[Paladin79]

  Could I get a quick confirmation if this would work as I'm planning. I want to mod one of my headphones to take detachable cables but I don't want to have to mark the cable with L/R. Could I connect the drivers to a pair of 3.5mm TRS females, left would be soldered to the tip only, right would be soldered to the ring only. The cable itself will be terminated with two 3.5mm on one end and a 6.3mm on the other end. For the 3.5mm male connectors I will wire both tip and ring. 
 
Would this wiring plan allow me to just plug the cable in and not care about left and right?

If I understand what you are saying, I believe you would be fine. Standard output from any device should have the ring as right channel. As long as you do not change that configuration anywhere in the cable it should work. Naturally the grounds should be attached together.

 

[Andreeww]

Can someone tell me if there's a super small 2.5 to 3.5 adapter. I am trying to use a cable terminated in 2.5 mono connectors on headphones with 3.5 holes. Thanks

 

[Renka]

Is there something somewhere presenting the properties and pros and cons of various types of cable builds and their recommended applications? I know about where to buy cables, but I have no idea what I'm looking for other than knowing that I need 5 conductors. I want to make a cable for my Sony MDR-7506 but it is very important for me that the cable be as flexible as the stock cable that's on it. I have no idea what I should look for to have a flexible cable. I know it has to be stranded but what about the jacket? What about shielding? What about the diameter? All the custom cables I see here appear to be rather stiff from the pictures. I also want to fit this cable with a female jack at around chest height that will allow me to plug in a microphone. The end of the cable will split in 2 TRS male jacks.

Also, if anyone knows where I can find a 135° TRS male jack, that would be great. Whether I go with a removable cable or not will depend a lot on whether or not I can find this.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Paladin79]

  Is there something somewhere presenting the properties and pros and cons of various types of cable builds and their recommended applications? I know about where to buy cables, but I have no idea what I'm looking for other than knowing that I need 5 conductors. I want to make a cable for my Sony MDR-7506 but it is very important for me that the cable be as flexible as the stock cable that's on it. I have no idea what I should look for to have a flexible cable. I know it has to be stranded but what about the jacket? What about shielding? What about the diameter? All the custom cables I see here appear to be rather stiff from the pictures. I also want to fit this cable with a female jack at around chest height that will allow me to plug in a microphone. The end of the cable will split in 2 TRS male jacks.

Also, if anyone knows where I can find a 135° TRS male jack, that would be great. Whether I go with a removable cable or not will depend a lot on whether or not I can find this.

Thanks for your help
 

In mentioning five conductors, I would consider star quad with a ground. Mogami, Canare, or Belden, the standard size cable is about 1/4 inch outside diameter but you might find miniature versions. Star Quad is shielded in two ways, the actual braid shield and the twists (twisted pair) I would think.
As far as a 135 degree male plug, I know of none, 90 degree yes. Neutrik makes good one and they are available at Markertek; they also handle many forms of star quad cable. Those are fairly flexible compared to coaxial cable but less flexible than say microphone cable.
 
Tom

 

[Renka]

Thanks for your post, but what I mean is how does the jacket material, braiding, diameter, general construction of the cable affect the flexibility of the cable? What are upsides, downsides of using certain types of jackets, braiding, constructions? This is what I want to know.

 

[Allanmarcus]

  Thanks for your post, but what I mean is how does the jacket material, braiding, diameter, general construction of the cable affect the flexibility of the cable? What are upsides, downsides of using certain types of jackets, braiding, constructions? This is what I want to know.

If you pull the sleeve too tight, the cable will be less flexible. Multifilament sleeve or paracord is good, just leave a little extra on the cable for flexibility. 
 
If you are going to strip quad and braid, the tighter the braid, the less flexible the cable. That said, I just sleeved 8 strands of mogami with 95lb paracord, and did a fairly tight braid, and the cable is still quite flexible. 
 
Best it to experiment. 

 

[Renka]

I mean the braid inside a cable. I know that there are various types of braid. Does the type of braid make a difference when it comes to flexibility?

I would like to avoid stripping the cable if that is possible. I don't like the idea of paracord because fabric is too difficult to clean and disinfect well (I spend a lot of time in hospitals). Similarly, braided cables would be too intricate to clean and disinfect well. I would prefer to have a single cable with a flexible plastic jacket. I don't know which materials are flexible and which are not.

 

[Paladin79]

  I mean the braid inside a cable. I know that there are various types of braid. Does the type of braid make a difference when it comes to flexibility?

I would like to avoid stripping the cable if that is possible. I don't like the idea of paracord because fabric is too difficult to clean and disinfect well (I spend a lot of time in hospitals). Similarly, braided cables would be too intricate to clean and disinfect well. I would prefer to have a single cable with a flexible plastic jacket. I don't know which materials are flexible and which are not.

When you look at the specs on cable, you will get a percentage of braid. High end cable may have a 95% french braid. It is great for shielding but less flexible than a cable that has a 65% braid. Less wire, less braiding. Companies like Belden have excellent info on types of braid, types of stranding, etc. Look for some good reference material on the subject. PVC is not as flexible as something with polyethylene. I could be wrong but it seemed you started talking about five conductor cable. If you do not want to strip it, and you want a jacket, star quad is the way I could go, standard microphone cable which is highly flexible is generally just two conductors and a ground. There is a lot of braided shielding on star quad though. Heck if you are in the US somewhere I could send you a few small samples of star quad or microphone cable and you can bend them and see which you prefer. How exactly were you planning to hook up five conductor anyway lol?

 

[Renka]

  How exactly were you planning to hook up five conductor anyway lol?

The idea would be to have the standard 3 conductors go to the headphones. I would make a slit in the cable about 6 to 8 inches from the headphones and pull out 2 cables that I would hook up to a female jack for the microphone. Then I would use heat shrink to secure the female jack against the cable so it doesn't dangle and to close the whole thing. Then at the end of the cable I would make a y split for a microphone and headphone plug. Does this sound feasible or is it more work than it's worth?

Unfortunately I don't live in the US but thanks for the offer!

 

[Niouke]

hello all, diy noob here.

I'm looking to replace the jack on a pair of sony xba-40n's.

I have a few different jack kits and a soldering iron kit, is there any tutorial or online ressource that I can use to help me doing things properly ?

Thank you!

 

[Paladin79]

 

The idea would be to have the standard 3 conductors go to the headphones. I would make a slit in the cable about 6 to 8 inches from the headphones and pull out 2 cables that I would hook up to a female jack for the microphone. Then I would use heat shrink to secure the female jack against the cable so it doesn't dangle and to close the whole thing. Then at the end of the cable I would make a y split for a microphone and headphone plug. Does this sound feasible or is it more work than it's worth?

Unfortunately I don't live in the US but thanks for the offer!

I can tell you one way it could be feasible but other diy'ers might cringe at this suggestion. Since you are talking about slitting the cable to pull out wires, I am hard pressed to think of a jacketed cable that would suit your needs. There is one type of cable that I can think of that would have plenty of wires, can be purchased easily no matter where you live, and comes in a shielded version that is still fairly flexible. The quality of the wires is not as good as some I could suggest but one solution could be to use a shielded or non-shielded cat 5e patch cable. Patch cables use stranded wires, are generally 24 awg copper wire (stay away from copper covered aluminum), and consist of four twisted pairs thus eight wires. It would be easy enough to simply cut the connectors from the cable, slit the jacket and mylar foil shield, and remove one twisted pair for the microphone. You are then left with three pair that could be used for left channel, right channel, and ground. Not only are they twisted pair but each pair is twisted at a different rate compared to each other. Such a cable is inexpensive, fairly flexible (jacket thickness is minimal) and readily available all over the world. If you combine twisted pairs, the cumulative wire gauge would probably be about 21 awg or you could just use three of the wires for TRS connection and stay with 24 awg.
 
Tom

 

[Andreeww]

Can someone tell me if there's a super small 2.5 to 3.5 adapter. I am trying to use a cable terminated in 2.5 mono connectors on headphones with 3.5 holes. Thanks

Anyone?

 

[jchandler3]

Anyone?

Yep, they exist (like this or this). Just search "2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter," and you should be able to find something. 

 

[Andreeww]

Yep, they exist (like this or this). Just search "2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter," and you should be able to find something. 

They are so much bigger than what I want. I want something that's only a little longer than the tip like some 3.5 to 6.5 adapter.

 

[leeperry]

  Can't be hassled going Y so does anyone know where to get those kludgy-looking clamps in order to remain dual-entry from start to end please? http://www.head-fi.org/g/i/1791352/a/1127194/cardas-clear-headphone-cable-2m-audeze-terminals/

 
Bumpity Bump ^ Anyone knows please? Would love to build a cable with a furu jack and two EPC-2 SPC Viablue wires
 
Or maybe EPC-1? But apparently using the cable shielding for grounding isn't a good idea?