[JaZZ]

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The idea of still having a piece of stock cable in my homegrown magnet-wire HD-650 cable has always bothered me. Then came the day the cable broke on said strategic soldering point -- time to consider a better solution.

I sliced the plastic plugs to free the rear end of the contact pins with a sharp cutter and soldered the magnet wires directly to them. The whole thing got sealed and fixed with epoxy-based two-component glue. It works perfectly, and I think it's more stable than the former solution.

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The difference is audible: more clarity and brilliance, more accuracy and detail.

It's a bit of a hassle to do, the carving work may hurt your fingers, and not everybody may have enough patience, but it's worth the effort. And if you think it doesn't look good: hey, the plugs are tiny, you don't see them when plugged in, moreover it's just the inner side which is a bit questionable. After all it sounds good...

 

[NeilPeart]

I am considering soldering the Zu Mobius directly onto the HD650 drivers somehow - this would remove the bottleneck of the two tiny wires before the drivers...

 

[JaZZ]

Neil...

...do you really think it's doable? It would be the best solution. Moreover it would make it easy to resist the temptation of cable swapping.

 

[Grif]

I made a balanced cable for my 650's which I tested by soldering the headphone ends to the contact points under the grills....worked no problem at all.
If you were to use it as a permenant solution, you'd just need to work out some strain relief.

Not directly to the drivers though...so I did'nt cut out the 2 wires.

 

[NeilPeart]

I think that with some proper planning such a task is possible. I've already tried all the other cables so there is no temptation for me because the Zu is my preferred sound. I would probably cut the ends from HD650 connection point, and remove the entire lower assembly; then I would simply solder the Zu onto the drivers and use some sort of strain material (as Grif suggested) while running the cable through the passage. This sounds like a job for Larry (headphile), Drew (Moon Audio) or Sean (Zu).

 

[Mastergill]

I don't think these tiny wires are bottleneck, they're from the voice coil.
You can bypass the spring connectors and solder directly onto these tiny wires, but that's a risky job and i doubt there will be an audible difference.
If you don't plug and unplug the standart connector everyday, it should works fine for a long time.

 

[Xanadu777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart I think that with some proper planning such a task is possible.

Possible yes, though I wouldn't think of attempting it. If you like the Zu stranded silver coated copper sound, why would you want to attempt that anyway? Then all of the sudden you've changed four parts of the chain (solder, connector, spring and brass posts). Eliminating those may eliminate what you like so much (probably not though). By even thinking about doing that, does that mean you aren't as happy with the sound as you think you should be?....

That tiny voice coil wire that's like 42 gauge or smaller, is most likely anywhere from 25' to 50' in length. Funny how peeps (not anyone in particular), think bigger is better and have not a clue about the amount of small gauge wire the signal runs through at the driver. Yeah, let's hook up this giant cable and gosh it's going to sound good <end small rant> That's not saying it can't. I think even a coathanger can deliver a signal fine, but it's the timing of frequencies (IMO) as the <most likely scenario to me> that make cables sound different. How frequencies arrive together in their timing, obviously very, very close (even with a hanger) but ever so slightly different in each design/metal. Could be another scenario too of course

regardless...

If you like it, leave it. If you want to try something different to get the fastest, most uniform delivery to the drivers (IMO again), try 42 gauge (or smaller) solid copper or silver... not that you'd like them that way

just my opinion and 0-2...

 

[KZEE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ . The idea of still having a piece of stock cable in my homegrown magnet-wire HD-650 cable has always bothered me. Then came the day the cable broke on said strategic soldering point -- time to consider a better solution. I sliced the plastic plugs to free the rear end of the contact pins with a sharp cutter and soldered the magnet wires directly to them. The whole thing got sealed and fixed with epoxy-based two-component glue. It works perfectly, and I think it's more stable than the former solution.

The plastic material in the Senn plugs is some tough stuff, and when I made my DIY Senn cable I got impatient and sliced too much of the plastic off at the plug ends, so although it works for now I'll have to redo it at some point. Sealing the plugs with epoxy sounds like a great idea, and I'm wondering how you did it - did you just dribble a few drops of epoxy onto the plugs and let it harden, or ...?

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KZEE ...did you just dribble a few drops of epoxy onto the plugs and let it harden, or ...?

Not exactly dribble -- I applied the quickly hardening epoxy glue with a mini-spatula.

Here's a second work on a Headphile Silver cable.

These massive Senn plugs were much harder to knife.

 

[KZEE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ Not exactly dribble -- I applied the quickly hardening epoxy glue with a mini-spatula. Here's a second work on a Headphile Silver cable. These massive Senn plugs were much harder to knife.

Oh OK - just keep working the epoxy around a bit until it sets up.
I used a single edge razor blade to cut my plugs, which worked pretty good, and in fact the single edges will cut right through the pins if you get too close to them. Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[KZEE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ Not exactly dribble -- I applied the quickly hardening epoxy glue with a mini-spatula. Here's a second work on a Headphile Silver cable. These massive Senn plugs were much harder to knife.

I looked closer at your photographs you posted of the plugs you modded, and I didn't realize (doh!) that you had channeled them out - when I did mine I lopped off the entire back end of the plug until I had about a 1/16" of an inch of the pins showing, and then I soldered the wires onto the end of the pins. Your way looks like it would be much more secure and would last longer - I'll have to try it that way the next time.