[FSonicSmith]

Just this week I received my first pair of ZMF phones, the Aeolus.
I was not crazy about the sound even after three days of break in with the ZMF upgrades OFC 9 foot cord.
So on a lark I detached the Moon Audio Silver Dragon from the Audeze LCD2's I had on hand and the connectors fit and the sound was better.
I notice that if I go to order a new Silver Dragon they list each major phones manufacturer separately for terminations.
Are they really different? I just assumed all major phones manufacturers use standard Lemo connectors.
Please explain the various headphone cable connector variations to me.

 

[mammal]

Behind the scenes, there are two possible terminations - XLR (push/pull) balanced differential - think of it as L+ L- and R+ and R-. Then you have Single Ended (also called SE) which is L/R and N. One can adapt balanced into single ended, but not the way around (as single ended N is shared between left and right ear cup).

As for cable terminations, many different exist. Abyss Diana has 2.5mm, Hifiman Arya and Focal Clear has 3.5mm, Abyss AB-1266 and Audeze headphones have Mini XLR, Dan Clark (Mr Speakers) uses some Japanese 4 pin locking connector I can't remember the name of.

 

[FSonicSmith]

Thank you Mammal. The plugs to the output is something I knew. But your info about the connectors to the headphones is something I was totally unaware of due to my limited headphone collection. That helps a lot. I gather that if they connect, they are compatible. I would think that if my Audeze and ZMF were physically compatible but wired differently I would have heard it.

 

[mammal]

I gather that if they connect, they are compatible.

I think this is generally the case, I have yet to see headphone / cable that is not compatible on the same termination. You can even find after market adapters that adapt one plug to another, so when you have a nice cable you like but purchase a headphone that does not have that plug, then this adapter will fix it.