Good headphone extension cable....

hey everyone, well my hd800 cable is almost dead. one side constantly cuts off when i move or make a movement.
I have a cardas hd800 cable, but its only 1m long. so I just need a headphone extension cable to pair with the 1m cardas cable.

anyone have some suggestion for a audiophile extension headphone cable

thanks!

 

Hi,

I guess you will get good one from Forza or Norne
Please check out the links below

https://forzaaudioworks.com/en/category.php?id_category=37

http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/index.php?route=common/home

 

Why not have the problematic connector repaired or reterminated?

 

Grado's 15ft extension cable can be found on Amazon for $40 and free shipping. It's sturdy I've had mine 15+ years.

 

Ditto on the Grado, mines also quite old,no sonic degradation and no microphonics.

 

I bought a Mogami one to burn an Adorama gift card a few years ago, I'd heard Mogami's lifetime warranty was pretty good (even allowing for in store replacements at Guitar Center etc.), luckily I've not had to use the warranty and I do roll it out to my Poang chair a few times a week. I don't think it's any cheaper than the Grado one already mentioned for a similar or lesser length tho.

 

HD800 cables don't fail at the connector. The outer insulation fails above the Y split, and then the inner insulation fails, and then the coax conductors short to each other.

It can be fixed -- for some definition of the word "fixed" -- by peeling more of that crappy outer insulation away, gently untwisting the cable so the outer wires open up and separate from the inner, and then wrapping the inner conductor with insulating tape.

Finish with heat-shrink tubing around the outer wires (you may need 3:1 tubing to clear the connector). Or hell, just wrap it with more tape.

The repair will be ugly and stiff, and probably short-lived. But it will last long enough for your replacement cable to be built and shipped.

 

yep, its not the connector that has failed, but the upper part like fastfwd describe.

Ordered the grado 15 feet extension cable. im a bit pissed at senheiser for asking 200$ for their kbl hd800. the hd650 cable they sell for 30$.

I think the cardas sound a bit better then the original cable, I hope the grado extension wont muck things up

thanks everyone

 

You can also get an extension built by someone like Blue Jeans cables FWIW, their pricing seems closer to the pre-made Mogami I mentioned before rather than to the Grado, but there's some value in being able to select the exact length you want rather than choosing between 10/15/25 feet. Just make sure you select 1/4" male and female terminations:

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/MSA1.htm

Edit: Oops, you posted as I wrote that, I'll leave it up in case it's useful for anyone else tho.

 

hd800 cable. is there any truth from what I read about the stock cable having silver in the signal path?

I think I can right away say that the Cardas cross cable seem warmer then the stock cable. maybe all in my head

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/3nuiwn/i_was_repairing_my_hd800_stock_cables_jack_and/

I find copper to sound warmer than silver in general (SPC to be more precise).

 

I think it's silver platted copper. I've put HD650 connectors on my old HD800 cable. Midrange is cooler and sound lacks any moisture. In a way it would be a nice change of pace if it wasn't for the splashy top end and poor low end punch.

 

In most cases I can agree with this.

 

check it out

 

Bringing this back from the dead because I seem to have poor luck with my headphone extensions... I was avoiding expensive cables because we have dogs and would hate to have to put one down for wrecking an expensive cable J/K

But in all seriousness I need another one... Ill mention the last 2 since they both failed

Pig Hog PHX14-10 1/4" TRSF to 1/4" TRSM Headphone Extension Cable, 10 Feet
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017Y4NA1U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

This one is very rubbery and light with simple plastic barrels so no fixing or re-soldering here... I could wiggle a male TRS easily in the female socket dropping the Left channel consistently. tweaking contacts helped but its still not hard to wiggle and drop L channel... shouldn't be surprised given price but even cheap XLR's I've bought performed way better

Hosa HXSS-010 REAN 1/4" TRS to 1/4" TRS Pro Headphone Extension Cable, 10 Feet
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072DVLDKC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

definitely feels more premium with the REAN connectors much heaver for sure and barrel secures tightly to a male TRS so much better connection. I used this cable for nearly a year moving it around all the time in living room with different setups etc. I think the heavy connector on a not so heavy cable was its demise though... it started dropping Right channel when I moved the cable and it appears to be something internal in the last foot or so before connector (where it would bend the most due to connectors weight....) I can literally pinch or twist the wire and it drops etc. kind of a bummer but it did get moved around a LOT sometimes twice a day for example not including just moving when I move etc.

As a car guy I've always seen the company Belden on many quality spark plug wires I've installed over the years and somehow I randomly stumbled on https://www.bluejeanscable.com/index.htm last year when looking for a decent coax to feed my dac from an Allo DigiOne hat. anyway I've been super happy with it and even got some 6ft RCA's as well. All are very very heavy construction borderline rigid so I will admit it can stress a socket if your not careful but the cable is so sturdy I can't fault it at all. the connectors are also very impressive and it looks like they use Neutrik on the XLR stuff so all top notch IMHO.

Funds are limited these days but wasting money on cables that don't last a full year isn't exactly working for me...
Probably going to get a 15 foot 1/4 TRS M / TRS F like @ Impulse mentioned above. Thanks for jogging my memory so I don't just order another cable off Amazon like a zombie.

 

I just received one such cable from Ghent Audio. A little thick, but very good quality for the price and probably better than any budget option available on Amazon. Shipping wasn't too bad either, maybe 10 days from order to arrival.

http://www.ghentaudio.com/part/d09.html

 

I just bought a Grado extension cable from Crutchfield. What arrived is different than advertised. The cable is now wrapped with that microphonic braided sleeving like on their new “x” models.

 

This Pangea headphone extension cable sounds really good and is extremely well made.

https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PGHPC

 

short update: 15' BJC TRS cable arrived yesterday and it is of noticeably higher quality than the Hosa cable. The REAN connectors while similar are much nicer finish and look higher quality than the off grey ones on the Hosa cable. The cable itself is from Belden and while not as thick as the Coax or RCA's from them, still feels very sturdy. I use Hart audio cables on headphones for easy switching (interconnects) and BJC has definitely never let me down yet for a quality cable.
Highly recommend!

I'd post pics but idk how this forum chooses whether to embed a link and was broken last time...

 

One more good option: a headphone extension cable was my very first diy project, and it is super easy and simple to make a quality cable that will last forever.

Grab yourself some:
-Mogami star quad at $1.12/ft (https://www.redco.com/Mogami-W2534-Quad-microphone-Cable.html)
-1x male, 1x female neutrik/canare/switchcraft TRS "cable mount" jacks (https://www.redco.com/TRS-Connectors/)
-And any old soldering iron + leaded solder.

The strain reliefs are built in, and you are applying solder to 3 wires on each side (and ignoring the fourth wire) for an unbalanced cable. No heat shrink etc. required. I made mine 15 years ago, having never picked up an iron before, and I still use it regularly (e.g. last night, from the HTR to a splitter, to watch Hawkeye with my daughter after the rest of the family had crashed for the night).

The music you listen to was likely recorded via this exact cable, and of the 100's of cables I have purchased over the years, it remains the most robust - which says a bit about the quality of consumer electronics. Plus, I still feel that minor glimmer of satisfaction at a thing well made every time I plug it in. There's my diy pitch for the year