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. 

Steampunk Grado with Turbulent X Drivers

I've heard plenty of good things about the Turbulent X drivers made to fit Grado Labs and Alessandro headphones, so I thought it would be fun to build a new pair. Anyone who's modded a pair of Grados and ran a few Google searches knows that there are hundreds of options out there, from Sennheiser pads to aftermarket leather headbands, to wood cups from numerous manufactures large and small. So if you don't want your Grado to look like everyone else's Grado, there's nothing stopping you from some serious customization.

I'm no stranger to modding Grados, my last being an Alessandro with custom wood cups and a cable made from Cardas copper. This time I decided to do something that I'm pretty sure no one else has tried, a Grado with copper leafed mahogany cups. Copper leafing is process where you put down a base coat of paint, sand, then put down adhesive sizing, then lay extremely thin sheets of copper down and burnish them onto the wood, then cover with some protective sealant. You'll see some other examples of this in my custom built tube amplifier bases.

I began with a pair of mahogany wood cups and performed the copper leafing process. You'll note that the look is not perfect, it has a unique weathered look that make it nice for a steampunk-esq look. It actually weathers over time a bit as well, which only makes it look better in my humble opinion.

Copper leafed Grado cups

Inside the cups, I'd be using some unique grating I had powdercoated a copper color. This was cut for a tight fit and affixed with adhesive.

Powdercoated grates

Since Zynsonix is known for it's audiophile quality wire, I wouldn't be using any run of the mill cable, but some really impressive wire that was custom-made for Zynsonix, particularly for headphone and portable cable applications.

Custom Zynsonix Trebuchet wire

This is a special 24 gauge wire with high flexibility and low memory properties called the Trebuchet. It uses a high-flex clear PE dielectric and ultra pure ohno continuous cast copper for the finest sound quality. 

The mini connector is the well-made Amphenol 3.5mm. Unlike many other mini connectors, it works well with portable DAPs and iPhones in thick cases. This was braided into a litz, then into two twisted pairs, one for each cup. 

Each wire was run into the cup, soldered directly to the Turbulent X driver, then test fit to verify where the wire would fall. The wire was then secured with a zip tie and some hot glue. If it's good enough for Grado, it's good enough for me ;) It is nice to use hot glue as it is removable later for future mods. 

Turbulent X Drivers - Green marks positive in this case

I needed a donor pair of Grados, this would be a pair of used SR-60s I located online.

Some of the best value cans out there, the SR-60

The headband was removed with a twist of the plastic, then the Turbulent Labs headband was installed. This is much comfier than the stock headband, although not the finest Grado headband I've used. That honor would go to JMoney. I do like the color on this one though. 

Next was the process of removing the stock SR-60 cups and installing the copper leafed cups. The forks on the stock unit needed to be dremeled down a bit for adequate clearance, but other than that, pretty straight-forward.  

Well now I have a very unique Grado build with some great sounding Turbulent X drivers and the superlative Zynsonix Trebuchet wire, a match made in heaven for my ears. The sound is crisp and detailed yet full-bodied and dynamic. 

Please feel free to contact Zynsonix if you'd like your headphone recabled with the Trebuchet wire, or if you'd like a custom cable made from it, you won't find it anywhere else.

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.