Just ordered a balanced cable for my HD800, am I wasting my money?

[sandyk]

Several years ago it was a fad, even with unbalanced outputs, to rewire headphones using 4 wire cables  of also a hopefully better quality, and only connect the 0 volts sides together at the amplifier end.

If one was using a dual mono type construction, and used a 4 pin plug and socket, the 0 volts wires could then be connected to the 0 volts /earth sides of their respective outputs.

 I didn't try this, but I did spread a smooth layer of Butyl inside the wooden cups of my Audio Technica W1000 headphones for a nice bit of added dampening of the cups. This was recommended to me by the owner of the forum I once was an Admin in, before leaving due to his increasingly poor behaviour due to alcoholism.

 

Alex

[sandyk]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 5:27 AM, jabbr said:

I used balanced cables on my HD800s ... just because ??‍♂️ ... the universe should be balanced ?

 Jon

 You may be interested in my recent post in this thread.

Alex

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/28628-my-setup-macbook-pro/?tab=comments#comment-827852

 

[sandyk]

7 hours ago, jabbr said:

 

I don’t spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about cables. If my DAC has balanced output and my amp balanced input then I use balanced XLR interconnects. 

 

I use a resistor network attached to my First Watt J2 to drive my headphones. Sennheiser makes great headphones (I also have AKG) ... since Sennheiser provides for balanced cables to the HD800 that’s what I use ... similarly I use the AC power cord that came with my First Watt ?

 

 Incidentally, my old modified (a damping layer of butyl in the wooden cups) Audio Technica W1000 were also designed to comply with the old IEC directive, as were the K701 etc. which many don't apparently realise.

 I don't spend much time thinking about cables either, or I would have tried what I offered as a suggestion to members of the other forum who were into this cable modding.

[sandyk]

There is no reason why it shouldn't work with unbalanced outputs either. Although best results would be to use a 4 pin socket at the amplifier end , you could still connect the earths together at the Shield of a T,R,S plug into a normal TRS socket. ( Tip, Ring and Shield) At least this would get away from the shared " earth" return wire.

[sandyk]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 7:30 AM, mansr said:

Not least, the additional power helps, especially with higher impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD 800 with many headphone amps. 

 Many HAs do however benefit from higher voltage supply rails, as an E.E. member of another forum from Rockhampton in Queensland recommended to me several years ago .Even a modest increase from +-15V to +-20V made a worthwhile improvement in this case.