[Allanmarcus]

correct.

It's going to be for a modified T40rp headphone, yeah i got a bit confused because of the multiple outputs, so its still just going to be one hot wire and one ground?

 

[legopart]

what the disadvantages of twisted cables ?

 

[jmpsmash]

My first attempt at making my own cables didn't work out too well. I used Neotech 23awg silver cable in a starquad config with Vampire XLR connectors. The cables are around 8" long. I did have fun making them and they look quite nice.

However, the sound is very thin and not producing the expected amount of clarity. Very lifeless.

Back to the drawing board?

I found the issue. I used pin 1/3 instead of 2/3 for the signal. After hooking it up correct now it sounds much better. It is now as expected, much more extended high but the low are a bit muted. Maybe I will swap out 2 of the quad with copper instead of silver.

I did have to add another wire for the ground/shield as i noticed some ground loop hum.

 

[kingkikapu]

My first attempt at making my own cables didn't work out too well. I used Neotech 23awg silver cable in a starquad config with Vampire XLR connectors. The cables are around 8" long. I did have fun making them and they look quite nice.

However, the sound is very thin and not producing the expected amount of clarity. Very lifeless.

Back to the drawing board?

Hmm that’s no good. A couple questions: what gear were you connecting? Do you have pics of the soldering work? What sort of solder and flux did you use?

Thx

 

[jmpsmash]

Hmm that’s no good. A couple questions: what gear were you connecting? Do you have pics of the soldering work? What sort of solder and flux did you use?

Thx

I found the issue. I connected pin1/3 instead of 2/3 for the balanced pair. So the +ve input is floating while it pumped signal into the ground.

I fixed it and then noticed that leaving gnd unconnected there is a noticable ground hum. So connected pin 1's with a cheap piece of wire and now it sounds way way better.

However, with some A/B compare with my reference which is a pair of Audio Art IC3SE, i noticed there is better high frequency details as one would expect, but the bottom end is a bit thinner. I might replace 2 of the star quad with some good quality copper. hopefully that will give things a bit more body. Have to make another order to soniccraft though.

 

[kingkikapu]

Glad you found it. On a 3 pin balanced interconnect you should have nothing floating. You should have positive, negative and ground all connected so that common mode rejection gets properly summed. If you don't, you would be running an unbalanced signal and a poor one at that.

Copper is fine for the ground IMO.

 

[jmpsmash]

Glad you found it. On a 3 pin balanced interconnect you should have nothing floating. You should have positive, negative and ground all connected so that common mode rejection gets properly summed. If you don't, you would be running an unbalanced signal and a poor one at that.

Copper is fine for the ground IMO.

is the quality of the ground wire important? Currently I am just using a really cheap piece of wire that I found lying around.

 

[kingkikapu]

“A balanced circuit is a two-conductor circuit in which both conductors and all circuits connected to them have the same impedance with respect to ground and to all other conductors. The purpose of balancing is to make the noise pickup equal in both conductors, in which case it will be a common-mode signal which can be made to cancel out in the load.”

My answer would be no, provided it is of sufficient gauge to handle the electric protential of the system without thermal heating.

Here's a balanced checklist I follow:

• Keep balanced line pairs tightly twisted (you've done this).
  • This provides immunity to magnetic fields, but only ferrous metals are effective low-frequency (60hz ish) magnetic shielding. Ordinary cable shielding will not protect from this well.
  • The balanced architecture will provide you good immunity from electric fields, so shielding isn't a big priority.
  • Make sure your signal wires are good quality, symmetrical, etc.

 

[kingkikapu]

I forgot to ask: how was the noise floor of your cable after you got rid of the hum?

 

[jmpsmash]

I forgot to ask: how was the noise floor of your cable after you got rid of the hum?

interesting question. I haven't paid attention to it after I fixed the hum issue this morning. I will go home tonight and crank up the volume to check. I will compare it to my reference which is a 3ft shielded cable. the reference has the advantage that it is shielded, but at the same time it is also 4x longer!

 

[jmpsmash]

The above cable is made for the connection between my DAC and amp.

Next I want to make my first balanced headphone cable. I want to try mixing copper and silver. each channel as a starquad like above, 2 silver and 2 copper conductors.

Are there any advantage to the different braiding methods. I know star quad has actual physics behind it that's why I am using it.

 

[kingkikapu]

There are minimal differences in braiding methods from a physics perspective for what you are doing. They key feature of any braiding/twisting is noise rejection. Some braids create better ergonomics (they coil better). Bonus.

Again, conductivity ensures a strong source signal and braiding helps rejects noise. You can facilitate conductivity by minimizing LCR impedence. The easiest and biggest contributor to that one in headphone cables is straight up resistance.

 

[kingkikapu]

what the disadvantages of twisted cables ?

Compared to a straight parallel run of conductors as found in a ribbon cable, there are nearly no disadvantages other than if your twist rate in your twisted cable is rather inconsistent, then you can skew the inductive coupling between the various conductors. For the wavelengths associated with human hearing you will be hard pressed to hear that phase decoherence. It more affects higher frequencies found in networking and video transmission compared to audible frequencies.


TLDR: ribbons = more interference/cross talk, braids/twists = less interference/cross talk.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Hey, I just noticed that PlusSound has their Cryo Treated 3.5mm TRRS Plug for only 99 cents!
http://www.plussoundaudio.com/diy/connectors.html

I would get it if I needed one.

Shipping is $5, so get a few, and other stuff too since they have 20% off everything.

I know I posted about this earlier, but the 99 cent deal was too good to not pass on.

 

[legopart]

Again I ask for explanation about usage of twisted cables for headphones

shield is another thing that I cant understand

I build some cables but I still too stupid to understand how its work and why

what the best why to make XLR cable L+ L- R+ R-, or STR cable with L+ R+ GND ?

I want to see the most professional way to make a cable.

Stax and lot of old headphones using just a long flat cable (once insulated ?)