inertianinja
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2013
- Posts
- 620
- Likes
- 140
Background:
I started with the HE500 and, like many, I hated the SMC connectors. Years later, I realize that they sucked because the female ends were recessed, making it nearly impossible to screw them down properly...but anyway. Time passed.
Down the road, I started using SMC again because I wanted to do a detachable cable mod for my TH-X00; I found that the only connector that fit without modifying the wood cup was a specific type of SMC (my writeup: here). So I used SMC to mod my THX00 Mahogany, Purpleheart, and Ebony. Then, the same with my AT A1000Z.
On those, the SMC female end was fully exposed, and I found that it was super easy to get the SMC screwed in - no slower and no less secure than any other headphone. So I SMC, and bought a few cheap SMC-terminated cables off Aliexpress for portable use. I also repurposed one of my TH-X00 cables, making it a balanced cable terminating in
Next project was to make one cable to rule them all. But some headphones are too expensive to mod, so the answer was to make adapters. Inspired by Norne's "Hypershort" adapters (at an intense $90 each!!!), I set out to make my own. Though not as pretty as Norne's cables, it's completely possible to make these adapters on your own. For some applications, you need zero wire - I was able to solder the SMC female directly to the other connector.
I guess an added benefit here is that it reduces wear on the headphone's stock connectors. The connector remains inserted, rather than repeatedly reconnecting and wearing it out. Also nice is that the headphone is unmodded, so there's no damage to any resale value.
Long story short, I now have "hypershort" connectors for the Elear, LCD2/LCD3, HD800, and TH900.
Pics of the process below. I'm pretty happy with the results.
THE COLLECTION:
HD800:
LCD3:
Elear:
I started with the HE500 and, like many, I hated the SMC connectors. Years later, I realize that they sucked because the female ends were recessed, making it nearly impossible to screw them down properly...but anyway. Time passed.
Down the road, I started using SMC again because I wanted to do a detachable cable mod for my TH-X00; I found that the only connector that fit without modifying the wood cup was a specific type of SMC (my writeup: here). So I used SMC to mod my THX00 Mahogany, Purpleheart, and Ebony. Then, the same with my AT A1000Z.
On those, the SMC female end was fully exposed, and I found that it was super easy to get the SMC screwed in - no slower and no less secure than any other headphone. So I SMC, and bought a few cheap SMC-terminated cables off Aliexpress for portable use. I also repurposed one of my TH-X00 cables, making it a balanced cable terminating in
Next project was to make one cable to rule them all. But some headphones are too expensive to mod, so the answer was to make adapters. Inspired by Norne's "Hypershort" adapters (at an intense $90 each!!!), I set out to make my own. Though not as pretty as Norne's cables, it's completely possible to make these adapters on your own. For some applications, you need zero wire - I was able to solder the SMC female directly to the other connector.
I guess an added benefit here is that it reduces wear on the headphone's stock connectors. The connector remains inserted, rather than repeatedly reconnecting and wearing it out. Also nice is that the headphone is unmodded, so there's no damage to any resale value.
Long story short, I now have "hypershort" connectors for the Elear, LCD2/LCD3, HD800, and TH900.
Pics of the process below. I'm pretty happy with the results.
THE COLLECTION:
HD800:
LCD3:
Elear:
