Balanced Headphone Amps

[harveymt]

Some idle surfing today has shown some headphone amps with a balanced output. Either 2 X 3 pin XLRs or 4 pin XlRs. The Little Dot mkvi+ has it on the front panel.

http://www.audiophilechina.com/cp-show.asp?C_id=77&S_id2=2&s_id=24

Every headphone I've seen terminates in a 3.5 or 6.3mm jack. Some headphones have detachable cables but in looking for a replacement cable with XLRs they either seem to be home made efforts or some mod done by a specialist company for a price. I coldn't find any mini XLRs to 4 pin XLRs at all that could be used with say AKG K702s. There also seems to be a need to mod the headphones themselves.

Is there much difference between using a balanced cable and just the normal headphone jack?

 

[lonely boy]

If you're going to modify phones for balanced operation and if the cable has four conductors it's really simply just a case of snipping off the jack and fitting the XLRs. The problem with the 702s is that you will have to route another separate conductor from the right hand driver because the stock 3-pin connector used doesn't provide for two separate grounds.

Edit: It appears that both the 702's grounds are soldered together at the XLR jack.

You could just buy a pair of 701s that have a four conductor cable, much easier.