fragile, expensive... broken
July 13, 2006 9:25 PM Subscribe
Help me diagnose my broken expensive headphones… again.
My headphones (shure e5) are broken again. I’ve repaired the wire a number of time (the final bit), each time more robustly then the last. When my left headphone started sounding funny I suspected that my previous fix had broken, so I cut off a bit of the end of wire and soldered it to a new plug, then after that not working I did it once more but to no avail. The same problem with the left channel, no matter what I do. It sounds muted and the bas is heavily distorted even at low volumes. Wiggling the cable doesn’t seem to do anything, no matter where I wiggle it. What’s the problem here, is a driver broken or is there some kind of break in the cable, after the split? What should I do?
My headphones (shure e5) are broken again. I’ve repaired the wire a number of time (the final bit), each time more robustly then the last. When my left headphone started sounding funny I suspected that my previous fix had broken, so I cut off a bit of the end of wire and soldered it to a new plug, then after that not working I did it once more but to no avail. The same problem with the left channel, no matter what I do. It sounds muted and the bas is heavily distorted even at low volumes. Wiggling the cable doesn’t seem to do anything, no matter where I wiggle it. What’s the problem here, is a driver broken or is there some kind of break in the cable, after the split? What should I do?
is it still warrantied?
IIRC, Shure has a 2-year warranty on all their E-Series 'phones (I've got a pair of E4's), and from what I've heard (over at head-fi.org), they're pretty liberal with the replacements.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:44 PM on July 13, 2006
IIRC, Shure has a 2-year warranty on all their E-Series 'phones (I've got a pair of E4's), and from what I've heard (over at head-fi.org), they're pretty liberal with the replacements.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:44 PM on July 13, 2006
Response by poster: @Chuckes
I'm not sure I understand you correctly. I'm not crazy about breaking up the casing for the dual drivers. It looks glued, and I'm not sure they would survive me taking a look inside. The amplifier is indeed fine, tried that one. thx for the advice though
@heeeraldo
It is within warranty, but I've replaced the plug before. Do you think they would take that as an excuse not to honor the spirit of warranty because of unauthorized repairs?
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 12:22 AM on July 14, 2006
I'm not sure I understand you correctly. I'm not crazy about breaking up the casing for the dual drivers. It looks glued, and I'm not sure they would survive me taking a look inside. The amplifier is indeed fine, tried that one. thx for the advice though
@heeeraldo
It is within warranty, but I've replaced the plug before. Do you think they would take that as an excuse not to honor the spirit of warranty because of unauthorized repairs?
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 12:22 AM on July 14, 2006
In your shoes, I'd give it a shot; the worst that'll happen is that they'll get sent back to you.
posted by heeeraldo at 12:27 AM on July 14, 2006
posted by heeeraldo at 12:27 AM on July 14, 2006
Is there a possiblity that you wired the headphones wrong? I could see a situation where you wired, for example, left and ground together, which is causing the distortion. Check this carefully.
Otherwise, in my experience, when bass is distorting on headphones it usually means some physical thing is interfering with the driver... a hair, a tiny bit of something is preventing the speaker from properly vibrating.
posted by fake at 12:51 AM on July 14, 2006
Otherwise, in my experience, when bass is distorting on headphones it usually means some physical thing is interfering with the driver... a hair, a tiny bit of something is preventing the speaker from properly vibrating.
posted by fake at 12:51 AM on July 14, 2006
Response by poster: I'm pretty sure it's wired correctly. If the ground is touching left it must be in some other part of the cable. But if it did wouldn't that dampen the volume eavenly or cut it out all together? The physical tiny bit of something theory makes sense to me though. Since it is a dual driver model, that could explain the strange distortion I guess. Don't know how I could get that tiny bit out though, if there is indeed such a thing there. Blowing and sucking on the tiny hole of the enclosure doesn't seem to do anything. And cracking it open seems hazardous. Any ideas?
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 1:42 AM on July 14, 2006
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 1:42 AM on July 14, 2006
My speaker started doing the same thing. Turned out that the wire leading to the coil had broken, what with being attached to the back of the diaphragm and all. The glue attaching it was holding it together, but only when stationary. So when the bass was pumping (not very loud), the connection broke with every vibration. Sounded rough.
I diagnosed the fault by prodding the glue lump, and noticing that the distortion went away.
I imagine something similar is happening with your Shures. I was able to self-repair with a teensy soldering iron and looong needlenose pliers. The shures may be easier or harder, depending on the driver design.
posted by cogat at 8:36 PM on July 14, 2006
I diagnosed the fault by prodding the glue lump, and noticing that the distortion went away.
I imagine something similar is happening with your Shures. I was able to self-repair with a teensy soldering iron and looong needlenose pliers. The shures may be easier or harder, depending on the driver design.
posted by cogat at 8:36 PM on July 14, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
Make sure the amplifier is fine, with a different pair of headphones, or whatever. Check continuity of the headphone wire with a multimeter - one probe on the plug, the other on the solder joint where wire meets driver. You can get a multimeter for less than $10, if you don't already have one..
posted by Chuckles at 11:22 PM on July 13, 2006