DIY Cable Questions and Comments Thread

[gimmeheadroom]

We should start a company and while we are making perfect 6.35mm we could also stretch 4.4mm and 2.5mm trrs by 5mm to actually give us
a fighting chance

Ground lugs foreva

 

[guildenstern]

Experienced cables makers, I need your help!

I need a custom cable made to meet a very specific need—not audiophile but practical—and I don’t have the tools or know-how to make my own. If anyone is willing to make it for me (for pay), or if you can refer me to someone, please PM; otherwise I might try Redco, though their custom-cable interface has me completely confused.

What I need: 8-feet mini-XLR to ¼ TRS cable for AKG K7XX headphones—but I want the cable to provide signal through the RIGHT CHANNEL ONLY of the headphones. I want no sound coming from the left earpiece.

What’s up with that? It has to do with only having hearing in one ear (yay for mono!). For various reasons having to do with other associated gear, I don’t want to simply unplug the left channel input into the amp. Nor do I want to do surgery on the headphones. And I have tried a Y-splitter (3.5 mm stereo female to ¼ mono left and ¼ mono right), which worked OK with one amp (Schiit) but tripped the protection circuit on a THX amp in balanced mode. In short, I’ve tried various workarounds, and I’ve come to the point of wanting to try a cable for the AKG that only feeds the right earpiece.

But there’s a twist: Research on this helpful forum reveals that the mini-XLR on the AKG cable does not follow standard practice.

NORMAL MINI-XLR
Pin 1 - Ground
Pin 2 - Tip/Left
Pin 3 - Ring/Right

AKG MINI-XLR
Pin 1: Ground
Pin 2: Ring-Right
Pin 3: Tip-Left

So, given the goal of getting signal through the RIGHT CHANNEL ONLY on the AKG headphones, I think this is what I need—do you agree?

AKG CUSTOM RIGHT CHANNEL ONLY
Pin 1: Ground
Pin 2: Ring-Right
Pin 3: leave disconnected

One more question: Since I only need right channel only, what kind of wire should be used?

And I repeat: If anyone is willing to make this cable for me (for pay), or if you can refer me to someone, please PM. Thank you!

 

[guildenstern]

withdrawn, wrong forum

 

[TrollDragon]

I might try Redco, though their custom-cable interface has me completely confused.

Redco will sell you the cable for a lot cheaper than anyone would make it for IMHO.

Here is a link I created for the custom cable that you require.
10 feet of Mogami W2983 wire
Neutrik 1/4 male TRS plug
Redco Mini XLR female

TRS Ring wired to Pin 2 of the Mini XLR
TRS Sleeve wired to Pin 1 of the Mini XLR
https://www.redco.com/Custom-Cable.html?cableid=BEZ6RD

 

[guildenstern]

Redco will sell you the cable for a lot cheaper than anyone would make it for IMHO.

Here is a link I created for the custom cable that you require.
10 feet of Mogami W2983 wire
Neutrik 1/4 male TRS plug
Redco Mini XLR female

TRS Ring wired to Pin 2 of the Mini XLR
TRS Sleeve wired to Pin 1 of the Mini XLR
https://www.redco.com/Custom-Cable.html?cableid=BEZ6RD

Thank you very much!

 

[Fr3d Astaire]

You would have to see if they have the shield wires tied together in the cup with the 6 pin socket, which I assume that they do. It's just a matter of moving that (headband wire) shield wire to it's own pin on the 6 pin socket. Then wire up your 6 pin plug for balanced accordingly.

So many option with that 6 pin plug, you could pick up a second cable and wire it for SE so you wouldn't have to use a Balanced to SE adapter per se.

My T50RP are wired with dual 4 pin tinyXLRs, I use them on all my headphones. The left socket is wired so I can plug in a single sided cable for portable use if I don't want to run the long dual sided cable with an adapter.

That's awesome how you've wired the T50RP! For the DT150, the ground wires are not tied together in the cup, they are run to separate pins and the ground of the external 3.5mm cable is soldered to these two pins within the 6-pin connector. So when I recable, I'd just need to solder a separate wire to each of these within the 6-pin connector.

But the headband and cup cabeling is currently 1 wire (white) + shield/ground (bare). Can I use the existing shield/ground in the headphone band and cups as a wire in a balanced cable (i.e. use the white wire for L+ & R+ and the wire shield/ground for L- & R-) or would I need to recable these as well? For my first go, I'm trying to minimize how much I touch the cans themselves because I'm afraid of making an error!

 

[TrollDragon]

That's awesome how you've wired the T50RP! For the DT150, the ground wires are not tied together in the cup, they are run to separate pins and the ground of the external 3.5mm cable is soldered to these two pins within the 6-pin connector. So when I recable, I'd just need to solder a separate wire to each of these within the 6-pin connector.

But the headband and cup cabeling is currently 1 wire (white) + shield/ground (bare). Can I use the existing shield/ground in the headphone band and cups as a wire in a balanced cable (i.e. use the white wire for L+ & R+ and the wire shield/ground for L- & R-) or would I need to recable these as well? For my first go, I'm trying to minimize how much I touch the cans themselves because I'm afraid of making an error!

As long as the bare shield wires can't touch each other you will be fine. You could even wrap a little electrical tape around one of the shield wires at the socket just so they can't, but that's not necessary if there is decent clearance. I'd shrink wrap and resolder the wires if they were mine, but that's just my OCD kicking in.

Yes the white & bare wire can be hooked up to + & - respectively and it's awesome that beyer wired everything separately in those headphones, it makes switching them over to balanced that much easier.

Have fun, I always wanted a pair of DT150 (250 ohm) but chose the German Maestro 8.300 D Pro instead.

 

[Fr3d Astaire]

As long as the bare shield wires can't touch each other you will be fine. You could even wrap a little electrical tape around one of the shield wires at the socket just so they can't, but that's not necessary if there is decent clearance. I'd shrink wrap and resolder the wires if they were mine, but that's just my OCD kicking in.

Yes the white & bare wire can be hooked up to + & - respectively and it's awesome that beyer wired everything separately in those headphones, it makes switching them over to balanced that much easier.

Have fun, I always wanted a pair of DT150 (250 ohm) but chose the German Maestro 8.300 D Pro instead.

Great, thanks for your help! I'm sure I'll rewire everything at some point, these headphones are very easy to work with.

 

[Benno1988]

Is there a good seller on AliExpress that sells quality wire? Looking for decent gauge, copper, silver plated or silver. Litz.

 

[etlouis]

Is there a good seller on AliExpress that sells quality wire? Looking for decent gauge, copper, silver plated or silver. Litz.

CEMA is alright.

NiceHCK is okay for cheap offerings.

 

[Benno1988]

CEMA only seem to sell 26awg and thinner by looks of it?

 

[DuncanDirkDick]

What jacks work best for hifiman? Rean NYS231 are a too big and loose. HE6se especially.

 

[Benno1988]

Oyaide

 

[dentaku81]

Hey All, I had some questions about making some custom cable modifications for my headphones. I have a pair of Mr. Speakers Alpha Dogs with a single ended cable, and I want to upgrade it to balanced in order to use them with a speaker tap adapter from my Marantz amp (pm5005).

Looking at the included cable, it looks to have 4 elements in the wire already (Two blues and Two whites). Im assuming that I can cut off the 1/4" and reterminate it with a 4 pin male xlr? and then take a 4 pin female xlr and solder speaker wire to it to make the speaker tap adapter? Where would I find the pin outs to follow for these? Would regular 16 ga speaker wire work for the speaker tap adapter, or should I use something like canare star quad?

Lastly to keep compatability with my single ended devices, can I take the 1/4" plug I chopped off and wire an andition female 4 pin XLR to it to use as an adapter?


So TL;DR:
Have:
a 4 element single ended cable.
Want:
Headphone to Balanced 4pin xlr male cable
Speaker tap to 4pin female xlr cable
4pin female xlr to 1/4" single ended

Thanks in advance!

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Hi. Someone know where i can buy modular connector? Like on the Dunu duw02?