Avantone MP1 Mixphones Balanced Headphone Cable Mod

Not a headphone commonly discussed on HeadFi, but certainly deserving of some merit, is the Avantone MP1 Mixphones. They are touted as “suitable for use in live sound, DJ, studio recording, mixing playback and listening applications“. The earpads and cups are quite large, isolating, and comfortable, and house sizable 50mm drivers inside. A client of mine, Steve, with a penchant for unusual looking electronics sent me one to work some magic on to see how we could improve it.

The headphone comes with a 3.5mm input on one side and a little switch on the other side with a rudimentary circuit for adjusting the sound to your liking. Steve had tried the unit with an aftermarket Zynsonix cable first, but wanted to run it balanced, and the only way to do so was to remove this little device, which I assumed would help with the clarity anyway.

The circuit, switch and the 3.5mm inlet would all be removed in favor of mini XLR connectors on each cup. Brainwaves XL Hybrid earpads would also replace the stock pads, which Steve mentioned were comfortable but tended to flatten out over time. I indeed read the same thing from other reviewers online so it appears to be a common issue.

The sound had nice body and warmth, but wasn’t super clear, and the resolution on the lower end of the spectrum was somewhat lacking. I knew some mass-loading damping material would help with this and tighten up the bottom end a bit. On the inside, there are more metal parts than you typically find inside a headphone as metal, while adding mass which can be a good thing, tends to weigh things down. Fortunately the headphone remains comfortable. Avantone lists the weight at 550 grams, however it didn’t feel that heavy on my head. I recall Audeze’s EL-8 titanium as the only headphone I found was heavy enough to be uncomfortable, although some have said the same thing about the new HEDD Audio HEDDPhones as well. Good weight distribution goes a long way in assisting with this.

I placed some damping material on the driver surround and the inside of the cup strategically. You don’t need too much to get the desired result. Once everything was put back together with the new balanced cable, circuit delete, damping material, and pads, the sound was notably more resolving and controlled in the lower-end especially. Note the damping placement below:

Steve’s impressions:

Now, to the unmodified and your modification versions of the Avantone Pro MP1 headphones. Both have Brainwavz XL Round Hybrid earpads. The unbalanced version has a Trebuchet cable. The balanced version has a Ballista cable. They are both driven, not at the same time, from the headphone outputs on the front panel of the Soekris dac1541. Source is a Nuprime CDT-10, output set to 192kHz sample rate, AES/EBU connected to the DAC. Good results began after 15 hours of operation; my observations here are at the 25-hour mark.

As much as I liked the unbalanced version, the balanced version has more of the good stuff: crispness, bass extension, expansiveness, body, blacker background. Surprisingly, this results in a less dry and less analytical presentation than the unbalanced version. This balanced version is easier to listen to for longer sessions. I did try line level balanced output from the Soekris into an XDuoo TA-20 amplifier. [FYI, for this amplifier, balanced in and out is noise free. Any unbalanced, in and/or out, is too noisy for me.] This was not as good a combination. The Avantone headphones, probably because of their very low impedance [16 ohms] and very high sensitivity [113 dB] need the stability and the low noise of solid-state amplification. All in all, a worthwhile and satisfying result.

 

You can see some images below of the unit. Steve took some of the latter. I took far more images during the process however my Canon T7i decided it was time for a summer vacation and didn’t save the images to the memory card.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this write up, and if you’d like an aftermarket cable or complete recable of the Avantones or other headphones please contact Zynsonix Audio. Thanks very much to Steve for generously sharing his thoughts and time as well!




Disclosure: Please remember that using a soldering iron and/or modifying headphones can be dangerous to you and/or your surroundings and should only be performed by a certified technician. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt a modification posted above and cause physical harm to yourself or your surroundings.

Denon AH-D2000 Headphone Recable

Denon, or Kabushiki Kaisha Denon in Japanese, is an electronics company that founded in Japan way back in 1910, building gramophones and single-sided records. The brand's various products command a lot of respect in the audio video community to this day. In early 2007, Denon entered the headphone world with two well received headphones: the AH-D2000, with black plastic ear cups, and the AH-D5000 with mahogany earcups and a higher spec cable. Later, the company would release the high-end Denon AH-D7000 with a more powerful and resolving Neodymium driver, along with a variety of other in-ear and over-ear headphones.


Despite the high spec'd cables included in the higher end Denon headphones, I've found that they benefit highly from a recable, probably more than any other headphone aside from maybe the Sennheiser HD580 / HD600 / HD650 series. Today the Denon AH-D2000 will be getting a Zynsonix Xev recable to elimate the stock cable that's holding it back. It's also going to be used for portable duty, so the replacement cable will be shorter and more flexible. 

Zynsonix Xev wire on a spool. PTFE coated silver plated copper

The first step is to trim the wires to be braided for the new headphone cable. This cable would be approximately 5 feet, but this does not incorporate the wire lost within the cups and length lost during the braiding process. Because of this, the wire needs to be measured longer and trimmed down after the braiding process to the size needed. 

Braided Xev 5 foot headphone cable

The Litz braid is done by hand and helps the cable maintain geometry over the whole length and can help reject EMI / RFI. The braid can be done tightly or loosely depending on preference. At the split of the cable where it separates to enter the earcups, the braid is converted to two separate twisted pairs. After this process is complete, the cable is sleeved, in this case with non-microphonic soft black nylon multifilament. This sleeving requires a hot knife so that it doesn't fray after being cut. The Zynsonix logo heatshrink is also placed on the cable during this stage.

Sleeved Xev headphone cable

Now comes the process of adding the Switchcraft 35HD 3.5mm connector. The twisted pair wires are labelled with electrical tape so that it's known where each will connect to the right and left headphone drivers. Green tape was used for ground, red for right signal and black for left signal. The conductors were then stripped and tinned with solder on both sides so that a multimeter could trace the signal from one side to the other to ensure that the wires were being soldered in the right places on the Switchcraft. Once the wires were soldered in place, black heatshrink was used to ensure no possibility of shorting. 

Soldered Switchcraft 35HD mini connector

Once the connector has been soldered, the sleeving is pushed into place and crimped using the ground connector on the plug. 

Switchcraft mini connector with crimped sleeving in place

After the crimping is complete, a piece of black heatshrink is used as a strain relief system.

Strain relief heatshrink

Finally, the barrel can be screwed over the connector and this side of the cable is complete.

Switchcraft mini connector attachment complete

The cable is now ready to be soldered to the headphone

The Denon headphone earcups each have two sets of four screws and earpads that must be removed in order to gain access to the inside. A solder joint should be shiny as it indicates good conductivity and virtually ensures that it is not a cold joint. I believe Denon is using tin solder which is not easy to achieve a shiny joint with, and in most cases the joints on the stock headphone are not shiny.

Stock cable

The stock wire is completely removed and all stock solder is removed from the solder pad with a solder sucker. The new cable is fed through and tied and zip-tied as a double strain relief. the new wires are soldered to the pads using Cardas Quadeutectic solder. Nice shiny joints are ensured.

New Xev cable soldered in place

Once both cups are attended to, the headphone is reassembled and tested to verify it is sounding great ;)

Completed Denon AH-D2000 Xev Recable

Would you like an audiophile quality cable installed on your Denon headphones (or any other headphone) or do you need them to be repaired due to the metal hardware coming loose? Zynsonix offers the service for a very reasonable price. 

The Fine Print:

The above steps detailing the recabling of a headphone are for entertainment purposes only, and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.

Kimber TCSS - The perfect marriage of Teflon and copper

I've been using Kimber TCSS for years. It's an excellent wire made from low-strand count high-purity copper (as Kimber calls it: Hyper-pure VariStrand™ copper) and the insulating dielectric is high pressure, low temperature extruded Teflon. It's 19 gauge, but the dimensions are small for 19 gauge, so it's easy to work with as interconnect wire, internal hook-up wire, and Kimber even uses multiple strands of the TCSS for it's higher end speaker cables (4TC, 8TC and 12TC). You'll also find it being used in Russ Andrews power supplies and other various cables.

The reason that Kimber TCSS stands out as much as it does is that most of the copper you find with extruded teflon is silver plated. Sometimes a silver plated wire isn't desired for an application, but Teflon, being the pretty much the best dielectric aside from air, is. Teflon, a synthetic fluoropolymer, was developed by DuPont and has a dielectric constant of 2.1. This is slightly better than Polyethylene and notably better than PVC and older materials like Bakelite and Formica. Between the low strand count, high purity copper and the Teflon dielectric, the Kimber wire exhibits a crisp and clear sound.

I've seen some comments on Audio Asylum and the like that the clear and white TCSS variants sound the most clear. Since this has spread around the campfire, Kimber now offers their speaker cables and interconnects using a braid of white and clear. I personally find the clear to be the most attractive, as you can see the copper strands on the inside.

I've made use of Kimber TCSS in a variety of cables, including:

Kimber TCSS and Solid Silver in Teflon Interconnects with Cardas RCAs

Headphone Cables - This one on a Denon Headphone with ViaBlue Connector

Headphone Extension Cables

Phono Ground Cable

TCSS and Solid Silver Mini to Mini Cable

...and another Headphone Cable

Making use of the Kimber wiring as a headphone cable can be a little stiff, but it's generally not too bad on a longer cable. As always, custom cables making use of Kimber TCSS can be requested at Zynsonix.com.