My GR07's cable is turning green!

So I was just outside earlier and in the sunlight I saw my GR07's cable, before the Y split, had a slight green tinge.  Sure enough, when I looked closer, I saw some green streaks twisting up along the cable.  This is sort of interesting, I've never heard of anyone else having this problem before with the GR07!

Not that it's really a problem though, VSonic, to my knowledge, has never really advertised how pure the silver in the cable is, so I don't have any problems with this.  Just interesting that it's happening.  It's not happening after the Y split, though, where the cable's insulation is actually even more transparent than before the Y split.

Has anyone else noticed this with theirs?  I could post some pictures if you guys want, but I'm not sure if they'd turn out.

Edit: just took a picture.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

Hasn't there always been a very subtle green tinge to the wiring? I don't think the cable wrapping is meant to be translucent, so maybe you're not seeing oxidation?

Maybe a tiiiny bit green before, like a bit of a tinge.  But I'm seeing green streaks in it now, like a really deep green.  It's kind of multicoloured now, and it's stronger at the ends, it seems.  Pretty much the same colour as algae, I guess, just obscured a bit by the grey.

You can see through the cables though.  They have a bit of a grey colour, but they're still transparent.  If you look closely you can see the silver strands.  And the older R04 had copper cables and you can see that the cables have a copper colour instead of a silver/grey colour...they probably used the same insulation with those too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS 

Pic please.

 

I have my GR07 longer than anyone else here at HF and mine still looks great.

Here.  Sorry for the crappy picture, having trouble with autofocus in macro mode with my camera.  Still, it's pretty clear it's turning green to me.

After reading that big thread on the TWag cables turning green, I've seen that some people have had the v1 cables for longer than some of those whose cables have turned green without any problems at all.  Not sure if it's inconsistency with the batch, the climate or just that something got into the insulation when it was being manufactured.  These, along with the TWag, were made by hand, were they not?  So I guess it is a possibility.

Still, definitely not complaining or anything.  I don't have any problems with this, and I actually think it looks kind of cool. :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS 

I am pretty sure that's just the natural color of the shielding.

You sure?  I never noticed this green colour here before, and it looks exactly like pictures I've seen of other silver cables turning green - the same shade of green, same sort of pattern and everything.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodvibes 

Generally, OEM cable have individually insulated multi strands for each conductor like magnet wire or litz. Usually red, green and clear. If that's the case here, oxidation is near impossible and that may be the green conductor bundle showing through. The cables are probably copper tinned with silver or an alloy. The aftermarket silver cables are generally a bundle of raw wire with one insulator that allows room for air or may have copper react with the the often used PVC. Why the sheathing is getting translucent, I have no speculations for.

I think it was always translucent, if you look closely, you can see the bundles of wires.  I guess it'd help if others could take closeup photos of their cables and see what it looks like.  Because honestly, it looks exactly like pictures I've seen of other silver cables turning green.  And seeing as how it most likely is silver plated copper, it would make sense that it could turn green.  Could just be that what we're seeing is an uninsulated silver ground channel wrapped around two separately insulated L and R channels.  Just putting it up there for speculation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodvibes 

It will be insulated in some way. Bare wire inside the IEM would be a disaster. You could be right about it being oxidation of some sort but it could as easily be green colored cloth thread. If anybody's been inside a GR07, we could at least know what we're dealing with.

Well...last time I checked when I was reterminating my old bose triports, the ground wire wasn't insulated.  The L and R channels were coloured red and green with some sort of acrylic or something, but the ground was bare copper.  I'm pretty sure that as long as the other two cables are insulated, there isn't really anything to worry about.  But who knows, maybe you're right.

I guess the only way to find out is if someone's actually broken their GR07s and seen inside the insulation (before the y-split) or if someone were to fire VSonic an email.  Not sure if they have any english-speaking customer service representatives though...guess I'd better just go and check.  I'm just sort of interested as to why it's green, since I don't recall it being like this before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodvibes 

Not an IEM which uses clear insulation as described 3 posts above. If it was bare, it wouldn't have been shiney any longer but with the size of an over ear you can solder a shield unexposed and run the pos over from it. Not in an IEM and a bare ground wire could easily brush across the pos terminal and create a short with the type of use IEMs get. In an IEM and usually headphones, you would notice that it also wasn't used as a shield but just a parallel bundle. Doesn't mean that's happening here but it is what's common. When you solder an IEM, the solder doesn't run up the bundled wire because they're individually insulated. Otherwise it would wick up very quickly.

Dunno, the plug and cable for the triports are indistinguishable from that of an IEM.  It's as skinny as noodles, and in fact my GR07's cable feels stiffer, thicker and more durable.

Still...you could be right, I have no idea how cables in IEMs work.  Either way, it's still possible that even if it was individually insulated, some oxygen got in to corrode it.  After all, weren't the GR07s assembled by hand?  Could be that it's an ever-so-slight manufacturing defect.  Doesn't really matter though, I'm gonna send an email to VSonic to see what they say, hopefully they know what it is.