5-pole 4.4mm to 4-pole 3.5mm to 4-pole 2.5mm

[IsaacOscar]

Bassically, I want to run a setup like this:

• DAC/AMP with balanced 4.4mm output
• 5-pole 4.4mm male to 4-pole 3.5mm female adapter
• 4-pole 3.5mm male to 4-pole 3.5mm female cable
• 4-pole 3.5mm male to 5-pole 4.4mm female adapter
• 5-pole 4.4mm male to 4-pole 2.5mm male cable
• Headphones (I opened them up and they do indead have two seperate pairs of wires from the socket to each driver)

Will this work and be safe? (I know I could just buy a 4.4mm extension cable, but the only cheap ones I found where not black, and I had already got the 3.5mm cable).

And why do the 4.4mm ones all come in 5-poles (TRRRS) but my headphones only take 4-pole 2.5mm (TRRS)

 

[staticV3]

Will this work and be safe?

only if your combination of adapters and cables does not short any Pentaconn contacts at any point along the chain.

you can check that with a multimeter.

And why do the 4.4mm ones all come in 5-poles (TRRRS) but my headphones only take 4-pole 2.5mm (TRRS)

Pentaconn Amp outputs include a fifth GND contact for downstream devices that need it.

Headphones have no ground per se, so four contacts are all that you need for differential stereo.

 

[IsaacOscar]

only if your combination of adapters and cables does not short any Pentaconn contacts at any point along the chain.

you can check that with a multimeter.

Thanks! (I don't have a multimeter though). I'll check with the seller (they also apparently make custom adapters as well, so they should be able to make a weird adapter for me).

Pentaconn Amp outputs include a fifth GND contact for downstream devices that need it.

Headphones have no ground per se, so four contacts are all that you need for differential stereo.

So it's kind of like a power plug (sockets have 3 pins, but some plugs only have 2?)

 

[staticV3]

Thanks! (I don't have a multimeter though).

Best purchase you'll ever make as an audio enthusiast.

$15 at your local home improvement store.

 

[IsaacOscar]

only if your combination of adapters and cables does not short any Pentaconn contacts at any point along the chain.

you can check that with a multimeter.

My setup works, thanks!
What I did to test it without risking blowing up my amp was use everything to go from a 3.5mm TRRS port on an old DAC to a headphone cable with buttons/microphone. The headphones and buttons worked perfectly, confirming that the 4-poles in the DAC were correctly routed to the 4-poles on my headphone cable (i.e. no shorting or inconsistent mappings between the 3.5mm and 4.5mm contacts).

Only after the test did I put it in my 4.4mm amp port, and it works (and louder!)

Unfortunately, now my 3.5mm M-F cable is broken so I need to get another one (the male end got stuck in a socket, so I had to pull it out with pliers, but then the first R in the TRRS broken, so only one cup of my headphones work with it).