My Stupid Mistake.
I finally finished re-wiring my SA5000’s with Siltech G5 Silver/Gold wire. I am however fairly certain that I damaged one driver.
I had the job done except for the plugs. I waited a couple of weeks for a gold plated ¼” plug to arrive. Finally when I went to install the plugs I was unsure as to which wires lead to which earpiece. Now there’s a cool little trick to determine what wires go to what speakers in a home theater setup. You take a battery (AAA,AA,C,D, or 9V) and touch it to the speaker leads. This causes a small POP to be emitted. I was tired and obviously was not thinking clearly. When this is done to a speaker the crossover routes all of the DC to the woofer. Any speakers woofer has by comparison to a headphone driver unlimited power handling. I did this to my SA5000’s with a 9V. I may have gotten away with it if I had used a AAA, but I used a 9V. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID
One driver is now distorting on occasional passages. I am very excited by the overall performance gains produced by changing to Siltech G5 wires, but I have to replace the bad driver. I am also considering replacing both drivers at the same time to maintain driver-to-driver coherency.
So my stupidity is likely to cost me between $150 and $200 and another 3-4 weeks without my vastly improved MDR SA5000’s.
Once done I will write up the changes. I will also bring them to the National meet. I am not advocating such modifications for others. The cost would be prohibitive. Who wires $400 headphones with $850 worth of wire?
I do.
I finally finished re-wiring my SA5000’s with Siltech G5 Silver/Gold wire. I am however fairly certain that I damaged one driver.
I had the job done except for the plugs. I waited a couple of weeks for a gold plated ¼” plug to arrive. Finally when I went to install the plugs I was unsure as to which wires lead to which earpiece. Now there’s a cool little trick to determine what wires go to what speakers in a home theater setup. You take a battery (AAA,AA,C,D, or 9V) and touch it to the speaker leads. This causes a small POP to be emitted. I was tired and obviously was not thinking clearly. When this is done to a speaker the crossover routes all of the DC to the woofer. Any speakers woofer has by comparison to a headphone driver unlimited power handling. I did this to my SA5000’s with a 9V. I may have gotten away with it if I had used a AAA, but I used a 9V. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID
One driver is now distorting on occasional passages. I am very excited by the overall performance gains produced by changing to Siltech G5 wires, but I have to replace the bad driver. I am also considering replacing both drivers at the same time to maintain driver-to-driver coherency.
So my stupidity is likely to cost me between $150 and $200 and another 3-4 weeks without my vastly improved MDR SA5000’s.
Once done I will write up the changes. I will also bring them to the National meet. I am not advocating such modifications for others. The cost would be prohibitive. Who wires $400 headphones with $850 worth of wire?
I do.
. I must go back to the discs where I heard the distortion (Medeski, Martin, & Wood) and see if it is still there.
. I have been planning to get a set of AKG K701’s that I thought bettered the stock SA5000’s (especially in HF purity). Now I’m not so sure.
