Pono Player Balanced Interconnect Cable

So you've taken the plunge on Neil Young's sweet little Pono player, however it uses a unique way to export those tunes to your balanced headphones or balanced rig. I'll be covering how I built an unbalanced cable, and how to build a balanced pair of cables so you can extract every juicy detail from those Hi Res tracks. As you may know, Zynsonix Audio offers these in any length or configuration, so reach out if you need one.

The Pono player features dual stereo 3.5mm outputs. You can use these to output to a pair of balanced headphones, a balanced rig that uses 3 pin XLRs (or mini XLRs / TRS plugs), or a single ended rig that takes good-old-fashioned RCAs.

Neil Young's Pono Player

Stereo 3.5mm connectors have three connections, the sleeve, the ring and the tip. When used in typical applications, the sleeve is a shared ground, the ring is the right signal, and the tip is the left signal. However not the case with the Pono in balanced mode.

Tip, Ring and Sleeve on a 3.5mm mini connector

In the case of the Pono player in balanced mode, each of the two 3.5mm goes to an individual three pin XLR. The Sleeve, as you'll note below, connects to the Pin 1 (ground). The Ring connects to Pin 3 (negative). The Tip connects to Pin 2 (positive). For a balanced headphone cable, you will note that the Sleeve connection is not used, only the tip (positive) and the ring (negative). These schematics are straight from the engineers over at Ayre Acoustics. If I'm not mistaken, this is going to be the portable standard for balanced connections including on upcoming models from Sony.

Pono Player wiring pinout / diagram

I made a handy dandy visual for the back of an XLR connector (note mini XLRs are different!) so you can see the pin assignments.

XLR pinout for reference

Below you'll see the pair of 3.5mm stereo mini to XLR cables using the great sounding Zynsonix Trebuchet 99.99997% pure ohno cast copper. The Viablue XLRs are very sleek looking, well made and use set screws rather than a traditional boot or crimp sleeve. The Amphenol mini connectors are my new favorite value connector, they offer a great connection and a recessed area near the barrel that allow them to be used with phone cases and portable DAPs with cramped faceplates.   

Pono balanced interconnect cable

All done and we have a pretty pair of Trebuchet interconnects for your Pono player. Off they go to a happy customer.

I hope you enjoyed this post on building a pair of interconnects for a Pono Player. Please reach out to Zynsonix Audio if you'd like your own custom Pono interconnects (balanced or single ended) or headphone cable, and keep enjoying those high res tracks!

The Fine Print:

The above steps detailing the build of a Pono player cable are for entertainment purposes only, and not intended to be used as assembly instructions. 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. 

Building an easy pair of Cardas RCA Interconnects

The audio world seems to be split into two when it comes to audio wire. Millions of posts argue the point back and forth, believers versus non-believers. It's one of those things, like politics or religion, that should be avoided in conversation, at least on an audio board ;)

I've found that sonic changes in an interconnect cable are subtle, but worthwhile. They won't bang you over the head, but may make slight changes in warmth, bass, treble, etc. I find that headphone recables actually make a larger difference, especially with headphones like Sennheiser or Denon. In seven or so years of experimenting with interconnects, I've settled with Cardas wire for most applications because of it's perceived warmth. Warmth is an audiophile term that means a slightly rolled off treble, not really in the pursuit of accuracy but more pleasing sounding music. My ears tend to be sensitive and a little bit more warmth goes a long way, it can help me listen longer before fatigue sets in, and can warm up the treble on a headphone that would otherwise be difficult to listen to (think Beyerdynamic DT990 / 250 ohm). This may be attributable to the individually enameled strands, so when you have multiple strands of differing gauges all isolated from one another, the slight difference between the signal in all these strands over the length of the cable causes a slight smearing effect which the human ear may perceive as warmth. Just a guess on my part, but it seems logical.

So I picked up some Cardas 21.5 x 2 interconnect / hook up wire. I choose this over the similarly priced Crosslink because it offers the internally litzed copper and less capacitance (21.5 gauge versus 17.5 gauge). It's also nicer to run internally as signal wire as it's not as thick. I suppose if you visually like the thicker cables, you may want to go with the Crosslink ;) I also picked up two pair of Cardas GRMO, which is their silver and rhodium plated RCA, similar to their top-line SRCA but a little less expensive and sheds the spring-loaded ground connector.

Cardas 21.5 x 2 wire - 5mm in diameter

The Cardas 21.5 x 2 is obviously two 21.5 gauge conductors, a signal and return, and a woven shield with cotton spacing. It's a handsome navy blue, but I'm going to cover it up with some Techflex soft black nylon multifilament to give it a little more character.

Cardas Silver and Rhodium Plated GRMO RCAs

The Cardas RCAs are unique in that, aside from being pretty, they don't have a strain relief. You have to craft one yourself with heatshrink. They also require quite a bit of heat to get the solder to stick to that rhodium plating. You pretty much have to have an adjustable soldering station to work with Cardas wire and connectors. If you don't already have one, the Hakko 936 is an incredible value (~$85) and provides the heat you need.

The highly recommended Hakko 936 solder station 

So the first step I performed was to sleeve the wire with the Teckflex nylon multifilament sleeving. This is a soft feeling sleeve that has a vintage look to it, almost like the waxed cotton you'd find so typically on 50s and 60s electronics. It does fray if you're not careful, so be wary not to snag it. I used 3/16" for this application and trimmed it down with a hot knife.

Sleeved with red heatshrink on the ends

I used a pair of runs of 1/4" red heatshrink and a heatgun to shrink them to fit. 1/4" is very snug, so 3/8" can also be used. This will be the right interconnect of the set, which is always labelled with red. I will be configuring these ICs with a floating shield, so the shield is twisted up on the source side and trimmed away on the other. Cardas interconnect wire always has little arrows for directionality, it may have something to do with the direction the copper was drawn, and I'm honestly not sure that it even matters, but I always ensure that the arrow is facing the end without the shield connection.

Close up of the woven shield twisted up

The wire now has to be stripped and "tinned". Tinning simply means that you cover it with solder. Cardas wire is enamelled, so I turned my iron all the way up, and burned the enamel off while simultaneously tinning the tips. I clean the iron tip after each tinned wire to get the enamel off. This process can also be achieved with a solder pot.

Tinned and trimmed

As stated previously, the Cardas RCAs require quite a bit of heat for the solder to melt on them and achieve a strong joint. If one is too cursory with this process, the joint will break off pretty easily. The RCAs will be piping hot after they have been soldered, and will burn like hell if you touch them ;) Once the RCAs have been given time to cool, some adhesive 3:1 1/2" heatshrink is slipped over top and shrunk in place. This will act as a strain relief.

A finished RCA interconnect cable

So without much labor, we have a nice Cardas RCA interconnect. If you'd like an interconnect like this, or something completely custom, contact Zynsonix for a great sounding solution. 



The Fine Print:
The above steps detailing the building of a cable 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.