Help me hear the music again

March 19, 2006 2:59 PM

Help me save my expensive headphones. The wire was severed. Too short just to attach a new plug. Where do I find a good quality thingy that connects two wires of this kind together?

I recently destroyed the wire to my $400 in-ear headphones in a car door. The break is so positioned that I cannot simply attach a new phone plug to the end since that would make the wire to short for comfort. Replacing the whole wire is not a feasible option either. What I need is too elongate the already existing severed wire. I tried just soldering the wires together and taping it. It works, of course, but it’s not that durable and it broke. I need a sturdier way to connect two wires, preferably with a good cable shuck at booth ends as seen in the 3.5mm neutrik plug in the link.

http://www.neutrik.com/images/ock/sublevel/view/2_204_1167228197.jpg

Don’t know what this thing would be called and can’t find it googling. Thx in advance.

posted by JeNeSaisQuoi to Technology (11 answers total)

I would sever the wire closer to the phones, then attach a good quality 1/8in female headphone jack. You can then use a quality male 1/8in to 1/8in cable to go from the very short headphone socket to your stereo/ipod/whatever.

Advantages?

* If you get it stuck again, it's easy to replace the cable, and the jacks might disconnect without causing any damage in the first place.

* You can have a selection of different length wires depending if you're at home or walking on the street.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:09 PM on March 19, 2006

If they're $400 headphones, I'd contact the manufacturer and see how much they'd charge to replace the cable. I have a pair of Sennheiser cans ("only" paid about $70 for them), and it has a user replaceable cable, and they offer service for other models.
posted by jeversol at 3:37 PM on March 19, 2006

Response by poster: I thought of that too Jon, and it's definitely an option I’m considering. The only reason I’m considering other options is that it would be bulkier then the solution I’ve envisioned—and involving a bit more work and money if I had to make the male-male wire myself (can you find them in 10 cm lengths).
The added benefit of having a plug come loose instead of perhaps twisting the wire until it breaks inside is, as you pointed out, a valuable benefit though.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 3:52 PM on March 19, 2006

It's tough to do a clean splice of multi-conductor wire. If you're handy enough to solder it back together and have it work even for a little while, you can probably do a pretty good repair with heat-shrink tubing instead of tape. Strip back a few inches of the outer insulation, then solder each connector at a different position along the wire and cover it with single-wire heat shrink. (You're trying to have the 3 joints spaced out over a couple of inches.) Finally, use 2-3 nested heat-shrink tubes over the whole mess. The innermost tube should be longest, and the outermost should be shortest (but still long enough to cover all the solder joints and out to the un-stripped insulation). These tubes form what you're calling the shuck. You might also want to put a piece of piano wire between two of the outer heat shrink tubes, to stiffen the repaired wire in the area of the splice and make it less likely to bend there.
posted by spacewrench at 3:55 PM on March 19, 2006

If they were my $400 headphones I'd try jeversol's suggestion first. If that wasn't feasible or was too expensive then I would replace the entire cord myself. I just don't think you'll be satisfied with any kind of repair on the cord itself. It's not going to hold up long term.
posted by 6550 at 4:03 PM on March 19, 2006

Response by poster: Spacewrench, good advice, but don’t know if I’m skilled enough to pull it off. The problem with soldering directly on the individual wires is that one of them will have more strain on them then the others since the solder joints will be a bit imprecise in location—I’m not that good with a solder iron:-). I think, that’s the reason my effort in that kind of vein failed.

The shuck in the neutrik plug is not just the thing that keeps the wire form bending but it also clamps the whole wire very efficiently so no stress is on the solder joints. That was what I was after. You can’t really see it in the picture –which kind of voids its purpose—sorry about that.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 4:13 PM on March 19, 2006

Response by poster: Replacing the whole cable seems insurmountable difficult. The model is a shure e5 and it got a little circuit board thingy in the middle of the cable to accommodate the dual drivers. They’re also small and glued shut, so I’m afraid that I would break them if I ever tried that.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 4:24 PM on March 19, 2006

I encourage you to contact Shure customer service and see what they'll do for you. They certainly won't make you pay $400 again, and they may be able to offer you a refurbished unit at a reasonable price. Just because the damage isn't covered by warranty doesn't mean the situation is unsolvable.
posted by DandyRandy at 6:19 PM on March 19, 2006

Shure should also be able to reccomend a licensed repair person in your area, or do it for some sort of fee.
posted by rossination at 6:45 PM on March 19, 2006

I break headphones all the time, i feel your pain.

I fix them by lightly sanding each wire (there is often a clear urethane coating). Then soldering them at a relativly low temperature.

Now heres the most important part: get some heat shrink tubing...you can get it at home depot probably (look for the kind with a hot glue like adhesive on the inside). I usually use 2 layers to make it stronger. Use enough so that theres at least an inch of heat shrink on either side of the break. If you dont have a heat gun gently use the side (not the tip) of the soldering iron the heat it.

If you need to extend it try to use the same guage wire, and use the heat shrink anywhere you make a joint.

that usually works pretty well, but you should still be careful with it.
posted by I_am_jesus at 8:56 PM on March 19, 2006

Response by poster: Thx for all your advice guys. I'm in Sweden but bought it in USA so I don't know how straightforward getting it replaced or serviced would be. I rather do it myself.

I take it there is no such thing as I imagined there would be: A cable connector with soldering stations at each end.

I guess I'll have to find a nice female headphone jack and two males and get to work. If I can’t find a good short cable for the final part that is.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 7:03 AM on March 20, 2006