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confed
236
Jul 3, 2024
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Oh boy, the double ended cable provided in the box is not good. The single ended cable seems to be higher quality but requires a 4.4 to 6.3 adapter that is not included. The only adapter included is 3.5 to 6.3 so it forces you into the flimsy double ended cable.
Upon plugging in the double ended cable to the headset, you have to make certain adjustments (push/pull) to actually get sound out of both earcups.
kstokley
1293
Business Development
Jul 3, 2024
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confedGlad you received them. Can you check that the cables are fully seated? It takes a firm click to lock in, but once they are seated you should not have any signal cuts at all. I included an image of my sample for reference. 
kstokley
1293
Business Development
Jul 3, 2024
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confedHappy to help!
I also may be mistaken by your comment on adapters, but if you only have an audio with a 3.5 or 6.3, the 4.4 cable is redundant. We didn't include a4.4 to 6.3 adapter for the balanced cable because adapting to 6.3 would then make it unbalanced again. Axel cleverly hid wiring inside the headband to allow for the headphone to still be balanced with a single entry cable. I personally use a 2.5 in the right ear to XLR because my DAC & Amp are on the right side of my desk. For gaming, I have been using the unbalanced dual entry cable, into a Helm DB12 that plugs directly into a PS5 controller with surprising results..
confed
236
Jul 3, 2024
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kstokleySo the 2 cables are of different quality to me. That can be seen in the pics here but may be moot to others. The single ended cable is braided, at a minimum. I cannot use the single ended (braided) cable into my amp without a 4.4 to 6.3 adapter. The provided dual ended cable also merges at about 10-11 inches from the headphones which is different/bothersome to me but I can probably get used to it although I would prefer not to. Currently, the headphones I have that use dual ended cables into the headphones merge around the 18in mark.
caduncan
91
Jul 3, 2024
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confedThis may be clear and I might be being redundant, but wanted to try to clarify.
What you are calling the single-ended cable (the braided one) in the box is a balanced cable with a 4.4mm connector for an amp with a 4.4mm balanced output. If your amp only has a 6.3mm output that is an unbalanced output, so you could not use the braided cable with it even if you had a 4.4mm to 6.3 mm adapter. The possible confusion I'm trying to help with here is that you're calling the braided cable "single-ended" because it only has one plug on the "headphone side" but the term "single-ended" has a specific meaning in audio that designates a cable as unbalanced. In the OAE1's case, the braided cable is a "balanced 4.4mm cable"; the flimsy cable is a "single-ended (meaning unbalanced) 6.3mm" cable - even though it has two plugs on the "headphone end" of the cable. If your amp does not have a balanced output, you are stuck with the flimsy cable, as it is the only one of the two included that is unbalanced.
In my own case, my amp has a balanced output but it's XLR and not 4.4mm. But since both are balanced, I can use a 4.4mm-to-XLR adapter.
I really don't understand why the balanced cable in the box is a nice on and the unbalanced is a flimsy cheap one. I would like to see this corrected in the future. Would be nice to see Drop offer a nicer-quality SE 6.3 mm cable for these headphones, since the deep insets on the phones will not accommodate most 3.5mm cables, even if the buyer already owns one (I received mine yesterday also). I hope that helps and does not "muddy the water".
confed
236
Jul 3, 2024
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caduncanI appreciate the comment and correction/help. Can you point me to a reference where it tells me a 4.4 to 6.3 adapter would fail? Here is the product/article where I see that it is possible to use balanced headphones with a balanced cable, connected via an adapter to non-balanced amp.
https://www.audiophile-heaven.com/2022/10/ddhifi-dj65b-4-4mm-to-6-35mm-adapter-balanced-to-single-ended-it-is-possible.html
caduncan
91
Jul 3, 2024
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confedLet me clarify - I did not want to overcomplicate my response by going into the balanced/unbalanced thing. What I really meant was "you can't just get a 'dumb adapter' that would go from 4.4mm to 6.3mm and have it work". It would have to have designed components inside the adapter that would "convert" the unbalanced signal from the amp to into a faux-balanced signal to deliver to the balanced adapted on the headphone cable. It isn't just a simple device, as -for example - would be the all-to-common adapter which will convert 6.3mm down to 3.5mm. I've never even encountered such an adapter, but it looks like you have found one; it might work fine! My point was just it would not be a simple same-same signal adapter, and if they included that in the box it would have increased the cost of the headphones. The overwhelming majority of people would not need such a thing, so there is no incentive for them to include one. If your amp only has unbalanced outputs, the intended method is for you to use the crappy cable. :/ Sad but true. It should have been a better cable.
Edgeofthecity
28
Jul 4, 2024
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kstokleyWill any normal dual entry 2.5mm cable work with the OAE1, as far as replacements go?
I like the 4.4mm cable (seems very nice for a stock cable) but use more devices where I need 3.5mm out.
Evshrug
4124
Keyboard Club Member
Jul 4, 2024
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confed@caduncan You can adapt balanced to single-entry. The - Left & - Right terminals are summed up into one neutral ground in the single-ended pinout. But you can’t adapt SE to BAL without something like a phase splitter or some active component.
The headphone connection is either single-entry or dual entry, and the amp connection is either balanced or single ended (no, I don’t know why a normal connection is called “single ended” 😂).
The balanced cable indeed has a braided jacket that is thinner… but I don’t know if the wire guage is different underneath all the shielding. I do know that the actual metal is silver-plated-Copper. I’ve mostly been using the dual-entry, single ended cable and it’s been working fine, but I might use the 4.4mm pentaconn tipped cable more now that my FiiO BTR15 arrived in the mail.
(Edited)
Evshrug
4124
Keyboard Club Member
Jul 4, 2024
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EdgeofthecityThe plug housing has to be narrow enough to fit inside the enclosure tubes… the stock cables fit entirely inside so only the strain relief sticks out. But, you can adapt a 4.4mm cable to any common connector, so I get all my cables in 4.4mm and I share one set of adapters between my headphones.
Edgeofthecity
28
Jul 4, 2024
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EvshrugYeah, I had a brief moment of confusion when I went to pull the cable out .... I was pulling on the strain relief housing. Thankfully not forcefully.
Is it okay to use a 4.4mm adapter to convert to a unbalanced 3.5mm or 1/4" connection? I've seen some people say it can cause damage and to never do it. But there seems to be a lot of confusion/misinformation out there. (I know you'd never convert unbalanced to balanced, bu some people seem to suggest you should ideally not do either. :/)
Evshrug
4124
Keyboard Club Member
Jul 4, 2024
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EdgeofthecityI use my 4.4mm female to 3.5mm make ponytail adapter quite often 🤷♂️ The stock HD 800 cable is balanced at the earcups and all the way down the cable till it’s re-terminated to 1/4” headphone plug. Other headphones do this… because each driver has a positive and a negative, they all have to “adapt” to single ended at some point just for SE connections to exist at all 🤷♂️
Edgeofthecity
28
Jul 4, 2024
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EvshrugVery interesting! I did not know that.
I'm sure a lot of bad advice exists because people (myself included) just don't understand the technical features of the wiring and what actually is entailed.
AxelGrell
165
Grell Audio
Jul 24, 2024
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confedThe double sided cable is a very good, low capacity, silver coated OFC cable with a very low transmission factor for structure borne noise.
What else do you need? A thicker outer plastic cover to make it look more valuable?
Enjoy the music!
Axel
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