Collection: ZMF headphone cables

Whether you prefer balanced or single ended, it is the quality of the equipment that matters the most. A good sounding single ended setup can easily surpass a balanced one. Although a balanced setup provides lower noise floor(except headphone amplifiers) in your setup, the differences are negligible in most situations. We believe there are bigger differences between different cables than between single ended and balanced setups.

We recommend sticking with the equipment which you are familiar with or enjoy the most. We do, however, encourage a balanced setup if possible as most higher end equipment are designed with balanced connections in mind.

It depends on a few factors from the quality of your equipment, source quality, length of cable, and even down to what you pay attention to when listening. The differences can be as subtle as adjusting the tracking force on your turntable to as obvious as upgrading an amplifier.

As a general guide, we often recommend a 3 metre cable for most living room setups. 1.5 to 2 metres for desktop setups. 1 to 1.25 metres for portable applications.

We offer custom lengths should you require a cable of any specific length, long or short.

For headphones, we offer 4 options for a balanced headphone connection, 2.5mm, 4.4mm, 4-Pin XLR, and dual 3-Pin XLR.

If you have a digital audio player (DAP), we generally recommend a 4.4mm connection. 2.5mm if your device does not support 4.4mm.

For a balanced headphone amplifier, you can either go with 4.4mm, 4-Pin XLR, or dual 3-Pin XLR depending on your preference or whichever is compatible. 4-Pin XLR and dual 3-Pin XLRs are preferable if you are looking for a more robust and reliable connection and 4.4mm if you seek convenience or portability.

If you have a dual mono setup and you require completely separate channels from headphones to amplifiers the dual 3-Pin XLR would be our recommendation. Choosing this connection and any of our cables with two completely separated channels will provide you with full complete left and right channel isolation down to the shield and grounding.