[wje]

Quote:

Is Permatex a glue for soldier points?

 
Permatex is a company name.  They make a lot of gasket materials for vehicles.  They also make a rear window defroster repair kit with a small bottle of brown paint.  With the brown paint, you can use it to connect any broken traces on your rear window of your car to get the defogger working again.  However, the brown paint in this particular Permatex kit is also a paint that is electrically conductive.  One can use it to paint solder dots to re-establish a connection when a soldering iron and solder might not be feasible to fix an issue with a headphone wire where it attaches to the driver.
 
 

 

[satwilson]

Quote:

I was also the person who posted the Permatex solution.  

 

I understand, thought that was a better solution. Seriously, do you believe trying to solder to the plastic film PC board is a good idea?,,VS the permatex solution? More importantly do you believe the 1" cut stock wiring proposed by Mr. Speakers compromises anything, other than eliminating any of the other soldering/permatexing fixes? I for one believe once a better idea comes along we should embrace it, and not to continue to propagate compromises, IMHO. BTW I did replace my stock cord with mogami and neutrik plugs both ends, however I decided the internal wiring wasn't as bad as the stock cord. I appreciate your inventiveness on both solutions, however I believe Mr. Speakers proposal is for me the best way to proceed if I decide to go direct, eliminating the troublesome input jack. I agree with you replacing the stock cable with bigger gauge wire/connectors is a huge improvement for these phones.
 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

I understand, thought that was a better solution. Seriously, do you believe trying to solder to the plastic film PC board is a good idea?,,VS the permatex solution? More importantly do you believe the 1" cut stock wiring proposed by Mr. Speakers compromises anything, other than eliminating any of the other soldering/permatexing fixes? I for one believe once a better idea comes along we should embrace it, and not to continue to propagate compromises, IMHO. BTW I did replace my stock cord with mogami and neutrik plugs both ends, however I decided the internal wiring wasn't as bad as the stock cord. I appreciate your inventiveness on both solutions, however I believe Mr. Speakers proposal is for me the best way to proceed if I decide to go direct, eliminating the troublesome input jack. I agree with you replacing the stock cable with bigger gauge wire/connectors is a huge improvement for these phones.
 
 

I do see your point.  However, if you were to re-read my post, you'd see that it centered more around a 2nd repair method / ideology for Fostex headphone solder tab issues.  I referenced locating the trace so the film could be removed and then with a low, low heat iron and a solder with a low melting point, one could tackle interfacing with the film section on the driver as opposed to using a 700 degree (F) iron that would melt the film in about 10 seconds.
 
With that aside, I would not recommend taking the old wires down to the solder tab level.  Keeping about 1.5  inches of existing wire in place and stripping the wire, tinning the wire and connecting  your new cable leads to it along with some shrink wrap is 100% the best approach.  Finally, to fully ensure the wires are secured as a very cheap form of insurance, would be to apply a small amount of epoxy to secure wires at some point along the board or driver to prevent tugging on the wires when opening and closing the cups for performing various modifications.

 
 

 

[satwilson]

Quote:

I do see your point.  However, if you were to re-read my post, you'd see that it centered more around a 2nd repair method / ideology for Fostex headphone solder tab issues.  I referenced locating the trace so the film could be removed and then with a low, low heat iron and a solder with a low melting point, one could tackle interfacing with the film section on the driver as opposed to using a 700 degree (F) iron that would melt the film in about 10 seconds.
 
With that aside, I would not recommend taking the old wires down to the solder tab level.  Keeping about 1.5  inches of existing wire in place and stripping the wire, tinning the wire and connecting  your new cable leads to it along with some shrink wrap is 100% the best approach.  Finally, to fully ensure the wires are secured as a very cheap form of insurance, would be to apply a small amount of epoxy to secure wires at some point along the board or driver to prevent tugging on the wires when opening and closing the cups for performing various modifications.

 
 

Totally agree, especially epoxy securement. Sorry if I was overly critical of your solder methods, just feel your permatex repair was better and eliminated the possibility of further damage due to soldering heat. Thanks for restating the "Keeping about 1.5"......" method.

 

[rhythmdevils]

FWIW, the damping scheme has a much bigger impact than anything else on the overall sound of your T50rp.  I don't think anyone should bother recabling unless you are really happy with your current scheme, and this is even more true about trying to hardwire to avoid the stock internal wiring.  Basically, cables, amps, sources etc are not going to change or fix resonance or FR issues in the driver/enclosure.  Even going from ipod to 4k amp isn't going to fix problems.  A well damped (or at least damped to your preferences) T50rp out of an ipod will sound better than a poorly damped T50rp out of a Zana Deux. 
 
So I'd recommend only worrying about amp/source/cable if you're totally happy with your damping scheme and want to get that last 2% refinement. 
 
Just a recommendation that may save some money/time

 

[Maxtcc]

Thank you for the clarity that you have both, wje and rhythmdevils, given in the last couple of posts.
the 450 odd pages of this thread had obfuscated in my own mind where to start with my own mods for these new phones.
Now if I can pick out those crucial items about dampening from the thread, I will start there.
As I finally received my new FOstex T50 rp yesterday , as well as all the jacks I had chosen for my recabling job on these puppies,(I plan on building a balanced cabling for them. 
But for sure now I will set the dampening first .
 
Now let me see, dense plaster type material and some sound mat or other, furniture dot.......
I'll have to get back to you all on the rest.
 
By the way I am initially charmed by the quality of these phones out of the box.
 
One note I have is that they are significantly harder to drive than my Grado 325's.

 

[Taowolf51]

Stock cable isn't doing so hot, think there's a problem with the female jack in the cups and the wire that goes from the left cup to the right.
Never made a cable before, and don't really have any soldiering experience. Does anyone know of a good resource I can check out to learn to soldier and make a braided cable?

 

[Maxtcc]

well practice is the best option, and don't forget to  flux even with resin core solder. 
otherwise you can check out the  the Vmoda cable for $10 off their site it fits and works great.
 
 
 
http://v-moda.com/cables/
 
http://v-moda.com/audio-only-cable/

 

[Taowolf51]

I was originally going to go with the Vmoda cable, but I started having problems with the connector between the cup and cable, and the cable that goes to the right cup (all interior stuff), so I don't think the Vmoda cable will fix it.
The right cup is dropping out, and sometimes moving the wire causes static.
 
And just to confirm, it's aluminum soldier for the Fostex's, right?

 

[Lurkumaural]

For the T50RP, I believe you aren't restricted to aluminum solder.  I had plain old 63/37 and it worked fine.
 
And unless you're dying to recable, cleaning the contacts might fix your issue.  In my case it didn't, and my DeoxIT is way too precious to keep applying all the dang time.

 

[Taowolf51]

I don't know if simply cleaning the contacts will work, there seems to be an issue with the jack that connects the cable to the cups as well, which is really what I'm trying to circumvent.
Is making a cable a large undertaking?

 

[wje]

Quote:

For the T50RP, I believe you aren't restricted to aluminum solder.  I had plain old 63/37 and it worked fine.
 

I forget the brand of solder I located.  However, it is a tin / lead mix with rosin core for electronics.  It has a melting point of 374 (or so) degrees - farenheit.  Some of the silver solders that I was looking into required about 1,100 degrees (F) to get it to melt.
 
I was digging on line and it appears Ace Hardware is supposed to have Alpha AM53718.  It's an aluminum solder.  However, with the store I went to, they didn't have it in stock, so I picked one with a low melting point.  Also, forget Home Depot or Lowes.  They'll have plenty of solder for plumbing work, but a very small selection for electronics - and, they usually keep it in the back corner of the store, so you waste your time walking back there to just get disappointed.
 
However, for the OP, please consider cutting the wires that are connected to your solder tabs leaving about 1.5" of slack.  Then, remove about 1/4" inch of the insulation, tin the wire leads.  Place a small piece of shrink wrap on the wire and out of the way.  Connect your new wire, and solder it to the existing wire that runs to the driver.  Move the shrink wrap into place, and apply some heat with a heat gun or hair dryer to make the connection complete.
 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

One note I have is that they are significantly harder to drive than my Grado 325's.

Yes, that's the price of using the orthodynamic drivers.  They are not too bad with efficiency when initially removed from the box.  However, after applying the modifications, one does have to turn the amp up a bit higher to reach a desired listening level.  People with the Audeze and higher-end HifiMAN headphones need some better amps to properly driver their phones.
 
 

 

[ri_toast]

 
Quote:

I don't know if simply cleaning the contacts will work, there seems to be an issue with the jack that connects the cable to the cups as well, which is really what I'm trying to circumvent.
Is making a cable a large undertaking?

I was having this random connection drop also. i used a connector from an e5 fiio amp and an at extension from the cmk50 iem and my problem went away. Point being it might not be the socket only the plug, vmoda cable Dr. LFF recommended might solve the problem
 

 

[timbo4321]

I'm a new player on the block. Long time lurker. I also have Denon D7000 but haven't listened to them for ages, the Fostex put simply are just a nicer sound.
 
I had the Fostex where I wanted them with my mods with nice sparkling highs and very nice mids, maybe the bass could have done with more clout. That was with stock ear pads. Then I bought some 02 pads and the sound changed for the worse. I lost the sparkle in the highs and got more bass. I'm holding off doing more mods until I get my 02 amplifier from Epiphany to see what the sound is like and much of a change from the Little Dot 1+ I'm using at the moment. I'll start the mods again when I decide which amp to keep. 
 
The most impressive addition though was the purchase of the V-moda cable. Suddenly all the niggly electrical problems disappeared. No more channel drop outs, no more static noises, you can rotate the plug in the socket of the headphone and nothing will happen. LFF was right and I can't recommend these enough - and no messy cleaning fluids either. I won't say too much about the improvement in the sound particularly for my treble registers except to say that better electrical contact probably does make a difference. 
 
My mods
2 layers of transport over the stock white tape
Paxmate over blue tack on the baffle (I found plasticine dulls the sound too much)
Paxmate over all the surfaces in the cups
Poly fibre from a duvet for a while but I found this messes up the sound stage
Stock ear pads with a small sausage of poly fibre was good and I would have left it at that - but for the comfort factor.
02 ear pads are comfortable and seal better but I'm back to experimenting again.
 
My music
Classical - thats why I want (need) the sparkling highs
Light trad jazz
Some female vocal