New to DIY, need headset clarification

[Folex]

I really don't like the idea of having 1 side 4 wires and the other 2, I know I'm OCD. Also having to buy a 4 conductor wire and a 2 conductor wire would be more expensive then able to buy 1 cable in bulk. With that said I think I'm going to buy bulk 2 conductor wire and run 3 twisted pairs up until the Y. At which point split it into 3 wires on the left and 3 on the right. I'd run either the ground or the mic audio around the top of the headset to the other side.

 

[peterroumian]

buy two stereo headphone cables
red is the right channel but connect it to the ground of the cable - some may argue that's wrong but you are getting thicker wire
gray is the ground for both channels but connect it to the signal wires of the cable (the colored ones)
blue is the left channel but also connected to the ground of the other cable
green and purple is the mic connected to whats left free (colored wires of the other cable)
 
stereo headphone cables are cheaper, most comfortable and easiest to find

 

[Folex]

I plan to try the headset recable on saturday. The only question I have left is can you use a twisted pair for a single audio channel? Left = 2 wires, Left Ground = 1 wire, Right = 2 wires, right ground = 1 wire ? If you can is there any advantages or disadvantages ?

 

[peterroumian]

advantages - will work
disadvantages - pointless and thick hence uncomfortable
 
you have to match the thickness of the wires left channel has to be the same thickness as the left ground
 
in a stereo headphone cable thickness is L+R=Ground since it's common, but i've noticed that its not exactly like that
 
it is L+R=G-S
 
where S is something depending on the chinese economy and the position of the moon - that's why i inverted them in the previous picture

 

[Folex]

I've never soldered before. So I figured I'd go as cheap as possible on my first attempt. $2 radio shack plug, free phone cable and 2 headphones drivers from headphones that were broke. I used Lead solder and then lead-free 3% Silver solder. Both I hate, the lead stuff smokes up bad and the silver stuff is considerably slower to melt and longer to cool. I try and not buy into the hype of cables but it seemed overwhelming that the telephone cord improved the bass. It went from sounding tinny without pads to having decent bass after the cable switch.

 

[peterroumian]

dude
 
you need to see some soldering tutorial

 

[Folex]

Oh I know, that has the first solder I ever did until the last. All the solder, flux etc was @ my cousin and was meant for RC cars (Very thick) which has a high melting point and cools down slow, like 6 seconds to set. Also didn't help my tip was micro, took forever to heat up anything. I'm getting the right solder and tip for the next project.

And I know you want to expose as little wire as possible to prevent shorting out. Since I don't plan to use these I didn't worry about it. And the casing here is plastic so there is no chance it will hit the side of the plug and short out. And since there is no documentation on the package I had to use trial and error on which termination was ground and which was the audio on the drivers. Its why they aren't put though the loop and done up all nicely.

Both drivers work perfect, no cold solders (tugged like a madman to pull them out after being soldered) and sound wonderful.