[Syrah]

I wasn't sure whether to start a new topic or jump on an oldie but a goodie.

I am also thinking of building my own headphone cables, initially for my Senn 650, but I have new pair on order.  I'd like to build them balanced.

Many online seem to swear by using star quad microphone cable, often Canare or Mogami.  Mogami makes one the W2893 that is 26AWG per conductor, OFC.

I was thinking of trying that, but using one run per driver.  That should put it at 23AWG per pole per driver, which seems about right.

First question, does this seem like a good idea?

Second, multi part question, I could do any one of the following:

Simply run the cables parallel and maybe wrap them in techflex.  Or twist the two runs together, and wrap that in techflex.  I assume that will up the capacitance but lower any noise.

Or, the most radical surgery, rip off the shielding and twist the two naked star quad runs together, then shrink cover that.

I appreciate that if I go as far as the last option, I might be better off just pulling apart Cat 5s and making my own cables.

Am I correct that star quad is basically one + and - twisted pair, twisted together (with the same amount of turns) as an equal + and - twisted pair.  The two positives get connected at each side, and the two negatives get connected at each side.

If correct, I suppose I could make one star quad cable per channel from stripped Cat 5 wire, then twist those channels together.

Any thoughts on this?

The idea of just doing two runs of W2893 seems like the easiest.

I ask about the shield, because almost every time I've compared a shielded to a non-shielded cable (with the exception of my MC tonearm cable) I've preferred non-shielded.

Thanks.

[Jon L]

I am also thinking of building my own headphone cables, initially for my Senn 650, but I have new pair on order. 

I would not choose Mogami or Canare star-quad cables for Senn 650.  They will exacerbate the Senn 650..eh "characteristics."  For them, I would use high-quality pure-silver or silver-plated copper.  I recommend such wire from Xangsane.   

[Speedskater]

Almost all the considerations about headphone cables are mechanical.

a] flexibility
b] handling noise
c] robustness 

[FullRangeMan]

I could suggest Neotech UPOCC solid copper awg 20 to 24.
Just dont use banana plugs, use balanced XLR 4 for better sound and larger soundstage.

[Pez]

Syrah,
I would check out the options from Lunashops. They are a great distributor and make products specifically for DIY headphone people. If you have any design questions please feel free to PM me. I am happy to help. 

[Alfi]

Syrah,

I've DIY'ed a headphone cable for my Sennheiser HD600  using Furutech FHD-35 OCC Headphone Cable, Furutech FP-705M(R) 4 Pin XLR Male Connector & Furutech FT-2PS Headphone 2 Pin Connector.  The Furutech FHD-35 cable is flexible and relatively easy to work with.
I preferred the cable over a cryo'ed Mogami based headphone cable.

Regards,

[Syrah]

Thanks so much guys.  Very helpful.

Funny thing, the photos I see online of the Furutech cables look a bit confusing. 

Is it a red and a white wire (i.e. single channel) shielded, with one run per channel, red +'ve, white -'ve?  Or are they two coax cables with the center the +'ve and the shield the -'ve, red for the right driver, white for the left driver?  The photos of cables made with it look like it's the latter since they seem to break off to a round cable to each driver.

I've always had good experiences with Chris at VH-Audio.  He recommends a double run of his V-Quad Cu-24, for one star quad cable per channel - but that amounts to almost $60/ft!  With a 10 foot run, I can't help but thinking that just buying headphones that cost $600 more would be better opportunity cost.

DH Labs seems to now sell a headphone cable with two wires per channel, separately shielded, also running in parallel like the Furutech.

https://silversonic.com/products/digital-cables/hp-1-bulk/

There are almost no reviews of the DH Labs online.  I use the DH Labs Pro Studio as my MC cartridge cables and I have found absolutely nothing that touches them in terms of sound quality and quietness, and I've compared them to phono cables more than 10 times their price.  But I appreciate that making one cable that works perfectly in one application doesn't mean that everything they touch as a company turns to gold.  It could just as easily be the broken clock that's right twice a day.

The cable that Neotech shows on their site as "Earphone Cable", looks like star quad (or otherwise woven) terminating at the drivers as two twisted pairs.  Is that the geometry you're using with their bulk cable?  Any microphonics when you brush against the cable or move around?

For some reason, I've been thinking that one unshielded run of star quad cable per driver would work best.  I am no engineer, so I'm basing that theory on nothing.  I guess it's because I've always found that shielding killed something in the sound, but I can see how it's a necessary evil for low level signals like cartridges and microphones.  Star quad does a descent job at blocking noise out, or so it seems.  So since headphones are somewhere between a loudspeaker and a microphone/cartridge, my thinking is that unshielded star quad would equally be somewhere in between.

To whatever extent it makes any difference (from a sound and/or engineering perspective) my next planned pair of cans are planar magnetic.  I'm throwing this out there because I used to have Martin Logan speakers, among others.  And I always found that the speaker cables that sounded best on my MLs were almost never the same ones that sounded best on all of my dynamic driver speakers.  An engineer friend once explained the likely reason why, but I got lost half way through - he did throw around the word "capacitance" an awful lot though.  Haha.  So I don't know if planar magnetic headphone drivers operate differently and respond better to lower inductance, capacitance, resistance, in cable materials and geometry.

[Alfi]

Thanks so much guys.  Very helpful.

Funny thing, the photos I see online of the Furutech cables look a bit confusing. 

Is it a red and a white wire (i.e. single channel) shielded, with one run per channel, red +'ve, white -'ve?  Or are they two coax cables with the center the +'ve and the shield the -'ve, red for the right driver, white for the left driver?  The photos of cables made with it look like it's the latter since they seem to break off to a round cable to each driver.

Syrah,
It's the latter. 

Regards