope this post was not excessivly lengthy. The SUM: If you are looking for a new cable to play with, I do recommend the Mogami 2534 Neglex Quad. Its only a few cents per foot more expensive than Canare, much lower capcitance, oxygen free copper (for whatever that's really worth). I've yet to detect interferance, and the cord is not telephonic. Viva Mogami!

Regards,
Sermon

-Mogami cables on Senn 600s -> Pimeta AD8620 -> Mogami Interconnect -> Ipod (Or my buddy's phenomonal Marantz CD-7, whenever I can sneak a listen...)

 

[Ob3ron]

Thats one heck of a purdy looking cable! And you've convinced me to give the Mogami a try. Only thing I'm not really sure about is what exactly you did to make the connectors work.

From this picture it looks like you completely removed the prongs from the connectors and encased them in some sort of glue on the new cable. If that's the case, I'm wondering why you didnt just leave the entire connector intact and solder the wires onto your cable. I've never taken apart one of these so perhaps I'm way off here.

 

[.: ZMN :.]

Wow that looks impressive.

But your description of the improvements in sound convinced me. At least it is worth a try.

Could you please give some more info on what you did to the pins? You say it is sturdy, so what did you use to get it like that? Maybe also some details on disassembly of the plugs - do we need to take special caution for something? It is quite an expensive lesson for just a pair of plugs if you cut things you better have left in one piece!

 

[gnewcomer@strate]

Ob3ron:
Generally, what most have done in the past is just split the Senn connector open, and solder to the pins. This has the major drawback that the pins are plastic, and so as you apply pressure and heat from the tip of the iron to the pin, is starts to move around. And not just a little either. The plastic liquifies, and the pin just floats. I'm using a 15 watt iron, and tried to maintain a light touch. The other problem is that the plastic melts if you don't get it on the first try, and goey plastic gets in the way of making a second attempt.

The other common approach is just to solder your new cables onto the puny stock wires leading into the connector. as soon as you strip the cable, you'll see why this just feels wrong... seven hair-thin strands of copper per channel wrapped around a flimsy kevlar core. Seems (whether or not it actually does) kind of defeating to the purpose of upgrading the cables, if your still feeding your signal through those things. Also, the stock wires are coated, and resist being soldered.

So, I heated the pins, and pulled them out of the stock connector. Then, I soldered them onto the Mogami, 2 conductors each for the ground and the channel. (BTW, big pin is ground, small is channel... double check to make sure, but that's what it was for me.) Then, tweaked the pins around until they were close the right distance apart, and nicely paralell. Put them in a clamp, gently, and then just glopped the JB Quick-weld on as neatly as possible.

There is one possible flaw that I have yet to find out if it's actually a problem. The pins alone actually hold the cable in fairly firmly... and with my design, the pins are all that hold the cable in. Over time, the connection may weaken, and I'll need to find some way to support the cables by having them clip into the headphone cups.

I'd say that if you can make the plastic connector thing work, go that rout... you'll have a nice stock connection. However, if you slag one of the connectors, all is not lost.. then go to the glue option as a resort.

Keep us posted on how the Mogami treats you.. I'm curious to hear about others impressions.

,
Sermon

 

[gnewcomer@strate]

ZMN:

Others have mentioned using a dremel to cut open the plugs. I didn't like that idea for two reasons: Dremels remove material, and I wanted as much of the original plug left as possible. Second, dremels + plastic, in my experiance, = hot plastic spraying everwhere from the heat and force of the cutting head/wheel.

I used a very sharp knife... and xacto would work well. In retrospect, I was probably hasty in cutting the plugs open, and this contributed to the problems I had with it. Start by cutting along the mold-lines of the plug, and dig-pry-cut until you lift one half of the plastic away, leaving the plugs embedded in the other half.

Good luck!! Let me know if you have any more questions.

-Sermon

 

[Ob3ron]

Thanks for your descriptions! It'll probably be at least a month and half or two before I get around to making some cables, so you're going to be in suspense for a while as to whether or not I can improve upon your technique based on the advice you've given. Unless of course others take up the challenge. In the meantime though, enjoy your new cables.

 

[Edwood]

Wow.

Looks heavy and microphonic.

But nice job on the JBweld idea.

-Ed

 

[gnewcomer@strate]

Edwood:

Thanks!

Heavy, yes, I suppose. Microphonic (this means transfering sound based on things touching the cord, etc? I think I miss-called it telephonic in my original post).... Microphonic they seem not to be. Sure, if you really knock the cord around, it jars the headphones, and that shakes things up... but there's no transmission from tapping the cord itself.

Cheers,
-Sermon

 

[Super-Gonzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnewcomer@strate I used a very sharp knife... and xacto would work well. In retrospect, I was probably hasty in cutting the plugs open, and this contributed to the problems I had with it. Start by cutting along the mold-lines of the plug, and dig-pry-cut until you lift one half of the plastic away, leaving the plugs embedded in the other half...

I just went through the process of pulling the pins last night, and initially tried the dremel method... it'll get you through the bulk of the plastic, but the pins are too delicate to dremel out, and the plastic is hard enough that using an x-acto knife creates a high likelyhood of a perforated digit.

On the second time round, I hit upon the idea of cutting down the bulk of the plastic with standard wire snips, and then melting the remaining plastic off the pin. Worked great! Just warm up the pin with a soldering iron, and then grab hold of the plastic with some tweezers or hemostats, and it'll pull right off. 20 seconds of work and perfectly clean pins when you're done.

I ended up using heatshrink to get my pins into a pluggable state, with pretty decent results. I may try to build a mold and use epoxy to build a more solid plug, but so far they are holding just fine.

 

[BradJudy]

I like this idea. I might have to try it with the pigtail Senn plug group buy ones I have sitting around.

1. make mold of plug with modeling clay
2. cut away part of plug
3. clamp pins in vice to hold position
4. melt away remaining plug
5. solder on new wires
6. use mold and epoxy/JB Weld to form new plug around pins/wire

If sounds like a decent plan to me, now I just have to order some wire. It looks like the Neglex is nice and comes in different colors (although Markertek only sells black).

 

[gnewcomer@strate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradJudy I like this idea. I might have to try it with the pigtail Senn plug group buy ones I have sitting around. 1. make mold of plug with modeling clay 2. cut away part of plug 3. clamp pins in vice to hold position 4. melt away remaining plug 5. solder on new wires 6. use mold and epoxy/JB Weld to form new plug around pins/wire If sounds like a decent plan to me, now I just have to order some wire. It looks like the Neglex is nice and comes in different colors (although Markertek only sells black).

That sounds like a great idea! I'd thought of trying to mold the plug, but couldn't think of a good imprint substance.... modeling clay sounds perfect. I was lazy, so I just slopped it on... but if you could get that to work, it would come out looking slick. Any ideas on how to keep the epoxy from sticking to the modeling clay? Talc powder, silicon lubricant, etc?

Regards,
Sermon

 

[BradJudy]

I'll have to do a test first, but I don't think you'd have to worry about the clay sitcking to the epoxy. Unless they interact chemically (I'm not sure if they will), they you should be able to just scrape the clay off the finished plug. Of course, you'll have to make a new mold for each plug, but that shouldn't be too bad.

I'll pick up some epoxy and do a test run without any pins on the end of a spare piece of cable.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnewcomer@strate Edwood: Thanks! Heavy, yes, I suppose. Microphonic (this means transfering sound based on things touching the cord, etc? I think I miss-called it telephonic in my original post).... Microphonic they seem not to be. Sure, if you really knock the cord around, it jars the headphones, and that shakes things up... but there's no transmission from tapping the cord itself. Cheers, -Sermon

So at least the heavy weight has the benefit of deadening vibration noises at least.

The thing I hate about standard techflex is the sound they make when dragging across the edge of a table for instance.

-Ed

 

[mono]

Nice job.

JBWeld can come in VERY handy in the DIY world. FOr those not in a hurry and wanting a much stronger epoxy consider the regular JDWeld instead of "5 minute". The 5 minute looks quite hard on the outside but it's inner structure is somewhat course and granular... it is a far weaker epoxy for the convenience of the 5-minute curing time though I'll grant you that it may not matter in this application, unless there's a strong yank against the cord or something similar.

 

[headchange4u]

Wonder if JBWeld has any effect on the sonics of a headphone cable.

I must admit that the mold idea sounds great. It would be really nice if you could find the pins in the Senn. plugs at some place like Mouser or Digi-Key. You could the fabricate plugs from scratch then.