[peelwonder]

Just placed my order for a Rag! Very excited. At this moment I only have stock LCD-2's, stock q701s, and a pair of Polk audio RTI A3 speakers.

I was wondering how nicely the Rag plays while running headphones SE. 

If I wanted to hook up my q701s and LCD-2s using the 4-pin XLR connection, would I need to have my headphones modified or would I just need new cables?

I will let you all know how this beast runs as soon as Schiit finishes building it for me.

--Hank

You just need a set of balanced cables. The Rag sounds awesome balanced.

 

[AlphaChicken]

I think consensus is that the amp is best used in balanced mode, so terms aging for 4-pin is the way to go. The standard Auseze 4-pin cable should be a reasonable start or any number of custome cables are available. They require no modification. I don't know how readily Q701 cable replacements are available.

 
Can you clarify what is in bold?
 
And just so that I understand, the LCD-2 will run with a balanced cable without modification? Is this running in truly balanced mode or is it just that the headphones are using a balanced cable and running in SE?
 
I am still concerned about the q701s. I was asking Trevor of Norne audio about the AKGs:
 

I have a pair of AKG q701 headphones and was reading some more about balanced connections. Would I have to have my headphones modified to run while plugged into a 4-pin balanced amp connection using a 4-pin XLR on one end of your cable and an AKG connection on the other?

 
And he replied:
 

You would have to hardwire or have your headphones modified to be balanced yes.  Stock it can only be single ended (so 3.5mm or 6.3mm plugs and amps).

 
Can anyone comment on this?

 

[cizx]

My comment is that Trevor knows what he's talking about.

 

[AlphaChicken]

I assume that he knows what he is talking about... I love Trevor. Super helpful dude. I was not asking Head-Fi about Trevor though... I was asking about what Trevor said, since I am sure he is busy selling cables and running his business.

 

[Rem0o]

LCD 2 need no modification. The default cable has both "minus" pole plugged together , going from 2 pole per channel (4 poles) to a 3 poles plug (2 poles and 1 common ground, single ended). Buy a XLR cable and you're done.

AKG Q701 need a bit of modding because the connector on the headphone itself is 3 poles with the 4 leads attached to it . With a bit of DIY tweaks and soldering, you can replace the 3-pin mini-XLR with a 4-pin and just connect the leads to it. Now all you have to do is make/find a 4 pins mini-XLR to 4 pins XLR cable and you're good to go.

 

[AlphaChicken]

Thank you! This is exactly the clarification I was looking for. =]
 
Do all headphones with 2 headphone-end connections behave in the same way as the LCD-2s?

 

[Rem0o]

I believe so.

 

[drez]

No idea why AKG use one 3 pin mini XLR.  Audeze uses 4 pin on either side, AKG, 3 pin to cover both sides.  Must be trolling.

 

[AlphaChicken]

Yeah, super lame... I love my AKGs. I wonder how they will perform SE on the Rag.

 

[goldendarko]

  Yeah, super lame... I love my AKGs. I wonder how they will perform SE on the Rag.

They will sound better if you can get an adapter to use them via the balanced output, otherwise your not hearing the Rag at its full potential. The SE sounds good, but nothing spectacular. The best use I've found for it is I can listen via balanced with my LCD-3's and my wife can listen via SE with my Alpha Dogs (she doesn't know any better

 

[Viper2005]

  They will sound better if you can get an adapter to use them via the balanced output, otherwise your not hearing the Rag at its full potential. The SE sounds good, but nothing spectacular. The best use I've found for it is I can listen via balanced with my LCD-3's and my wife can listen via SE with my Alpha Dogs (she doesn't know any better

No No No, *Never Ever* use a SE to Balanced adapter!  (the reverse is fine)  You'll damage your amp that way!  

 
If you want to use AKG as balanced you'll need to re-cable it.

 

[goldendarko]

  No No No, *Never Ever* use a SE to Balanced adapter!  (the reverse is fine)  You'll damage your amp that way!  

 
If you want to use AKG as balanced you'll need to re-cable it.

Oh never heard that before, well in that case just look for a balanced cable like Viper said.

 

[Viper2005]

 


Oh never heard that before, well in that case just look for a balanced cable like Viper said.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy.  You need to open up the phone and do some desoldering / resoldering, as the grounds are connected within the headphone itself..  
There is a instructional page that should help:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/483861/guide-balanced-akg-k702-with-detachable-4-pin-mini-xlr-cable

 

[johnjen]

I knew that this topic was covered previously, and I just remembered…
From the Mjolnir Owners manual…
 
"Hey, the amp just clicked and I get no sound. What gives?
Mjolnir has sophisticated internal protection for overcurrent and DC—did you just try to connect your unbalanced headphones? Or did you try to drive speakers with the amp? If so, you hit the protection. Unplug the headphones and turn the amp back on. The protection will reset and allow you to use balanced headphones as intended. 

What do I do if my headphones don’t have balanced connectors?
Many headphones with detachable cables offer optional balanced cables from the manufacturer. Contact them and see if they offer balanced cables, or check with the aftermarket cable manufacturers.
What if my cables are attached to my headphones?
Then you’d better get a screwdriver and soldering iron if you want to use them with Mjolnir. Some headphones are relatively easy to re-cable, because they already have 4-conductor cables. However, we don’t have an exhaustive list of these, so please contact the headphone manufacturer for details.
Hey, once I re-terminate my headphones with balanced connectors, how do I use them with single-ended amps?
There are tons of adapters for converting 4-pin XLR to 3-pin TRS jacks—and they are totally safe to use. It’s the other way around that gets messy.
Why don’t you have a single-ended output as well as balanced?
Unlike other “balanced” amps, Mjolnir isn’t just two of the same amps in a box with one run inverted, or a single-ended amp connected to a 4-pin XLR jack for looks. It’s an inherently balanced topology that cannot be unbalanced without heroics like summing the outputs together (additional circuitry) or having a completely separate gain stage. We wanted to maximize performance for balanced output, so we stuck to balanced-only." 

 
The above emphasis is mine…
 
This (converting 3-pin TRS to 4-pin XLR jacks is where it gets "messy") also applies to The Rok where you want to use a 'standard' SE headphone, but use the balanced output (XLR-4pin).
 
Because like the Mojo, if/when you interconnect either the speaker or XLR-4pin L&R channels together, in any way, you'll be referencing the "CLEARING FAULTS" portion of The Roks owners manual in due course.
 
Both balanced output channels need to stay completely independent of each other (as in not connected, in any way).
 
JJ

 

[BournePerfect]

 
Not a chance.  If it doesn't win me over right away, it's not for me.  I don't have the tenacity to stick with things that aren't amazing right away.

 
That seems like a shortsighted perspective to me. For a $1700+ investment, for what many consider to be the best SS amp available, with unique, sound engineering-you'd think it'd be worth the further wait to allow some burn in to run it's course-pro/con biases aside.
 
FWIW, my MJ changed pretty remarkably around 150-200 hours-just as Jason suggested to me that it would.
 
The payoff might be worth it.