[xuan87]

I'm planning to have a balanced home rig, so obviously, I'll have to reterminate my headphones. Instead of reterminating it to a 4-pin XLR, 2 3-pin XLR, or RSA Balanced plug, I was thinking of just putting a 3.5mm mono female plug on each side of the headphone, so the headphone has removeable cable (like the Sennheiser HD 6XX, the HiFiMan headphones etc). Just want to ask the headphone community here if there's any reason I shouldn't modify my headphones this way, or if there are better alternatives to 2 3.5mm mono female plugs. Thanks all for reading.

 

[Lurkumaural]

There is probably every sort of dissenting opinion out there.  My own opinion is that there is no compelling enough reason to not perform this mod if you want a detachable cable.
 
Some alternative connections:
• 2.5mm TS mono connectors instead of 3.5mm.  Switchcraft 850 plugs are tiny and attractive.  A bit small, though, so for beginners it might not be so great.
• mini-XLR.  They lock.  They're pretty small.  And because they're pins instead of inline poles there's less chance of a short when plugging in.
 
Best of luck.

 

[xuan87]

 
Quote:

There is probably every sort of dissenting opinion out there.  My own opinion is that there is no compelling enough reason to not perform this mod if you want a detachable cable.
 
Some alternative connections:
• 2.5mm TS mono connectors instead of 3.5mm.  Switchcraft 850 plugs are tiny and attractive.  A bit small, though, so for beginners it might not be so great.
• mini-XLR.  They lock.  They're pretty small.  And because they're pins instead of inline poles there's less chance of a short when plugging in.
 
Best of luck.

i wasn't aware that Switchcraft has 2.5mm TS mono connectors! These will go perfect for another pair of my headphones while already have 2.5mm female mono connectors. What if i use stereo connectors instead of mono? i can easily only solder 2 out of the 3 pins in the connectors, and there are a wider array of high quality stereo connectors i can choose from.
 
Also, you raise a good point with the mini-XLR. i will definitely check them out.
 

 

[Lurkumaural]

Yup, certainly a good idea to use 3.5mm TRS since it's cheaper, easier to find, and easier to use.