Are my Fisher DBA-02's broken?
Jul 2, 2011 at 10:58 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

thomaskuhn

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Since getting these for my b-day last year I have fallen in love with them.  Thanks to everyone on this site that helped my wife pick them out to replace my Shure e2c's  Leaps and bounds better.
 
The problem is, I am now getting static / muffled noise from the right ear bud. It is not electrical noise type static.  It is as if something is physically wrong with the driver or something.  On the day it started, I was working outside, so I am wonder if sweat was a cause of this.  Once I let them sit for a few days, they sounded better, but this slow degradation seems to continuously occur every time I wear them.
 
Anyone had any issues similar to this?
 
Tom Kuhn
 
Jul 7, 2011 at 12:39 PM Post #2 of 14
Strange,
 
I went to use them today and they did not work at all.  I tested out the player, and that worked so I looked at the Fischer's again and noticed that the ground and one lad are now severed near the plug.  I have no idea what happened!  Strange stuff, perhaps my cat chewed them, but it looks clean.
 
Anyone know if I can get a new plug put on?  Is it worth it?
Is there any type of tubing / shielding that can better protect headphone cables from snagging and breaking?
What's the next pair to get?
 
 
Jul 9, 2011 at 1:10 AM Post #6 of 14
I have the same problem as you, exactly. But my cables are fine! ):
 
Jul 9, 2011 at 3:20 PM Post #8 of 14
apparently dba-02 dont last long. Mine are broken too.


how long they lasted for you.? I ordered mine. last week and I knew durability was going to be an issue. You can always get the remold as custom.
 
Jul 9, 2011 at 9:34 PM Post #9 of 14
From august last year till june this year. Warranty was already voided when i modded the jack. But the problem arised from the left one being dead due to a broken joint inside the housing. My repairer couldn't open them and he said he asked UM whether dba-02 could be reshelled but they said no. So i'm stuck with a pair of broken dba-02s. Not sure whether i wanna get them again cause of this reliability issues and the recent price hike. About SGD$250 now selling at treoo. But they were good while it lasted.
 
Jul 11, 2011 at 2:20 PM Post #10 of 14
Quote:
Strange,
 
I went to use them today and they did not work at all.  I tested out the player, and that worked so I looked at the Fischer's again and noticed that the ground and one lad are now severed near the plug.  I have no idea what happened!  Strange stuff, perhaps my cat chewed them, but it looks clean.
 
Anyone know if I can get a new plug put on?  Is it worth it?
Is there any type of tubing / shielding that can better protect headphone cables from snagging and breaking?
What's the next pair to get?
 

They are definitely worth repairing if you love the sound signature from them, as I do. BTW, my cat is always trying to grab or bite the cable, so that could be your problem, too. She doesn't care about the black cable on my Sunrise Xcape, so it must be the black/white Fischer cable that is so interesting.
 
Quote:
fix em and keep them if you enjoy them. Should be an easy repair.

Repairing DBA-02's with a new plug is quite easy, especially with the twisted cable, making separation of the L-R channels and ground straightforward. I damaged my original cable through my own extreme carelessness. They'd been doing fine until then after about 8 months of very heavy use before that unfortunate incident.
 
Cost of everything to repair them, including the Neutrik plug and a new soldering iron was less than $30 (my existing iron wasn't sufficiently precise for this work). If you don't have any tools, it would be slightly more to include wire strippers and maybe a pair of pliers, but Amazon has everything you'll need. The technique is not difficult. I did add some strain relief to the Neutrik using some wire insulation that was a nice fit over the Fischer cable.
 
Quote:
apparently dba-02 dont last long. Mine are broken too.

Except for that careless yank on the cable, which was nothing against the Fischers, my original pair still sound as good as ever after more than a year and several thousand hours of use. The second pair, shown in my avatar that were recabled from new with MEElec cables at my request, are distinctly less robust in the cable area.
 
I'm sure that Westone cables set the standard, and Ety cables seem pretty good, but I think your blanket "dba-02 dont last long" is misleading, if not downright false.
 
 
 
Jul 11, 2011 at 2:25 PM Post #11 of 14
Mine lasted from November 2010 till now, so about 8 months.  I think the cord issue and the static issue were two separate things.  I have since gone out and purchased some Shure SE215's.  While the audio is a bit different from the Fischers, the cord is pretty hefty, so I am not as concerned about snag/cutting it.
 
I will go ahead and try to put a new jack on.  What is the part number that everyone uses for jacks now a days?  I have a good soldering station and this should go quickly if it is as simple as I think it could be.  My only concern is that it looks like the conductors inside the cables have some "fluff" in them.  Is it cotton or something?  I have seen some other cables in the past where there is just a TINY little thread wrapped around some filler.  Is that the type of cable this is?
 
 
Jul 11, 2011 at 4:06 PM Post #12 of 14
Here are two that I've used: straight and right angle. The right angle has the advantage of some built in strain relief in the connector, although I've added a piece of wire insulation to help. The "fluff" can be cut away (or it will burn away from the soldering iron).
 
If you didn't already know, the tip conductor is the left channel, which has green insulation in the cable; center conductor is right channel (red).
 
Jul 11, 2011 at 5:20 PM Post #13 of 14
They are definitely worth repairing if you love the sound signature from them, as I do. BTW, my cat is always trying to grab or bite the cable, so that could be your problem, too. She doesn't care about the black cable on my Sunrise Xcape, so it must be the black/white Fischer cable that is so interesting.
 
Repairing DBA-02's with a new plug is quite easy, especially with the twisted cable, making separation of the L-R channels and ground straightforward. I damaged my original cable through my own extreme carelessness. They'd been doing fine until then after about 8 months of very heavy use before that unfortunate incident.
 
Cost of everything to repair them, including the Neutrik plug and a new soldering iron was less than $30 (my existing iron wasn't sufficiently precise for this work). If you don't have any tools, it would be slightly more to include wire strippers and maybe a pair of pliers, but Amazon has everything you'll need. The technique is not difficult. I did add some strain relief to the Neutrik using some wire insulation that was a nice fit over the Fischer cable.
 
Quote:
Except for that careless yank on the cable, which was nothing against the Fischers, my original pair still sound as good as ever after more than a year and several thousand hours of use. The second pair, shown in my avatar that were recabled from new with MEElec cables at my request, are distinctly less robust in the cable area.
 
I'm sure that Westone cables set the standard, and Ety cables seem pretty good, but I think your blanket "dba-02 dont last long" is misleading, if not downright false.
 
 


if mine ever get broken. Ill contact you maybe we work out something
 

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