[Beagle]

The left channel on my HD600 cord cut out gradually the other night. Wiggling near the strain relief brought it back temporarily until it finally went out completely.

Does Sennheiser not know how to make a proper cord that we might reasonably call "sturdy"? I have owned at least 4 pair of Sennheiser over the years and each one had a problem with the cord. My HD 600 has never been abused, the cord has never been jerked or stepped on, yet after two years one channel goes. And what is the point of a strain relief that does not even flex?

I have never had a problem with a Grado cord and the cord on my 25 year old Yamaha HP-1 is still going strong with nary a problem throughout those years.

I attempted to repair the cord, but of course, as soon as you go about cutting around the strain relief, it's game over.

I have ordered a new cord but I am wondering if I should reinforce the strain reliefs with heat-shrink tubing or something.

Anyone else have big Senn cord problems or solutions to same?

 

[Steril]

Yes, I've been experiencing the same problems with my HD 580 (I had to replace it twice, so it is my third cord). It wouldn't be so annoying if those cords were less expensive. If i remember, they asked me like $20 for the cord the last time I bought a new one.
And a friend of mine who has a HD 560 also has problems with his cords.
However, I never had those kind of problems with my HD25 (but it is a different kind of cord, and shorter too).

 

[DarkAngel]

If you are replacing the cord anyway, by all means get Clou blue
jaspis from headroom for $90. Noticeable improvement in sound,
much larger cable than stock, have not had them for several years
to comment on problem you mention, but I bet they will not have this problem.

 

[lini]

That's completely off-topic, now, but it's funny: I just noticed DarkAngel's new avatar - and on the first glance this lady appeared to me, as if she had a wierd grin and a beard under her nose!

Maybe it's the monitor.

Grinnings from SF!

Manfred / lini

 

[Beagle]

DarkAngel, thanks for the suggestion, but it would pain me to spend $150 CDN for a new cord which may possibly alter the sound to my disliking. I was reading here that one or two people were not exactly thrilled with the Clou.

 

[DarkAngel]

Beagle,
If you want to try Blue Jaspis, Headroom has 30 day return policy, if you carefully keep all packaging you can return for refund, only cost is shipping.

If you want more open/detailed sound with deeper bass, resulting in a noticeably more dynamic/powerful sound, Blue Jaspis delivers. Whats not to like? Only possible downside I see is cost and larger size/stiffness of Jaspis cable.

That is how I ended up with two cables, no going back IMO.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Whats not to like?

The price

But I will give it some consideration....

My main beef is that a reputable brand like Sennheiser chooses to offer a replacable cord just because it needs constant replacing, regardless of how careful you are.

Seems to me I heard a while back that Sennheiser had addressed the problem with the strain relief. Does anyone remember anything about this?

 

[Braver]

man, if you have the same problems as me, all you got is some corrosion on the connection. you're going to buy a new cable cause of some dirt? just wipe it off with some contactspray. way cheaper.

 

[gerG]

My HD600 cable was bad from day 1. There was a bad connection inside the molded mini-plug. Fortunately that end is easy to replace.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Fortunately that end is easy to replace

It is???

braver: It was definitely the cable. I tried switching channels and wiggled the wire and it was not a dirty contact.

 

[gerG]

I snipped off the mini and replaced it with a 1/4" stereo plug. Soldering skills and a bit of patience are necessary. I didn't get the strain relief quite right, so I will be re-doing it one of these days. It sure is nice having a nice solid plug. The only down side is that I have to use an adaptor to plug into the Corda, which makes for a longish plug. The solution will be either a spare cable or a different jack in the Corda.

As an alternative, I believe that Possum used the headset plugs off a bad cable and made his own DIY cable.

 

[Beagle]

Oh sorry, my bad, I thought you meant the little two-pronged plug that goes into the earpiece.

 

[Possum]

Not yet complete, Greg

(hey, I'm Greg too

).

Voyager received his cable back from the US Postal Service and has sent them via Priority Mail to me, so I should be receiving them any day now.

If anyone has ever chopped apart the earpiece plugs, I'd like to hear about it so I can cut as close to the base of the plugs as possible.

 

[gerG]

He said that he did not know of any suppliers for the plugs. He cut the plugs off with some wire, and spliced into the wire. Less than ideal, but easier than trying to separate and reglue molded plugs.

I think that I will look into getting an injection die made. I can see a flat OFC twin wire cable working well with those plugs.

 

[Possum]

I was hoping to cut the strain relief far enough so I could solder directly to the end of the metal spikes rather than splicing to the wire, but I do not know how far the ends of the metal spikes go into the molding. Unless someone else has cut one apart, I'll probably end up splicing very close to the strain relief myself.