There's no logical-scientific reason for the cable to make a difference. Headphones cables are even less-critical than any other audio cables.but soundwise it's brighter and loses a lot of bass. (I'm now absolutely.a believer that the cable does change the sound.) I also have a desktop dac with identical single ended and balanced output so i can compare the two cables directly, and the stock cable sounds way better.
Thanks. What do you mean by with the wrong connection? Like they wired the cable wrong?There's no logical-scientific reason for the cable to make a difference. Headphones cables are even less-critical than any other audio cables.
But, with the wrong connection you can get L-R subtraction which kills the "center", killing or reducing the lead vocals and the bass which are almost always centered (the same in both channels).
If you have a setup with a balance control, or where you can disconnect one side or the other, you can check that. If you are getting L-R cancelation you'll have a mono signal and you won't be able to get left-only or right only. (Or with Audacity you can create a file with one silent channel.)
This isn't really an issue. I think he's just saying if the cable is wired wrong (broken) it can mix the channels? This can happen, depending on the cable, I have a balanced cable that is wired wrong for a specific headphone I have and that did result in mono (and shorting the amp) but it just means the cable is broken. It's like saying if you take a scissors and cut a cable in half, it reduces the volume level. It does, but that's not really a general point about cables.Thanks. What do you mean by with the wrong connection? Like they wired the cable wrong?
in this case, though, I'm using a desktop DAC with identical output rating for 6.5mm and 4.4mm (the "balanced" connection is only for convenience). So the difference I'm hearing is really in the cable.Balanced cables give you access to the balanced output on an amp and particularly with portable stuff and harder to drive headphones they make a lot of sense. But this is nothing to do with the cable which is physically identical to a single ended cable, just wired differently in the jack. Balanced theoretically, and often in reality on small portable devices is 2x the voltage, 4x the power, or +6dB. You'll certainly hear that, if you have a harder to drive headphone, but it's nothing to do with the cable. If you had cable A and always used that with your smartphone/laptop, and then you got cable B and always used that with a proper amp, you would attribute that to the cable, would you? It's the different amp output, not the cable.
Hi, is it worth changing the standard cable to the HIFIMAN 400se headphones?
in this case, though, I'm using a desktop DAC with identical output rating for 6.5mm and 4.4mm (the "balanced" connection is only for convenience). So the difference I'm hearing is really in the cable.
hence my puzzlement.
Right, one of your cables is broken then. Or there's something broken in the amp where the two outputs aren't actually performing the same.in this case, though, I'm using a desktop DAC with identical output rating for 6.5mm and 4.4mm (the "balanced" connection is only for convenience). So the difference I'm hearing is really in the cable.
hence my puzzlement.
Edit: I hear clearer difference between the cables than between Fiio KA13 dongle DAC/amp and SMSL C200 desktop dac/amp, which sound practically identical even though they're from two different companies, use different chipsets, and one has 2x power output and costs 2x as the other. With Edition XS, anyway.
Headphone cable will use 4 wires, and it uses 4 wires whether it is balanced or single ended, so you can't tell this way. Headphones do not use the 5th ground on a 4.4mm connector. This is used for interconnects or 4.4->3.5mm adapters.I have purchased a 4.4mm 'balanced cable' from AliExpress, that wasn't balanced at all. I could tell even before removing the barrel on the 4.4mm connector as there was not enough wires in the braided cable coming out of it!
Yes, they could have wired the cable incorrectly (on one side only) in one of the headphone side connectors or the amp side plug.Thanks. What do you mean by with the wrong connection? Like they wired the cable wrong?
Headphone cable will use 4 wires, and it uses 4 wires whether it is balanced or single ended, so you can't tell this way. Headphones do not use the 5th ground on a 4.4mm connector. This is used for interconnects or 4.4->3.5mm adapters.
It would be theoretically possible for a single ended headphone cable to use 3 wires up to the Y-split and then 2 each side from there, splitting the ground at the Y split rather than the jack, but I have never in my life and hundreds of cables seen a cable that does this. It would be substantially more expensive to make, so hard to see why anyone would do it.
The only difference between a single ended and balanced cable is the single ended cable connects the L and R ground to the same pin inside the jack. Balanced connects the negative to two different pins. They are physically identical otherwise and both use 4 wires.
OK, no, I understood you wrong. You said "a 4.4mm 'balanced cable'" not an adapter. I took that to mean a headphone cable. What you got is clearly a broken adapter. I have had headphone cables wired wrong as well, but that's when something is wired wrong.The 'balanced adapter' cable in question was terminated with a female 2.5mm TRRS barrel connector and a male 4.4mm Pentaconn barrel connector. The connectors were joined with multiple conductors which had been braided. There were only 3 conductors.
In my experience, there are many headphone cables with only 3 conductors up to the split or all the way to one of the ear cups. It's not hard to comprehend why a manufacturer would not waste money on a superfluous copper conductor. The AKG K371 in front of me have a cable terminated with a 3.5mm TRS plug and a 3 pin mini-XLR plug, are you suggesting that these plugs are connected with 4 signal wires?
What I have never seen, is a dual entry cable that was only three wires from the split to the jack. It's always joined in the jack. I don't doubt this may exist somewhere but 99.9% of dual entry headphone cables will work this way.