Maybe is an stupid question, but I guess someone had to do it. Is using a 4.4mm female to 3.5mm male adaptor harmful for the device or It's only going to be harmful if you're trying to go unbalanced to balanced?
4.4mm TRRRS female to 3.5mm male adapter?
- Thread starter kcheung
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dazzerfong
1000+ Head-Fier
Balanced headphone jack converted to unbalanced source is OK.
Unbalanced headphone jack converted to balanced source is not OK.
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Thanks, I couldn't find a direct answer anywhere.
vanhalen26
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Question - your saying I shouldn’t use my balanced headphones with a traditional 3.5mm output on a cellphone etc by using an adapter?
megabigeye
Headphoneus Supremus
The previous afte answer was poorly worded.
Using balanced headphones with a single-ended amp is fine.
Never go the other way, though.
4.4 mm Pentaconn is such PITA connector when it comes to buying/having made pigtail or ultra short adapters for. What I wanted originally, was 4.4mm female to 6.3 male, thinking since it's bigger, it will be easier to make. However, after speaking to Mat from Forza Audio Works, apparently the best Pentaconn housing is the one from Sony. So adapter makers that care about reliability, are kinda left with this cheap plastic looking OEM housing. Anything else has apparently liability issues, which I can confirm on both (expensive) Lavricables Grand pigtail adapter, as well as cheap Aliexpress one. Not sure what Double Helix uses for 4.4mm female housing, but maaan, this whole thing is PITA. I hope the situation improves as this adapter becomes more popular (even some TOTL desktop amps are now including it, for example Niimbus US5 Pro that goes for 5-6k).
I have both those adaptors you mention - the Forza one and the Double Helix ultrashort. They're both good and I think you'd be hard pressed to hear a difference, but the Double Helix feels a bit better in terms of build.
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BaTou069
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A bit late to the game, found the thread since im also searching 4.4female to 3.5 male
Just wanted to clarify that in order to benefit from a balanced headphone output you don't need to use a DAC with balanced topology at all.
Benefits are being able to use longer wires without sound degradation & increased power, theoretically up to 4x compared to SE if I remember correctly, but not necesserally depends on implementation (many 3.5 + 4.4 amps or dac/amps out there that don't even do 2x)
Also having a DAC with balanced topology is honestly kind of an audiophile gimmick that became popular due to demand not by necessity, a single DAC chip is not performing better if doing one channel only. I'm opening a thread in sound science to get some more opinions on that ur all welcome to get some popcorn and watch
Just wanted to clarify that in order to benefit from a balanced headphone output you don't need to use a DAC with balanced topology at all.
Benefits are being able to use longer wires without sound degradation & increased power, theoretically up to 4x compared to SE if I remember correctly, but not necesserally depends on implementation (many 3.5 + 4.4 amps or dac/amps out there that don't even do 2x)
Also having a DAC with balanced topology is honestly kind of an audiophile gimmick that became popular due to demand not by necessity, a single DAC chip is not performing better if doing one channel only. I'm opening a thread in sound science to get some more opinions on that ur all welcome to get some popcorn and watch
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