Short stack!

PROS: build quality, sound transparency, flexibility of using mmcx and 2pin iems with one cable.

CONS: pricey to use with budget cables, not as comfortable for smaller ears with wire-up iems.

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer/product website:  Rhapsodio.

---

Intro.

The focus of many of my reviews is usually on IEMs, DAPs, and cables, but sometimes I like to throw a curveball with something different, yet still related to audio gear.  After recent mentioning of reviewing Solaris, I was already asked about the replacement cable recommendation.  I do have access to a lot of high end cables, but most of them have a standard 2pin connector, while Solaris uses mmcx.  So, I needed a quick solution for testing.  When it comes to headphone plugs and DAPs with different jacks, it’s not an issue if you have 2.5mm termination with various adaptors, but with IEM connectors it’s a different story.

After doing some searching, I came across a few cheap plastic adaptors on eBay, some of which looked too flimsy while others were too long for use with over-the-ear cables.  When bringing this up to a few of my audiophile friends, everyone unanimously recommended to take a closer look at Rhapsodio adaptors.  After reaching out to Sammy, the man behind all the Rhapsodio IEMs and cable creations, I received two pairs of their Far Infrared adaptors, 2pin to mmcx and mmcx to 2pin, and just spent a week testing them out.

Obviously, this is going to be a short mini-review, probably with more pictures than text.  But I still found these to be useful enough to share with my readers.

Design.

As I already mentioned, regardless if your DAP has 2.5mm, 3.5mm, or 4.4mm headphone outputs, you can future-proof your cable when choosing 2.5mm balanced termination with 3.5mm (SE) or 4.4mm (BAL) adaptors.  But with either 2pin or mmcx connectors is not that easy to switch, especially with a wire over the ear shells.  Extending the IEM connector could make the fit uncomfortable since the wire has to go over your ear, though with wire down it doesn’t matter since it will just hang down.

That is a reason why people buy separate cables with 2pin and mmcx connectors for different IEMs.  But in some cases, it makes no sense to buy two premium flagship cables, and instead an adaptor can be more cost efficient.  It’s especially useful for someone like me who reviews a lot of IEMs and cables.  The idea of such adaptor is to go either from 2pin to mmcx or from mmcx to 2pin.  And this adaptor must be ultra-short and very durable when you disconnect the cable.   You can’t just glue a pair of connector/socket together, and you do need to worry about a proper soldering and isolation of wires.

What Sammy came up with, and the reason why it cost more than other cheap plastic adaptors, is a short custom housing with a carbon fiber accent and high quality 2pin/mmcx connectors and sockets.  The length of the adaptor housing is about 11mm.

Inside, in addition to using premium solder, Sammy also implemented Far Infrared (FIR) isolation material.  This particular material has been documented (link) and even filed under Japanese Patent No. 10-216706.  I will talk about its effect later, but apparently it’s being referred to as “natural energy 228 element.”  There is a whole scientific explanation about it when you Google it.

Now, regarding the design itself, the housing of the connectors has an easy to see laser-etched L/R marking and Rhapsodio symbol.  This is very important because when it comes to 2pin connectors/sockets you want to be consistent between L/R sides and don’t flip the polarity of the wires.

Connection.

With two sets of adaptors, now you can use your mmcx cables to connect to 2pin IEMs and your 2pin cables with mmcx IEMs.  Of course, got to pay attention to L/R sides and wire polarity.

Here is an example of using ALO Litz mmcx cable converted to 2pin:

Or the other way around, using Effect Audio Leo II 2pin cable converted to mmcx:

When attached to IEMs, it doesn’t look too bad, but you can run into a problem when you are dealing with over the ear cable and you have smaller ears.

With wire-down IEMs, or earbuds like Zen Omega Edition (ZOE) below, there is no problem since it doesn’t matter by how much you extend the connector.

Page 2 – Fit, Sound Analysis, and Conclusion.