Single 1/4in female plug to dual XLR (3 pin, female) extension cord?

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isaacrivera

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Hi,

I am new to headphones. I would like to plug headphones with single 1/4 male plug termination to the second output of my Merrill Audio Christine preamp. The preamp's output impedance is 50Ω. Is there such an extension cord on the market, single 1/4in female plug to dual 3 pin, female XLR? Is this even a good idea?

Thanks for any insights.

BigChubby

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While you can probably find an adapter cable like the one you describe, connecting to your preamp output is not a good idea.
As you noted, the output Z is 50 Ohms which is too high except maybe for some 600 Ohm phones.  More importantly, the output of your preamp is not designed to transfer power.  It's meant to drive a high impedance input as essentially as a voltage transfer function - meaning the input to a power amp "sees" the voltage swing at the preamp output.

Hope this helps.

FullRangeMan

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If you can use XLR 4 pins or two mini plugs(1 per ch) are so better sound in the mids and treble I suggest you dont use the same neg pole for both channels, it increase treble SPL response and blur image imo, each driver deserve its own neg pole as a loudspeaker.
« Last Edit: 29 Dec 2017, 11:46 pm by FullRangeMan »

Armaegis

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Is there such an extension cord on the market, single 1/4in female plug to dual 3 pin, female XLR? Is this even a good idea?

No, this is a good way to damage your preamp. Your preamp outputs are on 6 wires (technically the signal is only on 4 of them). A single 1/4" plug only has 3 conductors. No matter how you slice it, you can't have 3=4. What will happen is two of those wires will be shorted together, and that's always a recipe for a bad time. There's a slight chance that some internal configuration on the preamp might make it ok, but are you willing to risk it?

Elizabeth

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I agree it is a dangerous notion. As mentioned 6 into 3 is not good for the internal of most preamps.
Also not good to use headphones to the back regular output of a typical preamp.

You can put those outputs to a separate headamp, no problem.