[524419]

Just to confirm, it's 3.5 mm single ended, so the L- and R- should be "shorted"/connected together to form the single negative of the 3.5 mm, right?

I ordered it from Plus-sound, to use my balanced 4.4mm cable in with my DAC's 3.5 mm out. Just checked it with my multimeter, and yes they are both connected, that is shorted together.

The diagram you have is correct

 

[artpiggo]

Well I think that is female 4.4 to male 3.5.
Not what OP referred. Be careful.

 

[524419]

Well I think that is female 4.4 to male 3.5.
Not what OP referred. Be careful.

Oh yeah, that's true. Didn't see that...

 

[515164]

Well I think that is female 4.4 to male 3.5.
Not what OP referred. Be careful.

Oh yeah, that's true. Didn't see that...

Ok then. Yes, I have one of those and I was not worried about it

 

[dazzerfong]

Oh no, I know that 3.5 mm balanced exists.

Also, I understand that 4.4 to single ended 3.5 will damage the player.

I was just wondering how some people still used this kind of adapter successfully - at least with no immediate damage.

At best it does nothing and merely introduces a whole bunch of crossfeed distortion. At worst it breaks it, especially if it's high-powered. Gotta remember, our headphones and IEMs barely use any power: we're not frying transistors with that amount of power.

The whole reason how differential outputs (i.e. what people call balanced) get higher power is because the -ve pole is simply the +ve pole flipped, so now you effectively get twice the amplitude. If you share the -ve pole for both the left and right, it simply 'cancels' out if it's the same signal, or destructively interferes with each other.

Buut, most pins don't touch the entire pole, so effectively if you have a 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter, you'd have L+, R+ and maybe R-.

There is a 3.5mm balanced connection , the Sony uses it as well on the 3.5mm ports. It also has the same pin out as 4.4mm

Nope, it's missing the ground sleeve. Pentaconn has 5 connections: 3.5mm balanced has 4.

 

[515164]

Buut, most pins don't touch the entire pole, so effectively if you have a 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter, you'd have L+, R+ and maybe R-.

Yep, I saw some confused and upset people that they only hear sound in the right ear.

 

[dazzerfong]

Yep, I saw some confused and upset people that they only hear sound in the right ear.

Good marketing pitch though: clearly their hearing isn't good enough to appreciate the adapter.

 

[Whitigir]

At best it does nothing and merely introduces a whole bunch of crossfeed distortion. At worst it breaks it, especially if it's high-powered. Gotta remember, our headphones and IEMs barely use any power: we're not frying transistors with that amount of power.

The whole reason how differential outputs (i.e. what people call balanced) get higher power is because the -ve pole is simply the +ve pole flipped, so now you effectively get twice the amplitude. If you share the -ve pole for both the left and right, it simply 'cancels' out if it's the same signal, or destructively interferes with each other.

Buut, most pins don't touch the entire pole, so effectively if you have a 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter, you'd have L+, R+ and maybe R-.



Nope, it's missing the ground sleeve. Pentaconn has 5 connections: 3.5mm balanced has 4.

Sony Pentaconn doesn’t use the 5th Sleeve. This is just Jeita standards. To utilize it or not is up to you. You are correct though, it has been too long that I get involved in 3.5mm balances from Sony. It actually uses L+ R+ L- R- for pins out which is different from 4.4mm.
But the facts still remain as a rule of thumb...Never goes from Balanced to single ended, because it will short out the player

 

[TYATYA]

The idea would be to use single ended headphones on a balanced port, benefiting from the higher output power of this port.

Stop or you are killing the player.
. But you can go reverse way: use a bal headphone on 3.5 port (w/o any benefit)
(That adapters are existing every where).

 

[SoNic67]

IMO the first picture is wrong. There is no need for "ground" on a balanced connection, and that jack has an extra (unnecessary) ring. A TRRS is enough, see the below example: