Moderator: dogears
arnoldc wrote:very comfortable, try it for yourself. i can't speak for the sennheiser.
onedown wrote:toobsnewbie,
if you're pushing through with your project, we sure would appreciate a review.
thanks.
toobsnewbie wrote:good thing the philips headphones use standard connectors for both the headphone in and out.
replacing cable
Did you ever compare the diameter and construction of your headphone cable to that of a audiophile interconnect? If you did, weren't you suspicious about the sonic properties of the headphone cable?
Headphone cables are optimized for comfort (weight, mechanical strength, flexibility, no transfer of mechanical noise). Very often the pure sound quality of the cable is rather poor. Of course comfort might have the highest priority for you but if not, replacing cables can be very rewarding.
The first question to be answered is, what kind of cable do I take? Selection criteria are different from that of NF-interconnects. Very important are flexibility and damping of mechanical noise. Stiff cables are very annoying and if the cable transfers mechanical noise to the ear piece you can't move without being disturbed by "sggkrrrrr….sggkkrrrrr". Weight should be less important. If you want good sound you simply can't use a light-weight cable of 1 mm diameter.
My tip: microphone cables are optimized for flexibility and mechanical noise. The cable I personally use a lot is the Belden 8413. It has 2 inner conductors and a braid shield. Cotton serve and rubber insulation provide good mechanical damping. Although initially a little bit stiff flexibility can be increased a lot by thourough bending before the cable is placed.
Belden 8413 has a diameter of 5 mm and therefore is much heavier than standard headphone cable. This can be especially annoying if you have your head in an angled position and the whole weight of both cables hangs on one earpiece. This can be prevented by rather long lengths of cable between earpieces and the split where the cables of both channels physically come together. Thus, the weight hanging on both earpieces will remain nearly constant.
Below the split do not connect the two cables with tape or the like. I use small rubber rings at 5 inch distances to keep the cables together. This keeps the cables much more flexible.
Sennheiser headphones like the HD600 have special connectors to attach the cable to the earpieces. Separate connectors are not available. If you want to replace the cable you have to sacrifice the original Sennheiser cable and to cut off the connectors you need.
Like so many other headphone cables, the conductors of Sennheiser cables consist of a larger amount of thin copper threads, each insulated separately. Soldering these conductors is a little bit tricky. A fast and clean method is to cover the fibres with soldering grease and place the tip of a soldering iron with a hot bead of tin to the tip of the conductor. Wait until the insulation melts, blackens and starts to retract. Next slowly shift the soldering tip along the conductor. If everything goes well the end of the conductor will be nicely tinned and can be easily soldered to something else.
No cable is perfect. The shorter, the better. Do not make your cable longer than necessary.
Always use gold-plated plugs! They do not sound better, but they do prevent crackling sounds due to oxidation.
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