[Gil Schwartzman]

I am recabling some headphones balanced, and just realized that what I thought was the proper pinout on XLR cables doesn't seem to be.

I thought that what I need to do was solder signal to pole 2, and then ground to pole 1, and then connect pole 1 and 3. Is this the proper way to do it?

 

[Champ04]

No.
Pin 2 is "positive"
Pin 3 is "negative"
and pin 1 left open. Or to the shield if your cable has a shield.

DONT connect pins. You could end up shorting and seriously damage your component.

 

[xinoxide]

thats correct, maybe check your cable, check the pinouts on your specific amp. maybe even check the headphone end of the cable. if the wire isnt completely bare, might try melting anything thats on the wires off with a lighter and then cleaning the wire with steel wool before trying to resolder. some wires have a protective layer of something that keeps them from swapping signal, it usually tends to dissagree with soldering.

the red wire, or "positive" is also refered to as signal, especially in not-fully balanced setups (ground split only).

fully balanced setups also allow you to bridge the "ground" pin and the "negative" pin, as the amp usually has all the groundings throughout, just be careful not to let the ground/negative touch the positive/signal at all, can cause the driver to push away from the diaphragm violently, possibly causing ALOT of damage.

only in a non-balanced XLR do you really want to stray away from bridging the ground and "negative" much like the same way you would attach a TRS jack.

 

[Gil Schwartzman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Champ04 /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. Pin 2 is "positive" Pin 3 is "negative" and pin 1 left open. Or to the shield if your cable has a shield. DONT connect pins. You could end up shorting and seriously damage your component.

So I just solder signal to pin 2, ground to pin 3, and nothing to pin 1?

 

[Nebby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xinoxide /img/forum/go_quote.gif fully balanced setups also allow you to bridge the "ground" pin and the "negative" pin, as the amp usually has all the groundings throughout, just be careful not to let the ground/negative touch the positive/signal at all, can cause the driver to push away from the diaphragm violently, possibly causing ALOT of damage.

Do you have a reference for this? I have always thought that "negative" carried an inverted signal in a balanced configuration, so bridging that inverted signal to ground would be bad....wouldn't it?

 

[Champ04]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gil Schwartzman /img/forum/go_quote.gif So I just solder signal to pin 2, ground to pin 3, and nothing to pin 1?

Yes. That is the correct way.

In a truly balanced circuit, you would be shorting half of it joining either pins 2 or 3 to 1.

I'm pretty sure anyway.

Either way. The easiest was is to do it like you just said. There is no need to do it any other way.