[539465]

Need 4.4 pentacon to dual 2.5 fully balanced.... the thing is I have seen non balanced cabled with 2 black lines on the 2.5 portion (for M570) but the 4.4 end is obviously made for balanced with a line for ground but why does the dual 2.5 portion only have the 1 black line when the non balanced 3.5 for SUndarahas 2? is this properly fully balanced or just from balanced to non balanced?

please don't recommend me "X" expensive cable and say it's better I just want the cheapest crap since I have to buy 4 balanced cables (sennheiser 6XX, Sundara 3.5 dual, M570 2.5 dual, and M1570 stupidly rewired pinout XLR to) all to 4.4 Pentacon.... if you have a dirt cheap but decent cable I appreciate a link especially for the M1570 rewired pinout to pentacon..... to XLR works as well as I can get a XLR to pentacon adapter for all 4 but I want either all XLR or all Pentacon (XLR would be better for upgrade)

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Need 4.4 pentacon to dual 3.5 fully balanced.... the thing is I have seen non balanced cabled with 2 black lines on the 3.5 portion (for sundara) but the 4.4 end is obviously made for balanced with a line for ground but why does the dual 3.5 portion only have the 1 black line when the non balanced has 2? is this properly fully balanced or just from balanced to non balanced?

Because the amp side of the cable splits into the two headphone drivers.

Look at Sennheiser HD580(J)/6xx series aftermarket cables. They'll have an XLR 4-pole on the amp side and still have the proprietary 2-pins on the headphone driver side of the cable. No need to transplant a new socket on the headphone drivers because they're only going to need two conductors unlike AKGs' 3-pole mini-XLR that will get discarded if you make them "balanced." Those drivers will still need just two of them, + and -, going into each headphone driver, the difference over the stock Sennheiser cable is that the - on each headphone gets soldered onto a different pole on the XLR cable. You can literally just cut off the 6.3mm plug and put in an XLR or any 4-pole plug there and it's just a matter of soldering the correct conductor and poles together.* By contrast the AKG 3-pole mini-XLR is connected to the L+ and L- on the left driver, then hooks up to a conductor running through the headband that hooks up the R+ and another conductor that comes from the sharedGND on the mini-XLR to the R- on the other side.

You can't compare these to active speaker cables that use 3-pole XLR or TRS on each side from the preamp since these have an amplifier circuit in them (hence the reason why each speaker has to be plugged into the wall, but not each earcup on a headphone) and thus are more like the connection from a balanced DAC to a balanced headphone amp.


*Note: some cheap aftermarket cables might be four conductors coming out of the headphones then soldered onto a 3-pole cable at the Y-junction, which then works as L+, R+, and common ground right out of the Y-junction instead of at the TRS plug at the other end

please don't recommend me "X" expensive cable and say it's better I just want the cheapest crap since I have to buy 4 balanced cables (sennheiser 6XX, Sundara 3.5 dual, M570 2.5 dual, and M1570 stupidly rewired pinout XLR to) all to 4.4 Pentacon.... if you have a dirt cheap but decent cable I appreciate a link especially for the M1570 rewired pinout to pentacon..... to XLR works as well as I can get a XLR to pentacon adapter for all 4 but I want either all XLR or all Pentacon (XLR would be better for upgrade)

You don't need to buy something expensive.

Unlike cheap single ended cables that may have them soldered at the Y-junction because shared ground, I doubt a cheap balanced cable will get this wrong because it will immediately bust your amp if they didn't separate L- from R- all the way through to the plug.

 

[pbui44]

Even if some cables have two contact points on the earcup leads and other cables have one contact point, many headphones will work with either lead, as they only have one contact point internally. Even if my Hifiman Edition XX cables have two contact points on the earcup leads, my Klipsch Heritage HP-3 Cables with one contact point on the earcup leads works fine with the Edition XX. Try the cables on the headphones to see if there are one or two contact leads internally and you might just save some money.

 

[539465]

Thank you @pbui44 and @ProtegeManiac
I am paying these prices (all 1.2M)
for the hifiman Sundara balanced $32
for the M570 balanced $24
for the 6XX balanced $25
for the M1570 balanced(which apparently shares a pinout with Meze Empy just my luck that freaking upcharge) $50

AND ALSO so I can have use of both XLR 4 pole and 4.4 for later amping

all ending in XLR 4 pole and then buying a balanced XLR 4 Pole to 4.4 Pentacon adapter which sucks because it's basically a super short dongle that costs $25
OR
I can get all 4 in 4.4 Pentacon and if this seller response (Lunashops aliexpress) and then if this female Pentacon to male XLR 4 pole is fully balanced do that pay $40 and get a 1.2M long one since most AMPs are using full size 4 pole XLR

I know they SHOULD perform the same but tell me what you think on prices (mine now runs 4.4 but I want XLR 4 pole for later if I am paying this much)
ALSO I have had a hard time just finding a decently prices XLR male to female balanced which I would prefer to use with the first adapter listed since XLR is much more common I prefer the base cord be in 4 pole XLR

Thanks again for your time