[Jackson12106]

Hi, I just bought a pair of ATH-M50s's, and was planning on recabling them. However, I was thinking more along the lines of installing a 3.5mm jack on the cans themselves, and using a 3.5mm extension cable or similar to connect them. After seeing these posts, though, the whole "microphonics" issue kind of scared me...keep in mind that I'm totally new to this, but would installing a jack and using a separate cable reduce audio quality and create a lot of microphonic interference?

 

[buffalowings]

"microphonics" is different from crosstalk, microphonics is when the cable brushes against your shirt and the noise created
crosstalk is when sound that should only should be on the right (or left) and ends up in the left (or right) earphone

 

[Jackson12106]

So you're saying...that if I use the original cable, it's not likely that I will have any problems? I figured all of the little metal bits in the jack would cause interference or something. If I'm not using the original cable, what kinds would make the least interference? and lastly, why is it that the starquad cable did that?

 

[buffalowings]

from what I read in the link provided, it appears the starquad cable actually reduced the crosstalk. a previous poster in the thread is correct in saying that all unbalanced headphones have a bit of crosstalk. not a big issue really, hardly ever noticeable. though I'm not quite sure how you will install/mount the headphone jack into the earcups. 

 

[Jackson12106]

Alright, I will get right on it! And as a point of clarification, I was thinking that when he said that he was hearing "microphonic" that he didnt hear  beore, it was coming from the starquad cable. That was the problem I was asking about, not crosstalk. Thanks!

 

[decyph3r]

Speaking of replacing the cable. I am planning to buy the ATH M50 for my iPhone. Can the stock cord be replaced with a cord that has a built-in mic for answering phone calls? Is this possible? If it is, will it degrade the sound coming out from M50's? Sorry, i'm a newbie here.

 

[decyph3r]

Bump! Any suggestion guys?

 

[meizumintyboi]

Did you modify the M50's cable in the end?
 
What I did with mine was de-solder the old cable, cut it to about 5cm, pulled the plug all the way to the top of the sleeve on the left ear cup, removing the spring stress relief, and re-soldering.
 
I got a custom 1m Neutrik Rean male/female cable custom made, and another 3m cable for use at home.
 
When I use them with my galaxy S, I use the official Samsung remote which I bought off ebay (4-pole jack), which is about 0.8m long, the controls allow me to change volume (in-line analogue), answer/end calls, pause/skip/previous track and an inline mic.
 
You may be able to get an iphone handsfree cable like this.
 
You might lose quality, but actually I have found no sq difference compared with the original cable. No microphonic noise either, as I'm using the original cable and as the length is so short, but actually I tried doing this with a longer cut of the cable, there was still no microphonic noise thankfully, obviously the material of the starquad cable used was what was causing this. I'll post some pics if you're interested.
 
Here's the kind of thing you'll want: iphone microphone adapter
 
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=iphone+microphone+adapter%23&_sacat=0&_odkw=iphone+griffin+microphone&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

[decyph3r]

Quote:

Did you modify the M50's cable in the end?
 
What I did with mine was de-solder the old cable, cut it to about 5cm, pulled the plug all the way to the top of the sleeve on the left ear cup, removing the spring stress relief, and re-soldering.
 
I got a custom 1m Neutrik Rean male/female cable custom made, and another 3m cable for use at home.
 
When I use them with my galaxy S, I use the official Samsung remote which I bought off ebay (4-pole jack), which is about 0.8m long, the controls allow me to change volume (in-line analogue), answer/end calls, pause/skip/previous track and an inline mic.
 
You may be able to get an iphone handsfree cable like this.
 
You might lose quality, but actually I have found no sq difference compared with the original cable. No microphonic noise either, as I'm using the original cable and as the length is so short, but actually I tried doing this with a longer cut of the cable, there was still no microphonic noise thankfully, obviously the material of the starquad cable used was what was causing this. I'll post some pics if you're interested.
 
Here's the kind of thing you'll want: iphone microphone adapter
 
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=iphone+microphone+adapter%23&_sacat=0&_odkw=iphone+griffin+microphone&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 
Hi meizumintyboi, hope you can post photos of your m50 so we can get a clear idea on how it looks like.
 
Thanks!

 

[meizumintyboi]

 
The 3.5mm audio jack coming out is the original plug and cable cut short and re-soldered. I use the 1m neutrik custom cable for on the go, the samsung headset with my sgs and another fisual 3m install series with my desktop amp. No microphonic noise, so much better than the long and heavy coil cable. All fitting my my Slappa Hardbody Pro case nicely. Also I sometimes plug my Fiio E5 amp into the headphones jack, then into a 10cm jack to jack cable, as the e5 is so light this works really well if I ever need to use it.

 

[decyph3r]

Quote:

 
The 3.5mm audio jack coming out is the original plug and cable cut short and re-soldered. I use the 1m neutrik custom cable for on the go, the samsung headset with my sgs and another fisual 3m install series with my desktop amp. No microphonic noise, so much better than the long and heavy coil cable. All fitting my my Slappa Hardbody Pro case nicely. Also I sometimes plug my Fiio E5 amp into the headphones jack, then into a 10cm jack to jack cable, as the e5 is so light this works really well if I ever need to use it.

Great job! Thanks for posting your pics. I'm still thinking of getting the M50. Once I got, will definitely try this. Is it really difficult to do all these? Do you have any video tutorial? That'll definitely be a great help for us newbies.
 

 

[meizumintyboi]

no video, it's really simple, and it was my 1st headphone mod, just pull off the ear pad, unscrew the 4 screws with a phillips head screwdriver, remember the order in which the cables are soldered (red, green, black), then de-solder, cut the cable at the jack end to about 10cm. Strip the cable to reveal the wires, reveal the wires for each of the 3 colours to about 5mm, burn the wires for a second with a lighter to get rid of the thread that is intertwined. Re-solder, I just re-used the solder that was on the PCB already, worked just fine.

 

[decyph3r]

Quote:

no video, it's really simple, and it was my 1st headphone mod, just pull off the ear pad, unscrew the 4 screws with a phillips head screwdriver, remember the order in which the cables are soldered (red, green, black), then de-solder, cut the cable at the jack end to about 10cm. Strip the cable to reveal the wires, reveal the wires for each of the 3 colours to about 5mm, burn the wires for a second with a lighter to get rid of the thread that is intertwined. Re-solder, I just re-used the solder that was on the PCB already, worked just fine.

Thanks mate! Will take note of this and will definitely try as soon as I get my M50. Cheers!
 

 

[meizumintyboi]

oh and remove the spring stress relief, as shown in the picture. Just pull hard at it after you've cut the cable to the length you want it.

 

[decyph3r]

Quote:

oh and remove the spring stress relief, as shown in the picture. Just pull hard at it after you've cut the cable to the length you want it.

Will take note of this! Thanks again mate!