Monoprice M1570 Balanced Cable Guide

My custom Monoprice M1570 to Audeze Balanced cable adapter:

Monoprice M1570 to Audeze Balanced cable adapter
© 2019 ZadiusTech.com

This is the wiring diagram I used for connecting the wiring on my mini-XLR Monoprice M1570 to Audeze Balanced cable adapter:

audeze_monoprice_mycable_miniXLR_pinout_layout_final
Mini-XLR Layout courtesy of Gurbakhshish Singh

Note: Wiring the mini-XLR connectors in this way allows the balanced cable to be used for both Audeze/ZMF headphones as well as Monoprice M1570 headphone.

The Problem: 

The Monoprice M1570 Headphones do not ship with a balanced XLR cable.  Some of us tried connecting our Audeze or ZMF balanced XLR cables to our amplifiers, but it triggered the overcurrent protection on my Massdrop THX AAA 789 for example.  Monoprice is also not planning to have a balanced XLR cable available until about another month or two.  Per Monoprice, their target price for their balanced cable is expected to be around $80 (but don’t quote me on it).  I think that will be a fair price as that is about the same price as third party balanced audio cables made by companies such as Periapt.

Problem Discussion:

Create your own balanced cable or have an aftermarket audio cable company make one for you.  You’ll need the wiring pinout schematics below in order to do this.

First let’s look at why the Audeze and ZMF balanced cables do not work on the Monoprice M1570 and why you shouldn’t use cables from other headphones with the Monoprice M1570 headphones.

Audeze LCD-2 headphones Quarter Inch Pinout Wiring Diagram:

Audeze LCD-2 Quarter Inch Unbalanced Pinout Wiring Diagram
Image obtained from Head-Fi.org

Monoprice M1570 Headphones Quarter Inch Pinout Wiring Diagram:

Monoprice M1570 Quarter Inch Pinout Wiring Diagram
Photo courtesy of Monoprice.com

We can see how the mini-XLR pinout diagram for Audeze, bottom portion of Audeze LCD-2 wiring diagram are wired to the TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) connector.  In the LCD-2 schematic, on the left mini-XLR pins 1&4 are connected to the Left channel connection which is the Tip (or Left channel) of the TRS connector and on the right mini-XLR pins 1&4 are connected to the Ring (or Right channel) of the TRS connector.  Pins 2&3 of both L and R mini-XLR connectors are connected to the Sleeve (or Ground) on the TRS connector.

On the mini-XLR pinout diagram for Monoprice M1570, right portion of Monoprice M1570 wiring diagram  we can see that they are wired completely different.  Note that on the wiring diagram the Right channel diagram is upside down.  In the Monoprice M1570 schematic, on the left mini-XLR pins 1&3 are connected to the Left channel connection which is the Tip (or Left channel) of the TRS connector and on the right mini-XLR pins 1&3 are connected to the Ring (or Right channel) of the TRS connector.  Pins 2&4 of both L and R mini-XLR connectors are connected to the Sleeve (or Ground) on the TRS connector.

Therefore you should not use a different mini-XLR to quarter inch audio cable other than the one that came with your Monoprice cables as a short can occur.

Audeze LCD-2 headphones 4-pin mini-XLR Pinout Wiring Diagram (bottom right):

Audeze LCD-2 Pinout Wiring Diagram
Picture obtained from Head-Fi.org

4-Pin XLR Pinout diagrams:

4-pin XLR connector
Diagram obtained from Head-Fi.org.
4-Pin_Lugs
Photo obtained from robrobinette.com.
Male4PinXLR
Photo obtained from robrobinette.com.

Female XLR on Schiit Mjolnir  amplifier for reference:

Mjolnir Amplifier
Image obtained from robrobinette.com.

Per the wiring diagram for the mini-XLR’s on the Audeze LCD-2 headphones we see that pins 1&4 on the mini-XLR connector on the left ear cup are connected to pin 1 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector and pins 2&3 on the mini-XLR connector are connected to pin 2 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  While on the right ear cup pins 1&4 on the mini-XLR connector are connected to pin 3 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  Then pins 2&3 on mini-XLR connector on the right ear cup are connected to pin 4 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  This now completes the full circuit and you are able to use the Audeze headphones using the audio cable with the pinouts as indicated above on your headphone amplifier through the balanced full size 4-pin XLR connection.

Now let’s take a look at the Monoprice M1570 pinout wiring diagram and see how they wired their 4-pin mini-XLR connections differently and how it causes a problem when trying to use Audeze and ZMF balanced XLR audio cables.  The information below can be used as a guide to build your own balanced cable for the Monoprice M1570 or to send to a audio cable maker to have them build a balanced cable for you.

Monoprice M1570 Balanced Cable Wiring Guide

Monoprice M1570 Pinout Wiring Diagram for balanced cable:

Monoprice M1570 XLR Pinout Wiring Diagram
Photo courtesy of Monoprice.com

Full size 4-pin XLR diagram for reference:

4-pin XLR connector
Diagram obtained from Head-Fi.org.
4-Pin Mini-XLR Pinout
Photo diagram obtained from robrobinette.com.

As we can see from the Monoprice M1570 pinout wiring diagram provided by Monoprice the mini-XLR’s are wired different.  In this diagram we see that pins 1&3 on the left ear cup are connected to pin 1 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  While pins 2&4 of the mini-xlr connector on the left ear cup are connected to pin 2 on the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  On the right ear cup pins 1&3 of the mini-xlr connector are connected to pin 3 of the full size XLR connector.  Pins 2&4 on the right earcup mini-xlr connector are then connected to pin 4 of the full size 4-pin XLR connector.  This now completes the circuit and you are able to use the custom cable created with the Monoprice M1570 headphones using the audio cable with the pinouts as indicated above on your headphone amplifier through the balanced full size 4-pin XLR connection.  As can be seen from all the information above, Monoprice wired their M1570 mini-XLR connectors differently than Audeze and ZMF.  Therefore you should not use audio cables from other headphones, stick to using the quarter inch cable that came with your M1570 or wait for Monoprice to release their balanced XLR cable to be released which should be in another month or two in the ~$80 price range.   Using another cable may damage your audio equipment such as amplifier or headphones, on amplifiers with overcurrent protection it will trip this protection.  The other option is for you to create your own cable with the guide above or to have an audio cable maker make one for you.  If you send them the wiring information above they should be able to make one for you.

That does it for this guide, hopefully you get your hands on a balanced cable for the Monoprice M1570 one way or another and enjoy the music!

*IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER, PLEASE READ*:
I do not take any responsibility for any damage to your audio equipment that may be caused by following this guide.  I am not a professional audio cable maker nor am I an expert on the subject.  You should consult with an expert or verify the information with other external sources before proceeding to make your own balanced audio cable.

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