I didn't think I'd ever get to the point of asking for this product specifically, but are there any recommendations for 3.5mm TRS male to male cables, suitable for headphones, available for purchase from mainland US, and preferably 10ft?

In the past year, the original cable that came with my SHP9500's started to exhibit problems, and had to be replaced after ~5 years of regular use. This past year, I had replaced it with a cable from KabelDirekt, which failed in about 7 months. KabelDirekt's warranty handling simply refunded my purchase rather replace the broken cable, so I took it as a sign that they weren't confident in their products and to try a different company. I then went with a Monoprice cable, which I have gone through three of. None of the three so far have lasted more than 3 weeks, and Monoprice is asking to have the existing faulty cables returned via a rather inconvenient shipping provider before sending another.

Right now, I have stolen my record player's RCA to 3.5mm cable and an RCA-3.5mm adapter, which is working for the time being. Unfortunately, it does seem that the manufacturer (Ugreen) has stopped selling audio cables however, nor do I really want to be stuck with an adapter chain off of my audio interface.

Your Monoprice cables were probably made with ordinary stranded copper wire, which is suitable for use in an aux cable but not a headphone cable.

Good headphone cables are instead made with tinsel wire, for far more flexing cycles than typical stranded copper. This page has close-up photos showing how it differs from ordinary stranded wire.

Based on its advertised intended usage, I would guess this $13 Syncwire cable is made with tinsel wire.

It looks decently-made. From a BIFL perspective, you may want learn to be able to replace the 3.5mm jacks. Tinsel wire isn't easy to solder, but here are some tips on how to do it:

  • https://homerecording.com/bbs/threads/soldering-lacquered-headphone-wire.397429/
  • https://www.electronics-lab.com/forums/threads/soldering-connections-for-my-replacement-3-5-stereo-plug.279014/

Definitely a good thing to keep in mind. Doing a bit of further research, depending on the composition of the tinsel wire, it's seems feasible to DIY a cable with soldered connections to 3.5mm male plugs, albeit with some extra material spent as practice to get technique, temperature, and time correct.

Unless I happen to find a premade cable that is suitable for conversion out of old hardware, it definitely seems like actually sourcing woven tinsel wire in suitable thickness for a headphone cable is quite the challenge (for a reasonable price anyway).

If nothing else, the Syncwire cable is cheap enough to be a good value, provided it does last a while.

The only negative point I saw in reviews of the Syncwire cable is that the braided jacket transmits mechanical noise to headphones. As someone else here mentioned, that's a problem with braided headphone cables generally.

Unfortunately, all the similar cables I could find on Amazon have braided jackets:

They all cost $10-$15 and look a lot like each other. Maybe from the same factory?

As you say, it's virtually impossible to buy tinsel-cored audio cable in suitable lengths for DIY. If you want non-braided, I guess you'll have to either spend more money or cannibalise a cable from an existing pair of earphones/headphones.

Let us know how it goes!

What clues are there in they syncwire listing that made you think that it's made from tinsel wire. I'm just asking for future use.

  1. It's advertised to be suitable as a headphone cord (not just a headphone extension cord or aux cord).

  2. The cable is quite slender, <4mm OD (compare it to the 3.5mm plug in the photo). Yet it has a braided jacket, probably over a PVC jacket. That combo takes up more width than a PVC jacket alone. Therefore, the inner cores must be slender.

  3. Slender conventional inner cores in a wire advertised for headphone use would likely result in low reliability and bad reviews. But this cable has good reviews.

  4. Therefore, it's probably made with tinsel wire.

N.B. Any pair of headphones/earphones (and old broken pair, or from a junk shop etc) likely has tinsel wire. Most headphones/earphones use captive cables, but you can always just snip the cable at the headphone end, solder on a 3.5mm plug (see tips in earlier comment), and thereby make yourself a cable that will work with headphones that have a 3.5mm socket.

Just to do a bit of sanity checking on my end and because I still have the dead KabelDirekt cable for reference, I chopped and dissected the cable for speculation. I am first shocked at how good of reviews such a cable can get for its construction choices. The outer ground is of good size, but both stereo channels use tiny 26 or 28 awg 10-strand copper, which is no wonder the thing failed in under a year. Everything in the cable appears to be regular stranded copper. The PVC sheath on this cable is about 4mm, same as the (presumably pvc sheath plus) braided Syncwire cable. KabelDirekt's comparable braided cable is about 5mm by comparison. The review distribution between the PVC KabelDirekt and Syncwire cables are nearly the same, which makes me wonder how bad a cable really has to be for the reviews to significantly dip.

Was the KabelDirekt one advertised as being suitable for headphones?

I share your frustration about not being able to tell in advance what's inside a cable.

Years ago, as a side hustle, I sourced audio cables; custom-making them where needed. Since then, the market has been flooded with Chinese imports that don't mention the specifications that used to be commonplace:

  • Shield type
  • Shield gauge and qty
  • Conductor material
  • Conductor gauge and qty
  • Resistance per metre
  • Capacitance
  • Outer diameter

your post put me on a thread that ended on that page ☞ Speaker Wire A History by Roger Russell
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Mr carlson's lab (youtube) did a few videos recently on how to get and terminate good quality audio interconnects and speaker wires.

He didn’t cover 3.5mm terminals or headphone wire though so no good for OP.

I've seen some nice ones with gold plated connectors and coil spring strain relief but don't remember where.

However, 3.5mm cables are inherently not BIFL, they're a compromise for small equipment like old fashioned transistor radios and cassette players. More serious headphones always used 1/4" connectors or maybe XLR or who knows.

I'm glad that my phone has a 3.5mm jack but I just figure my phone and earbuds aren't BIFL either. I've had to replace earbuds a few times though generally not because of the cables.

This doesn't look great but it's probably ok. https://www.adafruit.com/product/876

Don't your headphones have a 1/4" plug that you can use with an adapter to a 3.5mm jack?

I guess if you really want to go nuts, you could ask on head-fi.org.

I definitely don't expect such a cable to legitimately last a lifetime. I'm simply getting tired of having to regularly go back into looking for something that should reasonably last at least 3-5 years of regular use or 5-8 years if it's a premium product.

Unfortunately, my headphones (Philips SHP9500) only have a 3.5mm jack. To mod anything else in, I'd have to legitimately drill out the existing jack, which I'd really only want to do if the jack had already failed.

Quite expensive but fits all your requirements: https://hartaudiocables.com/collections/phillips/products/bra-hc-1-braided-3-5mm-headphone-cable-for-focal-hadenys-azurys-shp9500-more

Haven't used that exact cable of them but others that are quite good.

Not entirely sure about how I feel about a cable that costs more than my headphones and the current pair of earpads in use on them. I think I'll keep the non-braided modular variety in mind though, if I can estimate whatever pair of headphones I may eventually buy in the future will be usable with the same cable.

$94 crikey!!

Way more expensive than I imagine 0.o

I feel your pain, and those Hart Audio cables recommended by @shaoiken@feddit.org look awesome.

I’m sure you’re aware of this, but I personally cannot abide braided headphone cables due to the fact that they prominently transfer grating noises when physically rubbing against objects to the ear pieces/cups.

This is less of a concern if you’re stationary/at home and becomes more prohibitive when mobile/active and rubbing against clothing.

Hope you succeed in finding a good fit for you!

For me, being braided isn't a huge deal as the cable would be almost exclusively used at a desk with a slack holder. I so far have been picking PVC sheathed cables simply because they do have less sliding friction and the aforementioned lesser noise when the cable is moved, but I doubt braided would be a deal breaker for my use case.

I've seen people on here recommend Hosa before. I recently got some audio cables from them and they seem to be good quality.

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