Damn… didn’t know they existed. Well, it’s time to educate myself. This is why you said that there would be a problem sticking SE to a balanced amp. This would be the case if you plugged an unbalanced 3.5 mm into a balanced amp with a 3.5 mm output, correct?
Also curious about this… Is there any advantage at all of using a bal cable + SE jack, versus just using SE cable w/SE jack? Does the bal cable eliminate any noise? Or only in a fully balanced connection…?
Short version is no.
The slightly longer version is it depends how much you believe headphone cables can affect sound and the quality of the various cables, connectors and adapters.
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Gotcha lol. TY!
Now, I have an unusual question.
If a headphone has a USB-C connector on the headphone end, can the cable be balanced?
My limited-knowledged self would assume the answer is no — but then, I have no technical understanding of a USB-C connector, especially when it comes to audio use.
Would it make a difference if there were two USB-C connectors (one on each ear-cup) — that is, if it’s even possible to use two USB-C connectors.
USB-C 3.1 is in question.
Yea sure it can, but the real question is why would they want to design it as a balanced one?
From your description, I would assume that the headphone is connected to the computer and receive a digital signal from the USB. Then, the digital to analog conversion would be done on the USB, like the picture below. And from there, the designer can freely choose whether they want to make a balanced circuit inside it or a single ended one. Now the question is why would they want to make a balanced circuit when they can do it in a single ended one with less hassle.
There might be a timing problem if the USB that’s said is receiving digital signal, but since it’s a headphone maybe no one would notice. But again, if it’s digital you can do it from one and have the DAC in balanced.
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So basically the USB-C would have a DAC implemented in it? The manufacturer mentioned that this would be implemented in the future (DAC+Amp)
The reason why I’m asking is because a high-end headphone (Binom-ER — ~5k euros) is using a USB-C connnector. It is a planar-magnetic headphone, so I’m assuming people would want to use their desktop flagship DACs and Amps. Could they do that if the connector on the headphone end is a USB-C?
I’m still not sure what connector is being used on the amp end…
As to why a USB-C is being used, it comes to the fact that the ear-cups are insanely slim. Apparently the standard connectors would require increase in thickness or something along those lines.
It could just be they are using the connector, rather than it actually being a USB-C connection, there are more than enough wires on a USB-C connector to wire it balanced (24 I think).
Some DAC’s use HDMI connectors or RJ45 for I2C make them video ports or network ports, just a convenient electrical connection, you can buy off the shelf in quantity.
You’d have to ask the manufacturer.
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Ah IC. Hmm what if the headphone is actually just using it to carry the analog signal, not like what I just said. Maybe they use it like 4 pin xlr → usb c, where the usb c is for the headphone only for the sake of being thin. Because usually the DAC that’s used in a dongle DAC or USB C headphones are quite weak and this being a planar must need a lot of power.
Edit: Just like what @Polygonhell said.
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That’s what I was thinking.
This is what the manufcaturer said:
“I assign the current version to the use of the USB-C 3.1 connector. This solution will also allow, in addition to using purely analog inputs, in the future, to use all the digital capabilities of this interface and use the DAC and amplifier built into the headphones. In addition, it is the only solution that physically fits into the ear pads without additional metall tides.”
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I know it’s been a year already but this question urges me.
So let’s say I want my Philips Fidelio X2HR to be balanced. Standard it uses 3.5mm TRS on both ends, if I want it to be balanced, can I use a custom 3.5mm TRRRS cable on both ends? I read somewhere
that the headphones doesn’t matter but just the cable, so I’m confused because you wrote that it is already determined in the cups (At least in the DT series).
You would have to mod the fidelio x2hr If you want it to be balanced. The ground (the negative side) is common between the 2 drivers (like on the Beyer DT wave was talking about).
While the drivers do not care if they share a common ground, a balanced amplifier will and it can damage it. If you have a pair of headphones wired up to be able to run balanced then yes you can just swap the cable and run them unbalanced… you should not go the other way.
Aight thanks, wasn’t going to anyway :), just theoretically.
If by “bal cable” vs. “SE cable” you mean 4-wire vs. 3-wire (Y-shaped GND or “return” wire), yes, there absolutely is an advantage: it reduces crosstalk between the L and R signals by a mathematically demonstrable amount. So it can get you some part of the benefit of “going balanced” without actually “going balanced”. But you will probably not hear the difference if the drivers have hundreds of ohms of impedance (those are already good enough at rejecting wire-generated crosstalk, they don’t need extra help).
I mean: balanced cable(2 grounds?/TRRS), with SE/3.5mm jack/termination(2 pole/TRS), going into a SE amp, to be clearer.
I haven’t heard any difference yet, with all my low ohm IEMs.
This is basically what a modular system for IEMs dose. A balanced cable to a balanced or SE jack, to a balanced or SE source. With a SE jack to a SE source, there is really no difference to that vs a non modular cable. Both tie the grounds from each IEM together.
Difference vs. what? Do you know for a fact the old cable you were using was 3-wire with a Y-shaped return/GND? You might have always been using a 4-wire cable, just that nobody thought to call it “balanced with TRS termination”, it was just a well-made SE cable. 
Yes, but it’s not all the same where you tie the grounds together: near the drivers (followed by a long common ground) or near the jack (very very short common ground, with very low resistance, allowing way less crosstalk through the voltage divider). Again: non-modular cables have also often been made with 4 wires all the way to the jack, just that nobody thought to call them “balanced”.
True, I was mainly talking about IEM cables where I guess you could tie the grounds together at the Y split, but I am pretty sure almost all are tied together at the jack. It is just that modular cables have the option to have the ground remain separate.
SE cable, with hard-wired 3.5/SE termination. (~$20-50 cable)
VS
Bal cable(hard-wired 2.5 termination), with 3.5 adapter jack. (~$33 cable)
Noooo clue about any of that haha.
If you can’t see the wiring structure from the outside there’s a way you can tell with a multimeter.