With the X5 III, I wanted to have a pair of balanced headphones, so I chopped the connector off of one of my Sony MDR-XB500s and found that it has 4 wires and not three, and after a bit of probing, I confirmed that the two pairs were for each speaker.
It was a little tough to find 2.5mm right angle TRRS cables, but I did find them, and after getting some 4-pole mini/tiny XLR connectors (both male and female), I worked out a pinout scheme and soldered accordingly. The reason for using the tiny XLR connectors was to make it modular, so I'd also be able to use the headphones with normal, single-ended 3.5mm devices (and it looks a lot cleaner than a bunch of heatshrink.
Eventually I decided to get new headphones because the MDR-XB500 didn't really match what I was hearing from the sound system in my car (which has the Harmon Kardon speaker system), and after some reasearch, my options were Sennheiser's HD 598 CS and some Audio-Technica headphones that I don't remember the model number. Luckily, I found both demo models in the nearby computer parts store, so I was able to swing by after work with my X5 III to check out the sound and fitment, and decided on the HD 598 CS. I bought one elsewhere because it was cheaper, and having found a good enough reference sound from this video (spefically the soda can opening) while waiting on the HD 598 CS, and when I had it, I tested it and the MDR-XB500s with it in single-ended mode. The HD 598 CS reproduced the sound correctly to my ears while the MDR-XB500 had a very dampened sound ("muddy" I guess?).
What I was looking for in a headphone was a single cable to one of the earcups (the Y cable on the MDR-XB500 was annoying over time, especially after the mod) and that it had a more neutral sound (the MDR-XB500 is tuned for more bass). I can't remember if I was specifically looking for detachable cables, but the HD 598 CS has it and because the connector to the earphones is a 2.5mm (I think) TRRS, it got me curious. After the audio test (and probably some more audio testing) when I had decided to keep them, I chopped off the 6.35mm plug on the long cable and found four wires, and after some probing, each of the wires correspond to each of the TRRS points on the headphone connector side. The cables provided with the HD 598 CS is a 1m cable that has an inline microphone and a 1.8m cable that has a 6.35mm plug, so I only had one cable to modify. I cut the cable down to a reasonable length before putting the tiny XLR connector on it and then turned the long remainder into an extension cable.
I think I continued to use the 2.5mm right angle TRRS adapter I made for the MDR-XB500s until I found a 2.5mm right angle TRRS cable on Mouser, which I bought with some more connectors. The problem with the original ones were that they were cheap and the rings and sleeve (probably the tip too) of the plug were having a ring worn into them from the plug incidentally turning around within the jack; the ones from Mouser are holding up just fine to this day.
I also made an adapter using the 6.35mm plug, but that was from the second HD 598 CS that I bought. (Yes, I have two pairs of them and two pairs of the MDR-XB500s.)
Anyway, I don't think I can really tell the difference between single-ended and balanced, but well, if I can easily DIY some single-ended headphones to balanced, why not do it?
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