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Removing AKG K140 Drivers?

post #1 of 11
11/27/10 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 

How do I do this? It seems that the drivers are wedged into the baffle pretty good and I really really don't want to mangle them as I plan to use them as a replacement drivers in my Sextetts.

 

(... I might've wrecked a driver during a recable... )

 

 

 

Thoughts?

 

Tips?

 

Step-by-step instructions with photos, or possibly a video narrated by Morgan Freeman?

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post #2 of 11
11/27/10 at 8:35pm

Im pretty sure that the drivers are different, but frankenphones are fun!

 

If I recall they are held in with little plastic clips around the perimeter.

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post #3 of 11
11/27/10 at 10:02pm
Thread Starter 

The drivers look identical :)

 

Regarding clips, there's none from what I can see... it looks like there may be glue involved or some kind of interference fit between the drivers and holder. Might just have to cut the baffle away to free 'em!

 

 

Hmmm... am I making sense here? All I received were the baffles with the drivers in 'em and the seller told me they were from a set of AKG K140 headphones. I'll try to get a photo up tomorrow as I just spent the last 5h hugging solder fumes and it's 1am--bed time!

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post #4 of 11
12/18/10 at 1:10am

Phillip

You might like to try using a hairdryer, thats what people do to take the backs off grado,s.

Try sending a pm to fritz or boilermakerfan they seem to know about the k140,s

                                                                                                          paddyhappy_face1.gif

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post #5 of 11
12/18/10 at 1:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefragger View Post

The drivers look identical :)

 

Regarding clips, there's none from what I can see... it looks like there may be glue involved or some kind of interference fit between the drivers and holder. Might just have to cut the baffle away to free 'em!

 

 

Hmmm... am I making sense here? All I received were the baffles with the drivers in 'em and the seller told me they were from a set of AKG K140 headphones. I'll try to get a photo up tomorrow as I just spent the last 5h hugging solder fumes and it's 1am--bed time!

 

 

They are brand new drivers from the k140, i sent them instead of the old ones as you will see there is no solder on the ok one.

It,s just a matter of getting the glue off as i did not want to attempt it as i am fairly new to this stuff.

When you get them out you should be able to use both of them as the broken solder lug will be ok in the sextett.

I would put the one with L on it in the right cup and the other one in the left as the one with L on it is a lower impedence than the other one, this is what i have done on my k140 and the impedence is matched on both cups due to the metal headband adding

around 25ohms .

As for the glue it looks like the same browny coloured glue they use for the nameplates on the side, so try the hairdryer method or fire fitz or boilermakerfan a pm.

                                                                                                                       paddyregular_smile%20.gif

 

                                                     


Edited by pjc68 - 12/18/10 at 1:25am
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post #6 of 11
12/19/10 at 5:54pm
Thread Starter 

I wound up using a coping saw to free the drivers. Worked like a charm!

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post #7 of 11
12/21/10 at 11:46am

 

 Glad you got them out in the end phill.beerchug.gif

Will you be putting both in or just one, keep us posted and dont lose your cool like you did last time.

                                                                                                                paddyatsmile.gif

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post #8 of 11
3/9/11 at 8:24am
Thread Starter 

Holy moley I haven't logged in on here in a while!

 

Alright, I fitted the new drivers in a while ago--the problem I found with the busted drivers is that there's zero mechanical connection between the tinsel leads and the solder tabs, so when you heat the tap up, the tinsel lead lets go and it's terribly hard to find again to reattach!

 

So, what's happened now is that one of the replacement drivers went 'open' as a result of this little tiny wire separating from the tab so I mixed drivers--one from my set and one from paddy's set, as a result there's a slight volume imbalance, but playing with the balance control gets things evened out--and they sound good!

 

I still need to do the hair-elastic mod, but with school being as busy as its been this year, my only headphone time has been with my CX300s, to and from school.

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post #9 of 11
3/9/11 at 8:52am

The voice coil lead broke? Is it long enough to reattach? Get a pair of tweezers, electrically conductive epoxy (MG Silver Conductive Epoxy works well), extra voice coil wire if needed and you should be able to repair the driver. Good luck.

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post #10 of 11
3/9/11 at 8:55am
Thread Starter 

No no, they didn't break, they're soldered onto the tab, so when you heat the tab up, the vc lead separates. I managed to fix one after I installed the mismatched set, but fear that more heat will un-fix it. Quite the conundrum!

 

Also, I did try grabbing it with tweezers on one driver--the tweezer presser was enough to cut that one short. They're thinner than hair. I'll try sourcing some conductive epoxy, good call!


Edited by thefragger - 3/9/11 at 8:56am
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post #11 of 11
3/9/11 at 9:08am

Yea, exactly. The vc leads don't pass all that much current in the first place so a small glob of MG silver conductive epoxy is more than enough to make a joint w/o using any heat. Mix/apply with a tooth pick as you obviously only need extremely small quantities for this type of repair. The bond is actually quite strong, too, so you won't have to worry about fixing it over and over again. You could even use superglue to create a dielectric layer around the joint/increase joint strength. I was able to source vc wire from a busted old driver. Cut a short length and just make two joints if you have to. I don't think you'll notice any degradation of sq, but you might have to make one joint at a time and allow each to cure separately.


Edited by khbaur330162 - 3/9/11 at 9:13am
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