luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 heh, but seriously. If you only have room for a single jack, and want to support balanced (4-channel bridged) and single ended cans, what do you do? Two options as I see it. Use 4-pin jack and tie ground to the shell and/or case or use a 5-pin jack and have a dedicated pin for ground. If the first case, I'm not sure if there are 4-pin female jacks where the where the "shell connection" can be isolated from the case. If this isn't possible, then is 5-pin the only real option? I cannot believe this hasn't come up before. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetoole Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I think there is some standard, IEC or something, which specifies a 5 pin xlr for balanced headphones. It does make a good deal of sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 It would make sense if anyone else did it. Go 4 pin or go home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 It would make sense if anyone else did it. Go 4 pin or go home meh. I'd like a way to convert to single ended and only have a single jack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 sorry, no way no how can you convert 4-pin to single ended. what if your amp design allowed the 2 minus outputs to be shorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 (edited) heh, you're quick. I cannot see why that wouldn't work, but then again, I could imagine designing for that condition.. Edited February 1, 2010 by luvdunhill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I cannot believe this hasn't come up before. Thoughts?Yeah, what are you doing with the 5 connections? I understand 4 of them: +/- L/R, but the 5th one eludes me. I'm with grawk -- 4-pin, a la AKG K1000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Oh, it's L+/L-/R+/R-/GND so that you can tie in just L+/R+/GND for single ended and not cross grounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 right. otherwise, there isn't a way to connect a single ended headphone to a 4-pin jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 You said the method at the top. Tie the shell to ground. But I don't think I'd go out of my way to provide that option anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I'd be worried about noise in that case. If the shell cannot be isolated from the outer connector, it could be a source of ground loops and other nasties. Why not go through the trouble of supporting single ended headphones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 So make room in the case for a single ended jack? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 So make room in the case for a single ended jack? I only have room for one jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 back panel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 back panel no room. Top is completely covered too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I see room on the sides Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Oh, it's L+/L-/R+/R-/GND so that you can tie in just L+/R+/GND for single ended and not cross grounds.right. otherwise, there isn't a way to connect a single ended headphone to a 4-pin jack.You mean, three-connector, right? Because all dynamic headphones are two single-ended drivers. It's just a matter of how easy it is to access that point where the 3 wires become 4, right? I agree with "provide a separate jack" for those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I think he means without rewiring the headphones, or reterminating, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 No, I don't think he means that, since he's talking about a 5-pin jack -- he'd have to do that anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 adapter cables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 wait, I thought about this... even if you can do this (which by the way, I thought of a case where you could do this, a concertina output 'cause I did this in my preamp, but not much good at driving much of anything), how would this work with a single 4-pin jack? just because you can short the minus to ground, doesn't mean you can short them to each other and get a usable reference and, Dusty I just mean use a single jack. You need a ground reference for the single ended headphone option. Adapters are fair game. All this to say, I think finding an isolated four pin jack with a separate shell connection is the way to go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Alright, so the two hots go to L/R +; ground gets split and sent to L/R - of the drivers. Right so far? On the amp side of the same sitch, where does L/R - go? Unterminated? Loaded? Switched-in-loads? Switch out those half of the amps (so that they don't present some weird load, and yet are green and don't consume power at the same time)? The case I am discussing is the unreterminated single-ended headphones discussed earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Not sure about that shell connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mypasswordis Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Acoustic Revive RGC-24 Ground Conditioner A blend of special ores is clearly the solution Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Dusty: Yeah, that's right. So far. So, you're asking the same question on the amp side. The L/R- is unterminated. I definitely don't want a switch there. So, in summary the problem is with a 4-pin jack, or even two 3-pin jacks, that are used on the output of a four channel design, you cannot "convert" this using any combination of adapters, custom or otherwise, for use by a single ended terminated headphone. You need a ground reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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