[PhoneLover94]

Hello guys. I have been wanting to recable my AD700's for quite some time now, and with Christmas coming up and a little more to ask for, I have decided I'm going to finally go through with the project. I have already disassembled my AD700's a couple times and have removed the foam pad, put a sort of sticky tack around the back side of the driver and filled it with fiberloft and I have repainted the grill. So now I want to take on a more challenging but rewarding task, recabling my cans. I want to know if it is possible to take the wires on the inside and run them to a female jack that I can mount on the bottom of the headphones where the cable comes out now. I want to do this so that I can quickly and easily change my cable lengths because a 4' cable is good for on trips or just sitting at my computer desk, but for playing my xbox on my tv or something else far away, I want a little lengthier cable. So what I want to do is just buy about 30' of Canare L-4E6S Quad cable from Redco, about 6 Neutrik NYS231L plugs, and then 30 feet of 1/8" Techflex and 30 feet of 1/4" Techflex just to make it look nice. I am wondering what female plug I will need to mount it onto my headphones and if this is possible. Thanks in advanced for the help

 

[iJustin]

http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=966&bc=no

 Don't use the barrel but just use the jack. Drill a hole in a relatively flat part around the rim of the cans, and put this through it. Epoxy or anything that will hold well should be applied around it and there you go.

 

[liamstrain]

Or just get a panel/chassis mount jack... rather than the inline. cheaper and cleaner - and you may even be able to use the face side bezel. 
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=090-317 (maybe not that one, but that idea)
 
Though - honestly, for a detachable - I would probably want to find something with a locking connector... maybe a mini-xlr. If you use a 4 pin chassis mount - you can set it up so you can do balanced wiring at some point with just a new cable (4 pin mini to 4 pin xlr, instead of 4 pin mini to TRS). 
http://www.kvconnection.com/product-p/t-rt4mp.htm
 
You might also consider doing your recable with a main cable at a manageable length, then just making an extension cable. for the extra long... 

 

[PhoneLover94]

I originally thought of just making a 4 foot cord, and then making a 10 foot extension. The only problem I thought of with this is that the cord may break later down the road and then I will have to take the whole thing apart again to rewire it. With a detachable cord, I could just make a new 4 foot male-male and use it. 

 

[PhoneLover94]

Also, how would I go about making my headphones "balanced"? This is a concept I never really understood (i.e. what makes a pair of phones "balanced" and how is it different from a regular headphone?)

 

[liamstrain]

with balanced, each side (left and right) has its own signal and ground (4 wires - 2 per side). With regular, the ground is shared between them (3 wires - 1 per side, plus a shared ground). 
 
That's pretty much it - but when you use a balanced amplifier (each side has its own dedicated amplifier, basically), it can make a bit of a difference. 

 

[PhoneLover94]

Yeah. I don't think I have the need (but mostly the money) to make a balanced headphone yet. Maybe once I get up into Beyerdynamics or high end Sennheisers I will start into Balanced lines, but I think regular is fine for my AD700's lol. Do you think I should:
1) Recable them with a 4 foot length, then make a 10 foot extension length
2) Use a 3.5mm Panel Jack and make two cords, (1) 4 foot 3.5mm male-male and (1) 10 foot 3.5mm male-male      or
3) Use a locking connector (like xlr?) and make two cords, (1) 4 foot (xlr?) (male-male?) and (1) 10 foot (xlr?) (male-male?)

 

[iJustin]

It really depends on your uses. If you plan to store your headphones without the cables, or sometimes you want to get up really quick without the need of taking of your headphones then sure you should probably go with 1. 2 if your needs to 1 don't apply, or if you want a much simpler and easier way to recable. Finally 3 is for a more durable modular cord system, but I imagine it would cost more form the costs of mini-xlr plugs and jacks.

 

[PhoneLover94]

Yeah. I guess I will just recable them into a 4 foot cable, and then make an extension. Thanks for the help and I hope all goes well. Probably will have to make another thread after Christmas when I have the parts because I feel like I will run into some problems recabling. lol