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recabling a pair of HD555's/595's?

post #1 of 37
10/6/05 at 10:17pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys, this is my first post at the head fi, though I've lurked for a while
I have two pairs of headphones, the 555's and the 595's, both of which I absolutely love. However, their cables bother me. I would like to shorten them slightly and change the end jack from a 1/4 inch to a 1/8 inch jack. I've seen a bunch of pictures of re-cables, and I think it gives the headphones a interesting new look and, from what I've seen on these forums, improves sound quality.
So, could someone help a newbie out and explain how to recable these headphones? Some links to decent but not horribly expensive equipment to use for this project would be great. I'm looking to spend less than $100 for everything. Also, if this kind of thing isnt too difficult, I would like to make some new 1/8 to 1/8 inch adapters for my amps (2 homebuilt cmoy and one Headroom micro amp).
Your guys' experienced input would be greatly welcomed, and thanks in advance for the help.
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post #2 of 37
10/7/05 at 1:06am
step 1: BUILD a new cable. this is the hardest part. when i re-did (formerly) my 595's i used 4 strands of 22ga teflon/silver/coper stranded wire, and techflex as a shell. i used a 1/4" neutrik plug, but you can use whatever you want. just braid it all up to about 4 inches after you want the tech-flex to end.

step 2: make realllllly sure you want to do this.

step 3 (maybe do before step 2) remopve LEFT ear-bits. earpad, dreiver cover, and the 3 (maybe more or less on 555) screws holding the actual driver and a board in place.

step 4: remove old cable. make tripple sure that new cable fits in necessary hole. check again after you are sure it fits.
step 5: (no going back after this, but you wont want too unless you screw up.) remove old circuit board. heating the hot-glkue for a second with a soldering iron while pulling with a pliers works well. also remove the wires fromt eh circuit board.
step 6: insert cable through hole. zip-tie on inside.
step 7: solder cable in place. pay attention to polarity. the actual "direction" of a speaker dosnt mater, as long as they are both soldered in the same way.
step 8: close er back up (may require some creative wire pressing to get wires out of way of hinge) and listen.

since there is the risk of destroying an excelent pair of headphones i would say do something else first. everybody playing drums on stage has at one time (or another) sat down with a practive pad, and just beat off.
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post #3 of 37
10/7/05 at 1:16am
Thread Starter 
Cool, thanks for the info, maybe I will practice making some mini-mini cables first =)
Any online shops to get this stuff?
And how would I braid it?
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post #4 of 37
10/7/05 at 9:52am
i recently recabled my eh2270's, which have the exact same replacement part for the cable from senn. however i didn't take out the board, rather i simply made a replacement cable, so its fairly reversible

the pain is will be finding a sub mini connector as small and the senn. one, or you can do what i did, i pulled off the plastic piece that goes around the plug on the headphones and simply drilled it out until my new wire fit

i used the same type of wire nikon used, only with a 3 wire braid, for 4 wire braiding, google litz braiding, that will show you how, other instructions, read the sticky guild at the top of this page, and under the big lists and rules forum theres an extensive list of online suppliers
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post #5 of 37
10/11/05 at 11:16pm
Thread Starter 
Could I do this with the Canare wire that is used in the sticky?
How hard is it getting the wire through the headband?
Could someone give me some more info on how to get it into the headband and deconstruct the headphones?
Thanks a lot for taking the time to help a headphone newb
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post #6 of 37
10/12/05 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
Also, I saw this guide, and I have a few questions:
1-about the 4 pin connector, how do I hook the wires up to it?
2- Just checking my knowledge, but there are 2 cables to each driver, right? The right/left channel wire and the ground. Does the ground just act as the + current flow, and the right/left channel wire supplies the - current flow? How do these correspond to the 4 pins I see on the guide? How do I hook it into the connector seen on the guide?
Thanks for the help, if I get this done I will definetly post a guide with tons of pictures.
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post #7 of 37
10/12/05 at 8:32pm
well, from the looks of it, you could seperate their 4 pin piece from the cable, but you could also follow nikons method and just wire it in directly to the driver element as per his instructions

as far as determining which wires go where on the 4 pin piece, the easiest way is to simply hookup a multimeter when you open them up and see which pin corresponds to which section of the plug on the other end.

but after looking at that, these are your only options, as far as cable choice, i'd follow nikons advice and build it from scratch, but headroom does a recable with cardas that appears to fit with no modification
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post #8 of 37
10/12/05 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 
Ny Sulli-
good idea, I think I will just take out all the cabling and report back.
Could someone answer my more fundamental question about how the drivers work? Does the ground just go to both of them and act as a positive terminal, while the right and left cables act as negative terminals?
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post #9 of 37
10/12/05 at 9:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bladeweaver
Also, I saw this guide, and I have a few questions:
1-about the 4 pin connector, how do I hook the wires up to it?
2- Just checking my knowledge, but there are 2 cables to each driver, right? The right/left channel wire and the ground. Does the ground just act as the + current flow, and the right/left channel wire supplies the - current flow? How do these correspond to the 4 pins I see on the guide? How do I hook it into the connector seen on the guide?
Thanks for the help, if I get this done I will definetly post a guide with tons of pictures.

sennhesier doesnt even sell replacement 595 cables, so why do they have a tutorial?
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post #10 of 37
10/12/05 at 9:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bladeweaver
Ny Sulli-
good idea, I think I will just take out all the cabling and report back.
Could someone answer my more fundamental question about how the drivers work? Does the ground just go to both of them and act as a positive terminal, while the right and left cables act as negative terminals?

be sure to take real pics of the pin pieces I am really interested, I have a hd 595 arriving soon, and I do plan on rewiring them.
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post #11 of 37
10/12/05 at 9:14pm
Thread Starter 
ok, I will. I just need some more information about the whole endeavor before I start taking things apart =)
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post #12 of 37
10/12/05 at 9:15pm
be sure not to puncture the paper diaphram covering the driver
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post #13 of 37
10/12/05 at 10:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bladeweaver
if I get this done I will definitely post a guide with tons of pictures.
That would be awesome if you could post pictures as you perform this upgrade. I eagerly await your results.
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post #14 of 37
10/12/05 at 10:13pm
Thread Starter 
There seems to be a lot of interest in this mod =)
I need to go out and get a soldering iron and get some cable. Should I buy some cabling (Canare or somesuch) or should I braid my own?
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post #15 of 37
10/12/05 at 10:20pm
ill be recabling mine, I might as well make a tutorial if I find the time.
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