give me stereo or give me death!

November 21, 2007 5:18 PM

easiest way to replace the headphone jack in my iaudio x5 portable mp3 player?

i have a two year old iaudio that works well except for its headphone jack. it plays audio in to one ear with no problems (usually the left). to hear music in stereo, however, i have to push the headphones all the way in and then push down, so presumably the contact at the top connects. then it sounds perfect. this is quite annoying and i dont want to buy a new player. i have limited soldering experience, but is it a matter of opening up the player and doing something simple?

BONUS: does anyone live in the brooklyn, nyc area and has done this kind of thing before???

posted by yonation to computers & internet (4 comments total)

For something like that, if you can get inside then it should be easy to get some tweezers in there if a contact needs to be bent into a more responsive position. Beyond that, not sure.
posted by rhizome at 6:01 PM on November 21, 2007

There is an iAudiophile.net that may be a better place to ask. I luv my x5 and went there to find a good battery replacement and detailed instructions (with pictures!).

Be careful while taking it apart, you might find that the headphone jack has little slots where you can stick something thin in and bend the contacts in a bit so that they make better contact with your headphone plug. Or you might find a cold (broken) solder joint, in that case you just need to briefly touch the joint with the iron to melt things back together. Otherwise, you have the task of de-soldering the jack, finding a suitable replacement, and re-soldering it back in... a possibly hard task for 'limited soldering experience'.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:16 PM on November 21, 2007

Post search followup...

this thread gets interesting about post #50 or so. Seems to be a common x5 problem. Crack it open, remove the circuit board, flip out the jack, give a quick touch with the iron, re-assemble. Unless you're under warranty, then file a RMA.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:36 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

thanks zenga!
posted by yonation at 10:43 PM on November 21, 2007