[James Tanner]

Good points guys.

James

[SHV]

"Thanks for your reply.  You may want to reconsider the headphone outputs being male XLRs as the standard."
********
You may have saved Bryston a lot of post-production grief.  I never would have checked that detail with my order and none of my head phone XLR cables would have worked with the "standard" configuration.  I just checked an aftermarket cable that is at least ten years old and it's set up to plug into a female XLR, so the head phone "standard" is not new.

Steve

[SHV]

"Perhaps there will need to be a professional and consumer version of the BHA-1, with the professional having the male XLR out"
********
Just did a quick look at head phone amp and distribution panels at a pro audio-video site; of the dozen or so devices, none had XLR head phone outputs.  So I guess for pros, 1/4" TRS is the standard.  So Bryston just needs to have female XLR outputs as the standard inorder to avoid problems.

Steve

[SHV]

One final thought, the "female" combo-XLR output for headphone is "logical" in that it allows use of both XLR and 1/4" TRS from the head phone.  My current amp has dual Neutrik NCJ6FA-H 3 Pole XLR Female outputs.

Steve

[Marius]

Anyone had any experience with these yet? https://audeze.com/audeze-lcd-3

Was searching for a Jecklin Float replacer, and reading the internet reviews would hope these to come close.

Would these connect to the BHA: - Input cable: Custom cable with mini XLR connectors? or is that the connection to the Phone themselves and not to the BHA? Specification seems a little vague about that.

Thanks,
Marius

[smatsui324]

Anyone had any experience with these yet? https://audeze.com/audeze-lcd-3

Was searching for a Jecklin Float replacer, and reading the internet reviews would hope these to come close.

Would these connect to the BHA: - Input cable: Custom cable with mini XLR connectors? or is that the connection to the Phone themselves and not to the BHA? Specification seems a little vague about that.

Thanks,
Marius

I have the LCD3 and it is my favorite headphone of the ones that I own including the HD800, HE6, LCD2 r1 and r2, LA7000 (Lawton Audio modded Denon D7000) and AKG K340 (Headphile modded).  The mini XLRs are at the headphone connection.   The LCD3 is a fantastic headphone.  Great soundstaging, imaging, smooth midrange, great bass and extended highs but not fatiguing.

[spinner]

 How does one change the headphone wire to a balanced one and what advantage is that over the regular phone plug ?

[Anonamemouse]

The standard in the industry is that signal always flows from a Male XLR to a Female XLR so I was a little taken back when I saw that many of the current headphone amps on the market having a Female output as standard   Anyway we felt we should stick with the standard as seen on all other products imploying XLR balanced connections?

Any idea why the headphone amp community does it differently than the rest??

You make a thinking mistake here. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it does not actually have to be one... And this is one of those.

Headphones connectors may resemble the mechanical part that looks like an XLR plug, but it is not one. The cable is not balanced, it is left channel, right channel, ground, shield. No balance there.

Any connector plugged into any socket is male. As such, the connection on the headphone side is male, and the receicing end (the BHA) has to be female.

[Anonamemouse]

How does one change the headphone wire to a balanced one and what advantage is that over the regular phone plug ?

No balance; left, right, ground. So no benefit whatsoever. It just looks different.

[James Tanner]

You make a thinking mistake here. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it does not actually have to be one... And this is one of those.

Headphones connectors may resemble the mechanical part that looks like an XLR plug, but it is not one. The cable is not balanced, it is left channel, right channel, ground, shield. No balance there.

Any connector plugged into any socket is male. As such, the connection on the headphone side is male, and the receicing end (the BHA) has to be female.

Hi Anonamemouse - thanks for that info I had no idea   I guess we will make sure the Standard is the Female as most have suggested.

james

[brucek]

Any connector plugged into any socket is male. As such, the connection on the headphone side is male, and the receicing end (the BHA) has to be female.

While this is true for many types of connectors (plumbing, etc.), it's not so obvious for the world of electrical connectors.

For electrical, the gender of the connector is determined by the pins used in the connector - not the connector itself.

It's quite possible to plug a female XLR connector plug (designated as a plug by nature of its moveable position) into a male XLR socket (designated as a jack by nature of its fixed location).

In that regard, the statement that, "the connection on the headphone side is male, and the receicing end (the BHA) has to be female", is not a truism.


female jack


male jack


female plug


male plug


brucek

[DaveNote]

Perhaps there will need to be a professional and consumer version of the BHA-1, with the professional having the male XLR out and the consumer having the femaile XLR out?  Headophile's are a community all their own, I'm finding.

It is indeed a different community. And I suspect that the BHA-1 while it might be attractive to it, it may not be as attractive to the pro community that uses headphones. These folks increasingly are people working at home and workspace can be at a premium, so smaller headphone amps, and especially multifunction ones, like the Grace Designs units, might be more suitable for this growing number of pro users.

Dave

[SHV]

I have an older version of this amp...http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/amplifiers/headroom-balanced-ultra-desktop-amp-buda.php

I think that Bryston should consider using similar Neutrik connectors...they accept male XLR or 1/4" TRS stereo plugs; very convenient.

Steve

[srb]

I think that Bryston should consider using similar Neutrik connectors...they accept male XLR or 1/4" TRS stereo plugs; very convenient.

I can't imagine not wanting to use the combo connector.  Although they are fairly standard on a variety of digital recording interfaces for microphone inputs and on powered monitor inputs, it makes absolute sense on headphone outputs, where a 1/4" headphone plug will be likely be encountered at some point in its use.
 
Steve

[Anonamemouse]

While this is true for many types of connectors (plumbing, etc.), it's not so obvious for the world of electrical connectors.

For electrical, the gender of the connector is determined by the pins used in the connector - not the connector itself.

It's quite possible to plug a female XLR connector plug (designated as a plug by nature of its moveable position) into a male XLR socket (designated as a jack by nature of its fixed location).

In that regard, the statement that, "the connection on the headphone side is male, and the receicing end (the BHA) has to be female", is not a truism.

brucek

If we were talking about XLR you would be somewhat correct.
But we are not talking about XLR, we are talking about a connector for a headphone. The plug on the cable of the headphones is ALWAYS male. The input in the BHA HAS to be female.

The examples you give are for XLR. This is not XLR. It just LOOKS like it.

[Anonamemouse]

Something like this plug would be ideal for the BHA.


(click me!)

It accepts bot the XLR style plug AND the 1/4" Stereo Jack. There is a high end version of this, give Neutric a call...

[myview]

Hi James,

I use headphones a lot and I agree with the majority opinion that has been voiced: the connector on the BHA-1 has to be female.  This is the standard for almost all headphone amplifiers I have come across.

Using the Neutrik combination jack as Anonamemouse mentioned is a great idea, especially if the space on the faceplate is limited.

[MellowVelo]

Headphones connectors may resemble the mechanical part that looks like an XLR plug, but it is not one. The cable is not balanced, it is left channel, right channel, ground, shield. No balance there.

I claim no expertise on this matter, but I'm not sure that the above statement is entirely correct. As far as I understand headphones with balanced drive, some setups actually carry a fully-balanced signal (both normal and inverted signals) all the way to each driver coil. The following is a photo taken from the Headroom website:



The original is at http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/balanced-drive-faq.php

As you can see, it's not merely left channel, right channel, ground, shield as Anonamemouse states. You can actually carry a balanced signal all the way to the headphones themselves.

[SHV]

Good point.  Just because the headphone can use a XLR connector, doesn't mean it's balanced.  My HeadRoom balanced amp has two female combo XLRs.  If the headphones are wired "balanced", a male XLR is plugged into each connector otherwise a XLR/1/4" adapter or 1/4" stereo phono plug is used and the amp will drive two headphones.  I'll have to do a little looking around to see which 'phones can be ordered "balanced".

Steve

[SHV]

From a little more looking, it seems that there is no "standard" for balanced output.  I guess the two major options are singe 4 pin Neutrik or double 3 pin combo Neutrik.

Steve