[dstarr3]

I understand that adapting a SE headphone to be powered by a balanced output is a bad idea, that's how you break amps and headphones. But is the opposite safe to do? Theoretically it's simple to take a balanced headphone and make an adapter that just shorts the separate grounds so you can plug it into a SE output. Is there any chance of damaging any hardware by doing this?

 

[kingoftown1]

Totally safe, go for it. 4 pin xlr (female) to TRS and 2x 3 pin xlr (f) to TRS adapters are fairly common, just connect the two - poles from the xlr to the ring on the TRS plug.

 

[dstarr3]

That's what I thought. Thanks!

 

[dstarr3]

Alright, I've ordered and received materials to build my own adapter, and now I just need to know how to wire everything, lol.

I hopped on RedCo and bought a Neutrik 4-pin female XLR connector, 1/4" male connector, and a foot of Mogami W2534 cable.

The 1/4" connector is straight-forward, TRS, left-right-ground. But what would be the right way to wire the XLR connector? The cable is two white wires, two blue wires, and a shield. And the XLR connector is of course 4 pins, 1-2-3-4, L+ L- R+ R-. Do I just pick any of the four wires to connect to any of the pins and just make sure I terminate at the 1/4" connector appropriately? Or do I want to connect the ground pins to the shield, one wire to L+, another wire to R+, and leave two wires unused?

 

[dstarr3]

I finally found this page here and answered my own question:
https://robrobinette.com/BalancedCable.htm#Make_a_4-Pin_XLR__to_TRS_Plug_Adapter_Cable_

At the XLR end of the wire, split the shield into three parts. One part of the shield gets twisted with one of the ground wires and soldered to pin 2, another part of the shield gets twisted with the other ground wire and gets soldered to pin 4, and the third shield part gets soldered to the connector's ground lug. Pin 1 gets the Left+ wire and pin 3 gets the R+ wire as you'd expect.

At the TRS end, twist the shield and two ground wires together and solder to the sleeve. Tip gets Left+ and ring gets Right+ as expected.

 

[dstarr3]

Aaaaaaaaaaaand success. Soldered it up after dinner tonight, sounds great. Now I can plug my balanced headphones into single-ended outputs if need be.

It's also nice to be able to easily A/B the balanced vs. SE outputs with the same headphone on the same amp. It really is surprising the effect balanced output has on the audio.