[Paladin79]

My apologies if this has been answered, but could anyone point me in the direction of a tutorial on how to change an IEM cable into a cable that has 3.55 plug on both ends? I have some older IEM cables that I never use, but have a need for some inter-connects. Thanks in advance.

You need only look to see the pinout for a 3.5 mm connector and make sure you use the same three wires on each end. If you cannot tell the wires apart you can purchase a cheap ohmmeter, many of which have a sonic continuity test, and make sure each end is wired the same. A TRS connector, Tip, Ring, and Sleeve is the standard for a stereo 3.5 connector, TS is tip/sleeve and mono. TRRS has an extra connection point.

A meter can tell you which connection is which as you measure the front portion and back portion. A good thing to remember is the Ring is the right channel, tip is the left channel, and sleeve is ground. Once completed properly you will have continuity between TRS on both ends of the cable.

Oh yeah, look for connectors with three solder lugs, some are made using a cylinder with each connection on the back side separated by plastic.

Good brands to use would be Neutrik (Rean), Switchcraft, and Amphenol.

This amphenol shows the two solder lugs, the ground wire is connected to the metal portion with the two jacket clamps. I hope you have soldered before.

There may well be Youtube videos showing this if what I said was not clear.

Some extensions I made using the Amphenol. It has an extended tip to account for phones or tablets in cases.

 

[krunchcrispy]

You need only look to see the pinout for a 3.5 mm connector and make sure you use the same three wires on each end. If you cannot tell the wires apart you can purchase a cheap ohmmeter, many of which have a sonic continuity test, and make sure each end is wired the same. A TRS connector, Tip, Ring, and Sleeve is the standard for a stereo 3.5 connector, TS is tip/sleeve and mono. TRRS has an extra connection point.

A meter can tell you which connection is which as you measure the front portion and back portion. A good thing to remember is the Ring is the right channel, tip is the left channel, and sleeve is ground. Once completed properly you will have continuity between TRS on both ends of the cable.

Oh yeah, look for connectors with three solder lugs, some are made using a cylinder with each connection on the back side separated by plastic.

Good brands to use would be Neutrik (Rean), Switchcraft, and Amphenol.

This amphenol shows the two solder lugs, the ground wire is connected to the metal portion with the two jacket clamps. I hope you have soldered before.

There may well be Youtube videos showing this if what I said was not clear.

Some extensions I made using the Amphenol. It has an extended tip to account for phones or tablets in cases.

THanks, this helps!

 

[iemsforme]

Carbon fiber, silver and rhodium plated (high strand count 1,120) OFC 16awg litz

Where did you purchase the cable material? Beautiful!

 

[Chuck Dee]

Managed to complete a 4.4mm Penty version of my Crystal Cranium v2.
I'll never get that time back...ever, but it sounds great with my Fiio KA3.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

^ Handsome braiding job

 

[Chuck Dee]

^ Handsome braiding job

Thx.
I'm all about the braid, bout the braid, no straight wires.


Braid geometry makes a huge difference in improving the noisefloor. Had no idea until I started experimenting.
Happy days.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Thx.
I'm all about the braid, bout the braid.


Braid geometry makes a huge difference in improving the noisefloor. Had no idea until I started experimenting.
Happy days.

I never tried it but to me, good braiding really makes the difference a great looking cable and just a piece of wire. That diamond braid you did is outstanding, looks like a thousand bucks!

 

[Chuck Dee]

I never tried it but to me, good braiding really makes the difference a great looking cable and just a piece of wire. That diamond braid you did is outstanding, looks like a thousand bucks!

Muchas gracias!
It's just a shame I can't go longer than 2m. It gets exponentially more difficult the longer you go, chasing the back-braid etc.
One day I shall have the world's most marvellous and magical braiding machine and it will be possible....lol

 

[Armaegis]

Muchas gracias!
It's just a shame I can't go longer than 2m. It gets exponentially more difficult the longer you go, chasing the back-braid etc.
One day I shall have the world's most marvellous and magical braiding machine and it will be possible....lol

For long runs, sometimes I would actually start the braid in the middle of the wire and essentially work outwards from both sides. The tricky part is making sure you match up the braiding pattern.

 

[Chuck Dee]

For long runs, sometimes I would actually start the braid in the middle of the wire and essentially work outwards from both sides. The tricky part is making sure you match up the braiding pattern.

That's actually a good idea for longer lengths. I should try it.
However, I don't know if it's something with my brains lack of processing power or lack of basic logic but if I ever lose my place when braiding with 4 different colours of paracord it takes me up to 20 minutes sometimes to find back the proper sequence to continue the correct braiding pattern. I started clipping the strands in place with a clothes peg in a particular position but I still get caught out sometimes and it ends up looking hanky janky with a different colour pattern/sequence. Arrrrg.

My friend walked in one day and she got absolutely mad at me for 'ignoring' her while I was braiding a 3m run of paracord. I wasn't ignoring her intentionally, I was just trying to stay focused so as not to lose my place and screw up the braid and losing precious time in the process. Time I would never get back lol.
It took me ages to pacify her and explain what I was doing.
I had to say really nice things to her and pay her many many compliments as well as making 2 big latte machiatto's to calm her down and regain her friendship. She was going berserk; 'You complete, utter ignoring b@stard! Why were you ignoring me?? I come all this way to visit you and bring you appelgebak and this is how you treat me???' lolololol


She gets it now thankfully however, if I don't answer her whatsapp calls or whatever.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

That's actually a good idea for longer lengths. I should try it.
However, I don't know if it's something with my brains lack of processing power or lack of basic logic but if I ever lose my place when braiding with 4 different colours of paracord it takes me up to 20 minutes sometimes to find back the proper sequence to continue the correct braiding pattern. I started clipping the strands in place with a clothes peg in a particular position but I still get caught out sometimes and it ends up looking hanky janky with a different colour pattern/sequence. Arrrrg.

My friend walked in one day and she got absolutely mad at me for 'ignoring' her while I was braiding a 3m run of paracord. I wasn't ignoring her intentionally, I was just trying to stay focused so as not to lose my place and screw up the braid and losing precious time in the process. Time I would never get back lol.
It took me ages to pacify her and explain what I was doing.
I had to say really nice things to her and pay her many many compliments as well as making 2 big latte machiatto's to calm her down and regain her friendship. She was going berserk; 'You complete, utter ignoring b@stard! Why were you ignoring me?? I come all this way to visit you and bring you appelgebak and this is how you treat me???' lolololol


She gets it now thankfully however, if I don't answer her whatsapp calls or whatever.

I'm sorry, I was tied up at the time.

 

[Armaegis]

No no, the solution is to tie her up... consensually of course

 

[Chuck Dee]

I never tried it but to me, good braiding really makes the difference a great looking cable and just a piece of wire. That diamond braid you did is outstanding, looks like a thousand bucks!

Many thanks for the kind words!


I started researching the science behind the benefits of braiding and am now convinced that they are real and absolute; EMI/RFI mitigation, noise-supression, as well as making cables look nice. Win!

and now for something completely different....

 

[Chuck Dee]

I wanted to develop the most cost-effective but uncompromising cable to use with my collection of vintage Sennheiser HD5** and HD6** models when using with my Tascam MH-8 multichannel headphone amp.

After researching many cable types I stopped at the ridiculously good and ridiculously cheap Sommer Cables SC 'The Square' 4-core flexible OFC double-shielded cable.

Probably really meant for duplex studio interlinks but it's eminently suitable for headphone cables in my opinion!
I set to work choosing appropriate components and ended up with the following:

 

[Jon L]

Pure silver cable with Xhadow clone XLR