Well said sir well said indeed

Balanced designs only make sense if the headphone is extremely hard to drive and you wish to use it with a more powerful, balanced source. The idea that there is audible noise in single ended mode for short wire runs is actually false. So if anybody is going through the effort of making this...

Does anyone still have the guide for rewiring the MH40 for balanced? The blog entry is no longer available and I'd like to try my hand at it since I just picked up a backup pair cheap off eBay.

It is not. It has dual entry for the 3.5mm headphone cable but they are not wired to be balanced. I believe someone in this thread has opened them up and rewired them.

Thank you!

I do. Black/Camo. Check out my post from three years ago: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/master-dynamic-mh40-over-ear-headphone.723526/page-32#post-14571447 Did you forget that you were the reason I got them? There is a photo of them included in that post.

I can't recall if you own this model? I know you and I aren't the type to modify headphones to make them balanced... :D

https://www.head-fi.org/search/6611472/?q=Balanced&t=post&c[thread]=723526&o=date Some people have converted theirs. They are not wired for balanced out of the box. Check out some of the posts that come up in a search.

Does anyone know if the mh40 is wired for balanced connection?

Thanks! Yes indeed, forward, exciting & energetic. Really fun sound.

I actually liked the signature a bit more for MH40, they are brighter, more open, more balanced. By comparison, Mw60 is thicker, warmer, more lush and laid back. MH40 is quite forward

I just convert my MH40 in balanced headphones, i always felt like they would benefit of more power than any phone/laptop could give. An now i could use my ES100/Qudelix 5K in balanced, its just giving them a little more power to make them sound better with my phone You need basic soldering skils...

Woohoo...Guess I have to that as well @Slater... Did you use the same cable like @hifi80sman have (Sony MDR 1AM2)? I have the ES100 as well... Thanks for the info...:)

Yes, I converted my Alcantaras to balanced, and using them with the ES100 :)

Wow. Thanks. That's fine then, I don't usually use the mute button...:smile: Are you using a balanced cable as well @Slater? No issues experienced on your player?

Without running extra wiring, it can only be used to mute 1 side (the side with the button on it).

...MDR-1A, and that means that both headphones TRRS port is equal to L+,R+,G,Mic. Right? I would like to know what is the status of your FiiO Q5s after using it with MH40 Balanced? Is it still working fine? :sweat_smile: Also, does the mute button on the ear cup still works when running Balanced?

Thats why i post the first link where explains exactly what you said. But the previous step is having the cable to make it work. Hope anybody could have in their hands a mezze 99 cable to just see if it fits in the MH40. But maybe in the next days i buy the cheapest cable (like 30bucks) and...

...open up and resolder the circuit boards inside the MH40, to convert them to double sided jacks. The audio sharing function (as well as mute button) would be deleted, but they could then be used balanced. Edit: Re-reading your post, it seems you’re already aware of this. Sorry for any confusion.

has anybody had try the mezze 99 cable in the mh40? having looked and "studyed" this page, now in just in the search of the correct balanced cable and seems like the mezze 99 cable fits correctly in the mh40 jacks I found this cable in aliexpress (here) so maybe i pull the trigger and later make...

Interesting. No issues thus far, but now that I know, I'll just run unbalanced. What's curious, and maybe someone can shed some light on this, there is a 6+ feet 3.5mm TRRS cable that comes with the MH40 (not the mic cable).

...are wired together, as well as each jack being individually wired with shared grounds. I would be very scared to plug even 1 side into a balanced amp, much less both sides at the same time. To run the MH40 with a balanced source requires modifications of the internal wiring/resoldering of...

If you are outputting via the 4.4mm to a unbalanced headphone, you could damage your Q5s amp. shurely you are not getting the benefit of a true balanced but your having extra power (the MH40 benefits a lot when using a powerfull (and bright) amp. I would ask to fiio about this before using it

Not sure if anyone has already tried this, but the Sony MDR-1AM2 balanced cable fits perfectly on the MH40. Running this balanced (4.4mm) in the office over my FiiO Q5s sounds notably better than unbalanced 3.5mm. Less warm, more definition (but still not detail retrieval kings).

Nice, glad that guy thought of the same thing as me. Since converting to balanced would lose the mute button functionality, I’m considering converting the mute button into a single-ended/balanced selector button. Leave it out for stock (single ended) single-cable mode, push it in for dual-cable...