Braided Headphone Cable Project

WhenKittensATK

WhenKittensATK

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2009
Messages
320
Last year I saw this Reddit post of a custom headphone cable and decided I must have one. I also wanted a shorter 4 ft cable vs the 8 ft stock cable. I browsed some online sites that made similar ones and they were all pricey $80+. I ended up buying the parts to make it myself. It costed less than half of what the sites were charging, so that was a bonus.

The longest part was threading each wire through the paracord. I had issues with the wire snagging inside the #275 paracord, so I switched to #325 which worked better for me. I made the mistake of starting with a lot more wire than I needed for a 4 ft run, because I really didn’t know how account for how much over 4ft the braid would use. This made braiding it very difficult as I had to keep stopping to untangle it. Wiring the mini-XLR connectors were a bit difficult since you had to connect the wire to two different pins each for an unbalanced configuration, but I was probably overthinking it.


Did it improve sound quality?
No, probably not.

Does it look cool?
Hell yeah, but that might just be me. I made it, so I’m bias.

Would I recommend this project?
Yeah, it doesn’t require any hard to obtain skills. Soldering was very straight forward and braiding wasn’t difficult after you get the sequence down.


Part List:
2x Redco TA4FB - $3.50 each
10ft of Canare L-4E6S - $5
50 ft of #325 Paracord - $5
1x ViaBlue SC2 Splitter - $10
1x ViaBlue T6s 3.5mm Jack - $11.50

Total Cost: ~$38.50

 
That's neat. I wish I could do that, but apparently my Beyer T1 seems to be really hard to recable. =\ Like I watched a video of the dude opening it up and there are some really dangerous portions where if you don't have a super steady hand, you'll probably mess up the driver.
 
I have yet to try a detachable cable mod for headphones. Maybe if I ever rebuy another DT770 I'll give it a shot. My current headphones all come with them so I'm covered for now.
 
Hoo boy. How'd you like the LCD-2? I've only heard the fazer version, and boy these are fast, but heavy on the head.
 
I also own the HE-500 and I believe those weigh ~1.1 lbs and the LCD-2 are ~1.08 lbs, so I'm used to the weigh. These are the fazer version, bought them new from Adorama awhile back. I enjoy them, but I miss the comfort of my HD600. Those are by far my most comfortable headphones.
 
Krazyxazn said:
I also own the HE-500 and I believe those weigh ~1.1 lbs and the LCD-2 are ~1.08 lbs, so I'm used to the weigh. These are the fazer version, bought them new from Adorama awhile back. I enjoy them, but I miss the comfort of my HD600. Those are by far my most comfortable headphones.
Click to expand...

I am thinking of having a listen to the HD600/650 one of these days. I've heard the HD800 and I love it (but I've been told about the treble spike at 6KHz and that it's very picky DAC wise).
Comfort factor wise, Beyerdynamic T1 and the HD800 > LCD-2 for my case.
 
Krazyxazn said:
I also own the HE-500 and I believe those weigh ~1.1 lbs and the LCD-2 are ~1.08 lbs, so I'm used to the weigh. These are the fazer version, bought them new from Adorama awhile back. I enjoy them, but I miss the comfort of my HD600. Those are by far my most comfortable headphones.
Click to expand...

HD600/650s have the clamp of death for people with big head's though, due to varying amounts of clamp depending on how far the headphone's stretch. Also the fixed-shape headband is a design that hasn't changed since 1996 and doesn't evenly distribute weight on the top of the headphone like newer headphones.

Most headphones these days are going towards the strap/suspension design because it fits the top of all heads and has superior weight distribution, and also the use of memory metal for consistent clamp pressure, rather than the old HD600 design where someone with a bigger head feels twice the clamping pressure of someone with a smaller head. Not meant as a slight against Sennheiser since the HD600 is 20 years old, but they really should update the design for newer iterations or will risk falling behind emergent brands.
 
Good work - looks great!

I've been meaning to make a set of cables for my HD650's for like 10 years, lol. Never got around to starting it. Currently have a pile of materials next to my desk for a custom set of PSU cables....maybe once I finish those I'll find the motivation to do what you did.
 
Im still an a face oh braiding all cables i can do.

I braided my psu cables for sata and
the 115/230v cabel as well

https://s11.postimg.org/xqq34bs9f/20161005_201502.jpg
20161005_201502.jpg


Yeah colors is horrorful but its 16 awg wire
and the connector is a big on the big size but the only one that was fully shielded
 
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