[edwardsean]

Hi,

I have a pair of Grado GS1000's which I recabled with 5N cryo-treated solid core silver. Unfortunately two of the conductors have broken at the jack. Last time I resoldered them on the heat from the iron damaged the drivers. This was even when I was extremely careful. So this time I soldered wire onto the pins of the jack and then twisted it to connect with the broken conductors. My question is how much will this splice degrade sound quality? Thanks.

Sincerely,

Edward

 

[FallenAngel]

If done properly, not enough to notice.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Heatsink the cable with pliers, copper clips, or similar before soldering. That will keep the heat at the joint.

 

[Pars]

I agree with Uncle Erik. Heatsink the wire while you are resoldering it. You said you are using solid core wire for this. If it is snapping, perhaps that indicates that it isn't the most suitable wire for this purpose? Or at a bare minimum, the strain relief and support at the plug need to be done better?

 

[edwardsean]

Hi,

I do appreciate the input. However, I've tried using a heatsink. I think what happened was that when I was soldering the second ground wire, heat still traveled up the previously soldered ground (w/o heatsink). I could get another heatsink and try again, but I feel nervous about it now. It works quite well, so I'm wondering if I should leave well enough alone. However, if there is real degradation, I'm going to try again using heatsinks. But, if there is negligible difference between a spliced wire and a wire that has not been spliced, then I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. What do you think?

 

[SiBurning]

There's already thousands of junctions in your equipment, so one more won't add up to anything. If you have op amps in the circuit, you can probably make that millions. Even the simplest, smallest resistor has a minimum of 4 junctions: one between the resistance material and the lead, another where you connect the lead to whatever, and 2 more on the other end.

Something to worry about? Only after you've spent $200 for a block of wood to lift your cables off the floor.

On second thought, maybe there's a market for single-wire, wound audiophile resistors. Would you pay $11,000us for a 2kohm resistor that weighed 3 tons just because it eliminated 2 junctions?

 

[edwardsean]

Well, here I go wading into the old debate, "Do cables and connectors and the rest make a sonic difference?" The entire reason I recabled the Grados in the first place is that I have answered that question in the affirmative at least to my own satisfaction. I hear the difference between a terminal and pin connected directly and one that has to go through cheap adapters and long runs of interposing wire. I have tried to get rid of as many junctions as possible and reaped audible benefits. I believe in the adage, the best wire is no wire, meaning, if you can get rid of a junction, do it. It is just that in this case the splice I've made is of the same high quality wire and would rather not risk burning out the drivers again. The GS1000s are the first phones that have been this sensitive. So I do hope that you are right that in this case the junction won't make a difference. But, I'd really like to get a range of input, to make an informed decision. Thanks.

 

[SiBurning]

If you can't go in there and change things safely, don't do it at all.

It sounds like the real problem is you're stuck with a small, fragile part. Before going in there again, you need to first figure out how to make that connector stronger/bulkier. You've already figured that out, but it seems like you need a stronger solution. I don't know what it looks like, but, for example, you might be able to wrap some 14ga stranded wire around the connector and squeeze it on with pliers. Make sure the connector itself is tinned first, then just flow the solder as quickly as possible, relying on the physical connection to keep things in place, not the solder. Easier said than done. Once you've built up something more substantial, you have room to play around more.

It would be better if you could find some kind of connector that slips on without soldering. You might also think about securing it physically. Epoxy might help. You can even get some modelling clay and molding plastic and embed a connector inside plastic which you can glue or screw more securely.