Jupiterknight
Headphoneus Supremus
A while back I came across a thread that caught my attention. The thread was created by shotgunshane about how Brian Goto from BTG-Audio had modified a pair of Fischer Audio DBA-02 with UE/Westone sockets so that they could be used with a removable cable.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/601360/universals-modded-with-removable-cables-fischer-audio-dba-02-brainwavz-b2-um3x-sleek-audio
I had a couple of IEM's in my possession that needed repair or that I wanted to be modded. So one day I finally emailed Brian and first asked him if he thought it was possible to recable a pair of Head Direct RE262 because one driver had started to cut out. Brian responded right away and was very straightforward with me by telling me that he had tried to recable the RE-262, but with no success since the driver was too small to work with, so there was no way around saving this one.
So instead I asked Brian if he would try to turn my Westone W4 into a W4R version.
Brian was fine with doing this modification. He had before performed the same procedure to other Westone models so it wasn't something new to him. I also ordered one of his cables to try out with the W4.
Only a day or two after Brian had received my W4's I received this picture from him:
Westone W4 with plugs for removable cable
Brian had ordered some new plugs, but unfortunately it turned out that the pins didn't fit the UE/Westone sockets. So we emailed a bit back and forth about other solutions and at one point I came up with the idea that he could try to use the cable I already had ordered from him and place it on a pair of Rockit R-50. I already had another cable that I could use with the W4, so this seemed to be a good solution.
Westone W4 with removable cable
The picture can be a bit deceiving due to the angle of the right earphone, but both plugs are fully inserted into the sockets. The difference between the placement of the socket compared to the "real" W4R are that the plug/pins are aligned horizontal to body part instead of vertical. It shouldn't have any impact on fit and they fit me exactly the same way as they did before the modification.
So the next step was that I shipped the R-50 to Brian. The same day that Brian received the R-50 he started to work on them immidiately. The Rockit R-50 uses the same Knowles TWFK dual driver as the FA DBA-02 does, but the housing of the R-50 is shaped different and slightly smaller. Within a day or two Brian had finished the whole recabling procedure and also manage to maintain the memory wire, which I thought was brilliant.
Rockit R-50 recabled and terminated with a RA-neutrik jack
I had removed the grey rubber cover before I shipped the R-50 to Brian so they are nowhere to be seen in the picture Brian send after he had finished the recabling job.
As it can bee seen in the above picture I also ordered one of his RA neutrik jacks, very nice quality and I prefer RA jacks to straight jacks.
Recabled Rockit R-50 with the grey covers back in place
Here's the final picture that I took after I placing the rubber cover back on the R-50 and securing it with a tad of glue around an area that I had torn doing so. It's actually not noticeable, so I must have done a decent job!
Overall, I'm very impressed with the quality of the two modifications Brian performed on these two IEM's. His craftsmanship are excellent. As it was in many also ways a superb and pleasant experience communicating with him, all done though Emails.
The total turnaround time was exactly two weeks from the day I shipped out the W4 and until I received both IEM's back. If there had not been a change of plans and I had shipped both IEM's at the same time, then I'm very sure that the turnaround time would have been much shorter.
One more last thing, I think that Brian's pricing are great, so if anymore are looking for any type of modification of their headphones or IEM's then his services is definitely worth checking out.
http://btg-audio.webs.com/
http://www.head-fi.org/t/601360/universals-modded-with-removable-cables-fischer-audio-dba-02-brainwavz-b2-um3x-sleek-audio
I had a couple of IEM's in my possession that needed repair or that I wanted to be modded. So one day I finally emailed Brian and first asked him if he thought it was possible to recable a pair of Head Direct RE262 because one driver had started to cut out. Brian responded right away and was very straightforward with me by telling me that he had tried to recable the RE-262, but with no success since the driver was too small to work with, so there was no way around saving this one.
So instead I asked Brian if he would try to turn my Westone W4 into a W4R version.
Brian was fine with doing this modification. He had before performed the same procedure to other Westone models so it wasn't something new to him. I also ordered one of his cables to try out with the W4.
Only a day or two after Brian had received my W4's I received this picture from him:
Westone W4 with plugs for removable cable
Brian had ordered some new plugs, but unfortunately it turned out that the pins didn't fit the UE/Westone sockets. So we emailed a bit back and forth about other solutions and at one point I came up with the idea that he could try to use the cable I already had ordered from him and place it on a pair of Rockit R-50. I already had another cable that I could use with the W4, so this seemed to be a good solution.
Westone W4 with removable cable
The picture can be a bit deceiving due to the angle of the right earphone, but both plugs are fully inserted into the sockets. The difference between the placement of the socket compared to the "real" W4R are that the plug/pins are aligned horizontal to body part instead of vertical. It shouldn't have any impact on fit and they fit me exactly the same way as they did before the modification.
So the next step was that I shipped the R-50 to Brian. The same day that Brian received the R-50 he started to work on them immidiately. The Rockit R-50 uses the same Knowles TWFK dual driver as the FA DBA-02 does, but the housing of the R-50 is shaped different and slightly smaller. Within a day or two Brian had finished the whole recabling procedure and also manage to maintain the memory wire, which I thought was brilliant.
Rockit R-50 recabled and terminated with a RA-neutrik jack
I had removed the grey rubber cover before I shipped the R-50 to Brian so they are nowhere to be seen in the picture Brian send after he had finished the recabling job.
As it can bee seen in the above picture I also ordered one of his RA neutrik jacks, very nice quality and I prefer RA jacks to straight jacks.
Recabled Rockit R-50 with the grey covers back in place
Here's the final picture that I took after I placing the rubber cover back on the R-50 and securing it with a tad of glue around an area that I had torn doing so. It's actually not noticeable, so I must have done a decent job!
Overall, I'm very impressed with the quality of the two modifications Brian performed on these two IEM's. His craftsmanship are excellent. As it was in many also ways a superb and pleasant experience communicating with him, all done though Emails.
The total turnaround time was exactly two weeks from the day I shipped out the W4 and until I received both IEM's back. If there had not been a change of plans and I had shipped both IEM's at the same time, then I'm very sure that the turnaround time would have been much shorter.
One more last thing, I think that Brian's pricing are great, so if anymore are looking for any type of modification of their headphones or IEM's then his services is definitely worth checking out.
http://btg-audio.webs.com/
