T+A offers a selection of three different headphone cables.

6.35 mm barrel connection type. The “jack” is regarded as the most popular and frequent connector to date. However, this design is not symmetrical as the left and right channel are not separated. All contacts are hard gold-plated and made of high-purity brass. 

4.4 mm Pentaconn connector. Its symmetrical wiring allows for a complete separation of the left and right channel. Severing the ground connection between both channels renders any adverse influences on sound quality which might arise in non-separated systems such as the standard jack plug all but impossible.
Furthermore, our investigations have shown that the Pentaconn connector also offers the best contact quality, compared to the XLR and jack plug. All contacts are gold-plated and free of ferromagnetic materials.

4-pin XLR connector (manufactured by Neutrik). Its symmetrical wiring allows for a complete separation of the left and right channel. Severing the ground connection between both channels renders any adverse influences on sound quality which might arise in non-separated systems such as the standard jack plug all but impossible. All contacts are gold-plated and free of ferromagnetic materials.

Technology

Designing headphone cables is a completely different engineering task than designing speaker cables. Speaker cables have to deal with high currents and voltages, while headphones do the exact opposite: they work with lower currents and voltages. High quality materials and carefully meticulous design processes are prerequisites for making refined and accurate sounding headphone cables. We use pure OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) as a base and coat the conductors with pure silver. The impedance, capacity as well as inductance are low, and above all (are designed to offer) extraordinarily linear and constant characteristics over the entire frequency range.

The left and right channels are separated, and each is constructed out of two signal cables (symmetrical design). Additionally, both are covered by a silver-plated shielding braid to prevent electrostatic charging and electromagnetic influences. The insulation is made of high-quality dielectric materials. Professional two-pin connections (plug and socket) are used on the headphone side.

Specifications

• Inductance 1,7 µH
• Capacity 440 pF
• Impedance 630 mOhms