[Mad Max]

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I recabled my Q701's to 4 pin Mini XLR, hardest part, REMOVING THE STOCK JACK! Holy S***, I ended up having to cut the jack out with a dremel, and apoxy the piece back around the new jack. Looks bad from the front, not too bad from the back. Cable has piercing treble on some songs though, so I am going to reterminate the stock AKG cable to test that out, I think its the cable, the mogami that is, thats causing the sound, I double checked my solder joints.

Spoiler: pics

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
You should tin the exposed copper of the wires where you soldered them to connectors.  I would use rough sandpaper on the inside of that plastic tube where the male xlr is so the cup closes better.  That is the likely source of the treble issue, unless you get the piercing treble in both channels.  A mogami cable otherwise wouldn't contribute to such a sound as it is not a bright-sounding cable at all.

 

[Sko0byDoo]

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Hi you all.
My first post and it's about my Sennheiser HD800 headphonecable makeover.
The basis was Cardas headphonecable for HD650 that i wanted to modify.
Used two layers of black polyester sleeve to really cover up the ugly blue that the Cardas cable had.
This resulted into bit too stiff and heavy cable, but i can live with it.
The y-splitter is selfmade from solid aluminium. Not too cute, but i didn't come up with a better idea this time.
 
Thanks for Toxic Frank for the connectors and TM3 connections for the sleeve.
 
 

 
Congrats for a beautiful make-over!  I am about to make a HD800 wire using diy Moon Audio Silver Dragon V2.  Any trick to solder the tiny connectors?  The connectors are a lot tinier than in web pics!  So afraid to mis-solder and see smoke comes out on first try...        

 

[ardgedee]

Some recent projects...
 
16ga Navships SPC Teflon wire and Monoprice bulk RCA plugs. Soldering the wire was kind of awkward because it was stiff but it worked OK. Sounds good so far; I will slowly be building similar cables for the rest of the system to eliminate the connections that are a little too short or way too long.

 
26 ga BTG copper wire, Neutrik NC4-series XLR plug and Auto-IRIS connector (a.k.a. RSA balanced plug). For driving balanced full-size headphones like the HE-6 or K1000 from portable amps.

 
24ga Navships SPC Teflon wire, Neutrik/Rean NYS-series 3.5mm plug and 6.5mm socket.

 

[Vynil]

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Congrats for a beautiful make-over!  I am about to make a HD800 wire using diy Moon Audio Silver Dragon V2.  Any trick to solder the tiny connectors?  The connectors are a lot tinier than in web pics!  So afraid to mis-solder and see smoke comes out on first try...        

Those truly are tiny. Not really usefull having a thick cable.
Don't use too hot soldering iron or the connector will melt. Put some solder onto the cable and the connector first and then solder them together. Try to be quick i quess and not use too much heat.
And dont use too much solder or the connector or the parts wont fit into the housing.
Steady hands and good nerves will help.
I had neither

 

[rsxboy]

When you guys recabled your headphones with paracord, did you strip away the factory outer layer? Or just put the whole cord inside the paracord?
 

 

[Johnsonr520]

Has anyone used the black and gold rean 3.5mm jack by nuetrik? Have you had troubles with the clamp being too big for the casing? Even when I clamp it it is too big

 

[ardgedee]

Those NYS-series plugs are what I usually use.

The clamp is meant to hold the wire in place after soldering and should be squeezed down about as hard as you can manage without perforating the wires' insulation. If somebody yanks hard on the cord rather than the plug, you want the clamp to be strained, not the solder joints.

If you've done that and still can't get the shell over the clamp, it's possible you're using wire that's too thick. Although before giving up on that I recommend opening the clamp up and using pliers to try bending the clamp arms in a semicircle before squeezing them down again. If all else fails, grind the clamp tabs off, but remember that any wire strain is going to be taken up by the solder joints. If your joints are good and take care of your cables., that shouldn't be too dire an issue.

 

[Johnsonr520]

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Those NYS-series plugs are what I usually use.

The clamp is meant to hold the wire in place after soldering and should be squeezed down about as hard as you can manage without perforating the wires' insulation. If somebody yanks hard on the cord rather than the plug, you want the clamp to be strained, not the solder joints.

If you've done that and still can't get the shell over the clamp, it's possible you're using wire that's too thick. Although before giving up on that I recommend opening the clamp up and using pliers to try bending the clamp arms in a semicircle before squeezing them down again. If all else fails, grind the clamp tabs off, but remember that any wire strain is going to be taken up by the solder joints. If your joints are good and take care of your cables., that shouldn't be too dire an issue.

 
Thanks for the quick reply. I dont have my wires in yet so I was just clamping them down so I could screw it on for storage purposes until my wires come in. I will try the semi circle idea and tell you how it go's. If not i guess ill use the dremal to take off 1mm or so and see if it works without losing the clamps

 

[ardgedee]

In that case just leave it unassembled. You don't want to flex the clamp too much because it fatigues the metal.

 

[Johnsonr520]

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In that case just leave it unassembled. You don't want to flex the clamp too much because it fatigues the metal.

I bought a pack of them in bulk so I just tried the semicircles on one and it worked much better thank you. Ive never ran into a plug or jack that had such little clearance before.

 

[65535]

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I bought a pack of them in bulk so I just tried the semicircles on one and it worked much better thank you. Ive never ran into a plug or jack that had such little clearance before.

 
Which one did you buy? They make two, the standard size is designed to fit 4mm cable which is what they are designed for, small coax. They also make a larger version with an 8mm cable design which can accept much larger cable obviously.

 

[Johnsonr520]

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Which one did you buy? They make two, the standard size is designed to fit 4mm cable which is what they are designed for, small coax. They also make a larger version with an 8mm cable design which can accept much larger cable obviously.

I cant remember off the top of my head, bot im pretty positive it is 4mm, its not a very large opening

 

[ardgedee]

Most likely the smaller opening. The NYS231BG-L is the version with the larger opening and it is disappointingly hard to find.

 

[ardgedee]

Another recent project:
 
 

 
  
 
IEM cable made with 44/30 litz wire, usually used for building AM radio antennas. 44/30 means 30 individually insulated 44 AWG strands in each litz wire. There are two wires per connection (eg, a total of 60 strands per each + and - ). Summed surface area of the strands in cross section is equivalent to 26 AWG wire.
 
Since the strands are incredibly thin and there is no outer insulating jacket to speak of (only nylon to hold the wire together), the cable has an average diameter where all four lines are braided of about 1.2mm (My other 26 AWG 4-strand headphone cable has an average diameter of around 3mm). Without a heavy coat of insulation to give it body, the wire is as limp as a shoelace.
 
It sounds great, and the lightness makes it very easy to ignore while I'm wearing it. The downside is that it's very easy to accidentally kink the wire while winding or unwinding it. Part of that can probably be laid to the hasty braiding job I did; a tighter, more even braid would probably help. I plan to experiment more with this variety of wire, using more strands maybe of heavier gauges, and maybe sleeve it in mulitfilament or paracord to pad it out. All of these ought to help reduce the kinking. I like having non-bulky cable, but not if it's inclined to destroy itself.
 
(The weird-looking plugs, btw, are scavenged VGA pins. I filled them with solder to increase their rigidity (they're hollow otherwise) and sanded smooth, then poured hot glue on top. Not my finest effort, but I was in a hurry and they get the job done)

 

[rianchaos]

Such thin beauty... Is that the kobiconn connector that you use for the RSA balanced plug?