Sennheiser HD598- recable, single sided, balanced

[Armaegis]

So I got these in a trade and literally had them less than an hour before deciding I needed to make a balanced cable for them.
 
First up, I had to figure out the wiring. The plug that goes into the left cup is a 2.5mm TRRS. Hmm ok, that hopefully means it's a 4 wire cable already so I can just hack the stock cable. I found this (link) which confirmed it, so choppity chop went the cable.
 
After opening up the cups and fiddling around with a multimeter on the cable and drivers, I've got the following:
 
T - left+ (white wire)
R - right+ (red wire)
R - left- (black wire)
S - right- (blue wire)
 
The circuit board is labeled but very difficult to see. I sketched it out on paper with labels.
 

 

 
strip those ends (26 gauge)

 
Connect to a 4-pin XLR(m)
pin 1 = left+ (white)
pin 2 = left- (black)
pin 3 = right+ (red)
pin 4 = right- (blue)
 

 
Slap some heat shink on there since it's too skinny to be gripped properly by the cable clamp. I used 4 layers.
 

 

 

 
Here we go...
 

 
 
And done. Plugged into Nuforce HA-200 monoblocks.
 

 

[namhkim]

You need two of the HA-200 !! Wow..

 

[Armaegis]

They're set up as monoblocks. One for each channel.

 

[fenstr]

What impact did the balanced cable have on the sound quality of the HD598s?

 

[Armaegis]

It satisfied my audiophile urges for wanting to work in balanced mode, and opened up the option for a greater variety of amps.

 

[fenstr]

It satisfied my audiophile urges for wanting to work in balanced mode, and opened up the option for a greater variety of amps.

I ended up getting the balanced cable to use with my Ragnarok amp - very happy with the result. Thanks for posting all the info about it.

 

[Armaegis]

Awesome, glad it worked out for you. Next it'll be time to upgrade the headpdhone...

 

[fenstr]

Haha don't say that, my wallet isn't ready to take any further abuse at the moment

 

[Armaegis]

Please tell me you're at least running speakers off the Rag. It's a bit overkill for the 598's...

 

[fenstr]

Please tell me you're at least running speakers off the Rag. It's a bit overkill for the 598's...

Yes I'm using it to power Elac Unifi UB5's. I'm thinking that my next purchase will be a decent sub. The UB5's do have impressive bass though but I need a bit more for the deep rumble in movies.

Out of interest what headphone would you pair with the Ragnarok?

 

[Armaegis]

Yes I'm using it to power Elac Unifi UB5's. I'm thinking that my next purchase will be a decent sub. The UB5's do have impressive bass though but I need a bit more for the deep rumble in movies.

Out of interest what headphone would you pair with the Ragnarok?

 
Oh there's plenty of choices. If you like the HD598, then the obvious step up is the HD600/650. Or you can start dipping your toes into the planar realm, but therein lies madness

 

[hutt132]

So both the left and right negative connections are 100% separate from each cup's speaker all the way until the end of the cable at the 6.25mm connector?

 

[Armaegis]

  So both the left and right negative connections are 100% separate from each cup's speaker all the way until the end of the cable at the 6.25mm connector?

 
Yep, it's a 4-wire cable.

 

[hutt132]

   
Yep, it's a 4-wire cable.

Cool. I wasn't sure if it was joining grounds or doing funky stuff on that circuit board that's in the cup.

 

[Armaegis]

In my first pic you can see my bad sketch of the circuit board traces.