Adapted Sleek Wireless W-1 to work with UE10s

[artsci]

After doing my review [Review of custom in-ear head sets: Sleek Audio Kleer wireless versus UE10 wired and using the Sleek Wireless Accessory with my new Sleek custom in-ear headsets I decided to throw caution to the wind, buy another Sleek Wireless accessory and adapt it to work with my UE10s. This involved clipping off the Sleek barrel plugs and soldering on the UE pin plugs (of which I had a spare set). Not an easy task, given the thinness and fragility of the wires, but i did get it done last night, so now I can also use my UE10s with Sleek Wireless.

I will post some photos of the end result tonight. But I can tell you this. Once you've experienced the Sleek Wireless W-1 you'll never want to go back to wired. If you're handy with fine soldering of delicate wiring, the W-1 could be adapted to work with about any good head set that is not hot wired. On second thought, if you're a real gambler you even adapt the W-1 for a hot wired head set.

[pseudohippy]

Interesting indeed. Congrats on that, looking foreward to the pics tonight.

[artsci]

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

[FeedMeTrance]

thats awesome, i wish I cud mod my LiveWires, ER4, TF10 etc each to a wireless unit!

How do you find changes in sonic qualities?

[artsci]

The site crash this afternoon seems to have resulted in some posts on this thread being lost. Someone asked to see photos of the gear is used to do the soldering and wire stripping. I'll do that shortly.

[pseudohippy]

Yeah, Im also interested in seeing what you folks use. Id love to take up the hobby. Is it very expensive to start. Im pretty confident that in time I could learn, Im pretty skilled with art and auto mechanics so I would think I have it in me to learn with patients.

[artsci]

OK, here are some photos of the gear.

First the resistance soldering tweezer hand pieces. The tweezers for soldering are on the left, those for wire stripping on the right. To use the soldering tweezers, you squeeze the pieces to be soldered between the tweezers, push the foot switch which sends a high current trough the work, instantly heating it. You then touch the work with solder, release the switch, let the joint cool for a few second and you're done.



The wire stripper works the same way. You squeeze the wire between the two flat tips, push the foot switch until the tips melt through the wire insulation, pull the wire to remove the insulation, release the foot switch, and you're done. This does no damage to the wire, which is the point.

I bought this equipment many years ago when i was heavily into model railroading and building much of my own equipment, including turnouts and even signal towers and bridges. Much of it was made with etched brass, and it would have been impossible to solder it all together without resistance soldering. All this stuff is made by American Beauty (American Beauty Tools). It's expensive, but over the years it's been a great investment for me, since I do do much DIY kinds of things.

The next picture show the basic unit (essentially a heavy duty transformer, the two tweezer units, and the foot switch.



The final photos shows my solder pencil unit -- a nice device from Radio Shack that provides control of the tip temperature up to about 750 degrees, I think. This is great for conventional soldering needs.

[Edwood]

I wouldn't use resistence soldering for electronics work. Good chance of frying delicate components from the current. But the wire stripper part looks really interesting.

Modding the W-1 for use with UE IEM's was my first thought, but given the high noise floor (and my defective unit's "EEEEEE" buzzing noise), I don't think the Sleek Audio W-1 is a good candidate any more.

Rather than chopping the wire and soldering, I'm going to open mine up and solder the wires directly to the PCB in the W-1. That way, it's reversable without having to sacrifice another cable. Although, if someone can source the connector pins for the UE cable, it be easier to cut the W-1 wire at the ends and solder them to the pins directly.

-Ed

[Baines93]

I actually thought about doing this to my Livewires many weeks ago, however the W1 costs alot for someone of my age, and i wouldnt want to risk it, although Ed's idea lowers risk IMO.

Also i heard the W1 was tuned for SA6 so i was worried it would sound bad due to differences in impedances and sound signiture tuning...

I use my Lw's at home so this would be ideal, and nice in portable rig too, however i wouldnt be able to walk around with the PTH and flick it when mum talks to me...

Hmmm, could solder mono jacks onto the outputs of the W1, and then plug in a PTH module and shortened LW cable or justa a shortened LW cable, allowing me to not always have to use the PTH....

Gets around having to solder those tiny horrible LW plugs too with Ed's way. Still worried about risk, and tuning though...

Matt

[Edwood]

If you could find the correct tiny barrel plug jacks you could just make little jumper cable adapters, then you wouldn't be voiding any warranties.

-Ed

[Baines93]

Could probably make a little adapter with a female sleek plugs -> wire -> livewire male plugs -> shortened Livewires cable with mono jacks

Or Female sleek plugs -> mono 3.5mm jacks -> PTH (modded with mono jacks?) -> shortened Livewires cable (one modded with mono jacks for when not using PTH?)

Probably easier to do female sleek plugs -> wire -> 3.5mm mono jacks -> PTH (modded with mono jacks?) -> shortened Livewires cable (one modded with mono jacks for when not using PTH?)

Then if the tuning was bad and it sounded like junk, i could send it back/sell it.

Are either feasible? Would i have to use mono jacks and plugs?

Matt

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by Baines93

Could probably make a little adapter with a female sleek plugs -> wire -> livewire male plugs -> shortened Livewires cable with mono jacks

Or Female sleek plugs -> mono 3.5mm jacks -> PTH (modded with mono jacks?) -> shortened Livewires cable (one modded with mono jacks for when not using PTH?)

Probably easier to do female sleek plugs -> wire -> 3.5mm mono jacks -> PTH (modded with mono jacks?) -> shortened Livewires cable (one modded with mono jacks for when not using PTH?)

Then if the tuning was bad and it sounded like junk, i could send it back/sell it.

Are either feasible? Would i have to use mono jacks and plugs?

Matt

That's how I would do it too - female SA6 jacks soldered to the UE plugs (or to Livewires plugs), so the Kleer doesn't need to be sliced up. My big worry would be hiss.

[Baines93]

Yeah, but it would be most handy at home, where i need to use a PTH module, so i would need to incorporate it (removable for portable)

I think Probably easy to do:
female sleek plugs -> wire -> 3.5mm mono jacks -> PTH (modded with mono jacks?) -> shortened Livewires cable (one modded with mono jacks for when not using PTH?)

As finding female sleek jacks with 3.5mm mono connectors on the other side would be tricky.

Or i could have:
wire on w1 -> sleek plug -> Female sleek jack -> wire -> 3.5mm mono -> mono modded PTH -> shortened LW cable

and

wire on w1 -> sleek plug -> Female sleek jack -> 1cm wire -> LW plug


That way the config is swappable for home and portable (pth/no pth)


What do you think? Easier to just stick mono jacks on the unit and make a shortened Livewire cable for portable, and mod a PTH to have two mono plugs (easy, split wire, cut off plug, add 2 mono plugs) and use with portable short cable from PTH?

Matt

[artsci]

Some good suggestions here. I've been using my rig now for a few weeks and just love it. Have used it everywhere -- on planes, trains, in the car, walking the dog, working out, riding my bike.

One funny thing: when I have the iPod out in the open or in my pants or jacket pocket I get interference from stray signals in stores and the like. When I have it in my shoulder bag, no interference. Can anyone explain this?

[jalyst]

would it be possible to readapt something like this to use with full size headphones like the AD-900 that normally don't "need" amplification.
Has anyone hear of anyone doing something like that?

cheers,
J