As promised here are a few photos and information about this modification.
First, to do this job you need a few things.
The willingness to undertake this stupid trick and risk blowing the whole job, not to say invalidating warrantees on all the related equipment
Serious soldering skill (this is a very delicate soldering task)
A volt/resistance meter (essential for making the right connections)
A good soldering pencil
Tools for working with fine wire (thermal strippers, for example, are essential)
The first photo shows the right UE10 ear piece next to one of the clipped off Sleek W-1 barrel connectors. Note the thinness of the wire. You can't see it, but the wire has Kevlar threads wound into it for strength and resistance to tearing (the Kevlar is much harder to cut than the wire itself). This is great for durability but makes soldering much more difficult.
Also note the the wires are color coded, a happy convenience as it turns out (common is clear copper, red the right channel and blue left). Finally, the wires are coated with some kind insulating material. This has to be removed to make soldering easier. I used paint remover for this purpose. I didn't photograph the UE10 wires, but they are a bit thicker and slightly easier to work with, and they also have Kevlar threads woven into them.
The next photo shows the UE10 left ear pieces. The connector is a two-pin device marked for left or right channel. I cut these off an extra set of UE cables I had. I had to use the voltmeter to determine which pin was common and which left or right channel.
This last set of photos show the finished rig. Before insulating and covering all of the soldered connections with shrink wrap tubing and tape, I double- checked all of the connections and played a few tracks to make sure everything worked. This is not a job you would want to try to repair if you make a mistake, so you have to be sure everything works before crossing the point of no return.
Hopefully, UE will soon adapt the Kleer wireless technology. Or better yet, Sleek and or Kleer could offer a version of the W-1 with interchangeable connectors for the various head set manufacturers. But I couldn't wait for that to happen -- I just don't have the patience
