[doobooloo]

Hello,

I'm looking to replace the stock cable on my RS-1s with something nicer. I have Canare Starquads on hand along with some untested silver plated copper variants, but I don't think any of them will do my headphones justice.

I'm looking for something that's silimar in construction to the Canare Starquads - two twisted pairs with shielding. If possible, I would like something a bit more flexible, though.

I may do balanced and build a balanced -> regular converter along with the re-cable, given so much positive feedback about balanced RS-1s.

Also, my preferences are for fast, detailed dynamics over warmer, fuller sound.

Finally... what kind of 1/4" connectors are recommended? I have Canare connectors but while they look and feel nice I think there are better for the RS-1s. Any recommended balanced connectors?

At any rate, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[Kenny12]

if your going to balanced by using xlr connectors, i would advise against it, the extra weight of the male / female jack is very annoying, i would just do the recable to 1/4" and change it later for xlr by adding a few inches.

 

[doobooloo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenny12 if your going to balanced by using xlr connectors, i would advise against it, the extra weight of the male / female jack is very annoying, i would just do the recable to 1/4" and change it later for xlr by adding a few inches.

You mean, use a 4-pin 1/4" with two different grounds a la Sharp MD?

Otherwise, there's no way to go from a regular 3-pin 1/4" to balanced XLR (4-pin or two 3-pin) right?

 

[ChickenScrtchBoy]

wouldn't two 1/4" 3-pins do the job?

 

[aerius]

I don't know about the cables, but I'd advise going with a 4-pin XLR plug on the end of it. That makes it pretty easy and a lot less cumbersome to make an XLR to 1/4 phono plug adaptor, and keeps the cabling a lot neater than using 2 3-pin XLR plugs for balanced.

Of course no one I know of other than myself uses 4-pin XLR jacks on their balanced amps, but if you're building one yourself, getting one made, or modding one, it's not too hard to add the appropriate connectors.

 

[doobooloo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerius I don't know about the cables, but I'd advise going with a 4-pin XLR plug on the end of it. That makes it pretty easy and a lot less cumbersome to make an XLR to 1/4 phono plug adaptor, and keeps the cabling a lot neater than using 2 3-pin XLR plugs for balanced. Of course no one I know of other than myself uses 4-pin XLR jacks on their balanced amps, but if you're building one yourself, getting one made, or modding one, it's not too hard to add the appropriate connectors.

Thanks for the advice.

After getting a number of opinions and thinking about it myself I've decided to go with a single 4-pin XLR plug. It seems like the most reasonable option, I can always make a dual 3-pin to 4-pin adapter, a 4-pin to 1/4" adapter, and so on if I need to and would work the best. Of course I'm going to make my own dual mono amp to go with my balanced USB source (Edirol UA-25) so I can use whatever plug I want to.

Plus, going the 4-pin XLR route will make them compatible with the K1000s... always a plus

Thanks again for your input everyone!

 

[dip16amp]

I was going to use a single 4-pin XLR connector on both of my balanced amps and three headphones but I also wanted to be able to use an unbalanced headphone as well. To have the ground for unbalanced at the connector required using 5-pin XLR connectors. It turns out that tHE AES standard for two balanced channels in a single connector is the 5-pin XLR connector. I used the Neutrik gold pin NC5MX-B on the headphones, NC5FD-L-1-B on the amp, and NC5FX-B on cable extensions. Mouser carries them. I can also make adapters to any other headphone or amps either balanced or unbalanced, and adaptors to dual connectors. Seemed the most versatile and convenient to me.

 

[doobooloo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dip16amp I was going to use a single 4-pin XLR connector on both of my balanced amps and three headphones but I also wanted to be able to use an unbalanced headphone as well. To have the ground for unbalanced at the connector required using 5-pin XLR connectors. It turns out that tHE AES standard for two balanced channels in a single connector is the 5-pin XLR connector. I used the Neutrik gold pin NC5MX-B on the headphones, NC5FD-L-1-B on the amp, and NC5FX-B on cable extensions. Mouser carries them. I can also make adapters to any other headphone or amps either balanced or unbalanced, and adaptors to dual connectors. Seemed the most versatile and convenient to me.

Wow! Thanks for the info dip16amp!

I didn't know there was a standard for two balanced signals in one plug. Having the common ground on the 5 pin makes a lot of sense, even though the balanced headphone may not need it. I think I'll go with the 5-pin then, especially if that's the recognized standard for dual balanced.

 

[dip16amp]

AES 14-1992 (r2004) defines the pinout of 3- and 5-pin XLR connectors.
www.proav.de/data/XLR.html

The five pin XLR connector pinout is:
pin 1 is ground
pin 2 is the left positive signal
pin 3 is the left negative signal
pin 4 is the right positive signal
pin 5 is the right negative signal