[Poganin]

I have a pair of custom headphone cables made for ZMF/Audeze models. Both cables work fine with ZMF Auteur and LCD-3, but when it comes to my new Atticus, problems begin. There's slight channel imbalance out of Topping A90, and SEVERE channel imbalance out of Feliks Audio Echo (tube amp; left channel is barely audible). I have absolutely no idea what causes this behaviour that the same two cables work normally with two pairs of headphones but not a third pair. Furthermore, how come there's such a discrepancy in how bad the channel imbalance is depending on the amp?

Switching the cables around in the cups still leaves the imbalance on the same side, which tells me that the cable is fine, further corroborated by the fact that there are no issues when using it with the Auteur. There is no channel imbalance when using the Atticus with stock ZMF cables.

I've contacted ZMF to enquire about this, but was told that internal headphone wiring is the same between the Auteur and the Atticus, so that is not the cause of the problem.

Any idea where the issue could be located? I can't make sense of this situation at all.

 

[Dynamo5561]

Have you tried the original cable with all headphones? Do you then encounter issues?

 

[Poganin]

Do you mean the stock Atticus cable? I've just tried it with the Auteur and no problems there. No imbalances. I don't have the LCD-3 anymore to test with that.

I should probably specify that the custom cables are terminated with 6.35 mm jack and 4-pin XLR (but like I said, both cables cause the imbalance issue out of the A90), while the stock ZMF cables come with 4.4 mm jack (came with Atticus) and 4-pin XLR (came with Auteur).