[iJustin]

Hey there,
I recently obtained a used pair of HD555s.
I found out something was wrong with the plug, so I decided to just recable the whole thing. Also since I used a microphone very often, I decided to also add in a microphone jack on the headphones themselves similar to the AD700 Dark Knight.
My plan is to make a removable microphone and cable for the headphones.
I will be making two cables for the headphones. The one on my desktop will have a TRRS plug going into the TRRS jack on the headphone and the other end will have 2 Plugs to plug into my computer.
The other will have 2 TRS plugs on each end for my iPod.

Even though I'm a bit new here at Head-Fi, I've already read LOTS of pages on recabling, just another short addiction. I've separated the questions for easier answers.

1. Can male TRS plugs plug into a female TRRS jack? Should the microphone wire be soldered to a specific location on the jack to make it work?

2. When making the cables (interconnect I guess) do I only need one wire for ground? I've seen both 1 and 2 wires being used for ground before.

3. How do you solder one left signal wire, one right signal wire, two ground wires, and a microphone wire to a TRRS jack? Meaning what goes where.

4. Coming from the third question, do microphones have a ground? Thinking about it know, they should so I guess that makes 3 grounds for question 3.

5. Can the wire carrying the microphone signal be soldered to a TRS plug? Or does it have to be a TS plug? Explain where if possible.


Sorry for all the questions as I couldn't find answers to them. All help is appreciated, and if you could recommend me a TRRS and TRS jack that is small enough to fit inside the HD555 but also good quality, that would be absolutely wonderful.

 

[iJustin]

A small bump. Still looking for answers.

 

[scootermafia]

I know that male TRS plugs can go into female TRRS jacks because this is what you're doing when you plug regular headphones (non headset) into an iPhone.  You can find out the pinouts for the iPhone or similar phone online, don't recall offhand.  You need to make the cables with a TRRS plug on the end, and then branching off to the microphone mono input jack will be a 2 wire cable, with the + of it going to one of the contacts of the TRRS (the mic contact) and the - going to the shared ground of the plug (same ground that the audio portion of the cable will use).  For the headphone cable part, you'll have 4 wires - L+, L-, R+, R- with the two - wires going to the same ground contact of the plug as the mic - goes to, and L+ and R+ will have their own contact on the TRRS.  Again look up the pinout as it pertains to your individual phone/source.  
 
So, your cable will look like any other headphone cable, except the headphone cable uses 3 out of 4 of the TRRS's contacts for L+, R+, and L-/R-...then there'll be a 2 wire tail coming off the TRRS jack, going from the mic contact and the ground contact of the TRRS to the + and - contacts of the mono mini jack.
 
As far as I know the HD555 doesn't have a TRRS, I've seen their stock cable before.  

As you can see here, on the headphone side it is a 4 pin connector similar to 2 sets of jumper blocks, with rubber housing.  To do this recable you will want to cut away the strain relief part and remove the stock cable from it while preserving the strain relief to use later.  Desolder the 4 pin connector after memorizing the orientation of the pins going to which contacts of the TRS 1/4" plug of the stock cable, so you know which of the 4 pins is which.  Then, make your own cable, putting the new wires through the strain relief piece you saved and gluing it inside with hot glue; and solder the 4 wires to the jumper block black thingie's pins.  On the bottom end of the cable you can do a TRRS for an iPod Touch, then just make a 2 wire mic cable and connect that to the TRRS as well.  This job ain't a fun one...
 
Edit: if I recall, the best way to free the stock strain relief piece is to desolder the 4 pin jumper block connector on the headphone end, then just pull the stock cable forcefully out of that black rubber relief piece.  You can then easily fit your own cable through the black flexy strain relief thing and glue it - if you don't use this strain relief piece there's really nothing to retain the cable inside the earcup, so this part is important.  

 

[iJustin]

Dude, you're the boss. Thanks for all the help!
I learned a lot from what you said, and thanks for the very detailed instructions. I don't plan on using the 4-pin thing that Sennheiser provided though, I wanted to actually put a female TRRS and Mono jack inside the headphone. Its like the AD700 "Dark Knights". A picture says a thousand words. Maybe not this one, so ask questions!


 
 
Also, I only need 2 grounds in the cable above right? Or is three correct? 
I plan on making a mini to mini cable for my iPod just purely for listening to music, if I leave the mono jack connected to the sleeve of the female TRRS the signal will not be carried over when a TRS plug is plugged into the TRRS jack right? 
 

 

[scootermafia]

Ah, turning it into a standard PC headset type of thing.  That's quite a cool mod.  You will have the grounds for each ear cup having to be sent to the S contact of the jack, as well as the mic ground.  The mic +, R+, and L+ will go to the other parts of the jack.  For the detachable cable you'll want 5 wires - 2 grounds, 1 for the mic plug and 1 for the TRS plug, left and right for TRS, and 1 wire for the mic signal.  This won't be too bad to build.

 

[iJustin]

Thanks for all the help! You just cleared up so many things for me.
On the TRRS jack how would the wiring go? I know how a TRS jack works; theres two little arms for the signal and one big platform for the ground.

Also, I'm having a hard time trying to find some good jacks. I found a Calrad snap in jack, but I'm afraid it's not good enough quality.

I know I'm asking a bit much, but thanks again. Links are fine if you don't want to explain it.

 

[iJustin]

Bump for post above help. 
Also, the mic I'm planning to use 
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Flexible-Microphone-Laptop-Skype/dp/B00284VD02

  Looks like it has a stereo connector. Does a mono jack still work for it?

 

[majnu]

Bump, as I would also like to know this, as I am planning to do the same thing. 

 

[scootermafia]

To put the jack inside the headphone, it's not too important what pin is what, since you can come up with your own conventions, you are building custom cables now so you're the boss.  You want to install a mono mini jack and a stereo TRRS mini jack both in the earcup.  The sleeve contact of the TRRS jack (you'll have to get a TRRS plug and stick it in to identify which contact goes to which on the plug, with a multimeter) should be used for all the grounds.  This will have 3 wires going to it inside the headphone - grounds from each driver, and the ground of the mic jack.  The mic positive contact should probably be wired to the contact next to the sleeve contact, so the 2nd R in TRRS.  Then save the tip for left and the first ring on the plug for right, for the stereo audio. (this is going off of the male TRRS mini plug - so for its TRRS on its tip, figure out what those correspond to on the solder contacts of the jacks you're installing in the earcup).  Once all that crap is wired up, you can make a breakout cable.  The T on the TRRS will go only to the T of the TRS mini plug.  The first R will go only to the right contact, the R of the TRS mini plug.  The second R on the TRRS is for the mic, this will go to the positive contact on the mic mono mini plug.  Then you'll have 2 wires on the ground (S) connector of the TRRS, going to the S on the TRS mini stereo plug, and another wire going to the negative contact of the mic mono miniplug.  You could make a tri-braid for the stereo cable part and a twisted pair for the mic cable part, and just run them inside some techflex next to each other, then make a y-split and break them out at the bottom.  

 

[WayTooCrazy]

 Was this project completed?  Interested in it's outcome.  

 

[liamstrain]

Spunky424 is currently trying to do that in the DIY forum, but replacing the stock cable connector with a 4 pin mini-xlr (rather than trrs), as well as the mic mod. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/579329/need-help-recommendation-for-hd595-mic-cable-mod