Hey, so I just got myself a MMCX to balanced 2.5mm (4-pole TRRS) cable, but I want to be able to swap to an unbalanced/single ended source using a 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male adapter. Is it safe for the adapter to be 4-pole on both sides (example)? I imagine that the single ended 3.5mm jack on the source would make it electrically equivalent to the adapter being unbalanced, but I’m not sure.
I guess the ony question is whether the 3.5mm source female TRS socket will be able to ground both the Ring (-) and Sleeve (-) connections on the TRRS plug.
A general discussion of single ended and balanced adapters and safety would be welcome too.
As long as your adapter is wired correctly, it’s perfectly safe to adapt a single-ended amp to a balanced headphone cable. The headphones don’t care and the amp won’t notice the difference. The trouble is making sure the adapter is wired correctly. You need to know the pinout on your 2.5mm (there are two common pinouts) and the pinouts on the adapter. Two common pinouts:
Make sure you use an adapter that has a 3-pin 3.5mm male connector, 3-pin female connectors will only connect to the second ring on a TRRS 3.5mm because the fourth pin is for the microphone connection when present. FiiO’s L26 adapter might be what you’re looking for depending on your headphone cable pinout: https://www.amazon.com/L26-Female-Balanced-Output-Adapter/dp/B01N10RBPW