[retrotails]

So a friend of mine came to me with his M50 headphones. He dropped his iPad with them in and it bent the 3.5mm jack. They didn't work at all and the cause was obvious, so I just had him get me a 3.5mm plug from RadioShack and I'd figure I could just cut the wire and solder the new plug on. Well, before attempting to solder anything I decided to try to get sound out of them to see what wire went where. No dice. So now I have non working ATH-M50s and a plug I can't connect them to. All I see is some copper wire and weird insulation, is there some small wire I'm missing or something? My wire strippers don't go small enough for the 3 wires so a lot is lost, and I've only soldered 2 times in my life and know 0 about electronics (from a hardware standpoint.) This is what happens when I solder things. http://99.30.162.147/Downloads/files/pics/fan3.jpg Also, this is the cut wire by the new 3.5mm jack http://99.30.162.147/Downloads/files/pics/m50.jpg

 

[FortuneSound]

Hello.
 
Here is an image of the pinout of a 3.5 mm plug. You can then figure out which wire goes where with the conductivity test on a multimeter. To do your test connection, don't forget to connect the ground on the big plate of the connector.
 
I hope it helps a bit.
 

 

[retrotails]

Well, is the ground the black one and the other 2 are for each channel? Because if so I tried that and got no sound. I seen on many videos headphones with a very small line for sound, and the rest was a ground, but they had 1 wire for each earphone.

 

[holland]

Quote:

Well, is the ground the black one and the other 2 are for each channel? Because if so I tried that and got no sound. I seen on many videos headphones with a very small line for sound, and the rest was a ground, but they had 1 wire for each earphone.

 
I'm not sure if anyone knows off-hand.  I have the ATH-M50, but I don't want to open it up to find out.
 
You can find out though, to expound on FortuneSound's post.
 
Take the wire that you cut off, the one with the jack on it.  Cut off a small part of the sleeve on the open end, to expose the 3 wires that you have posted.  Take a DMM, set it on resistance, Put one probe of the DMM on one part of the plug.  Insert the other probe into each of the 3 wires one by one until you read continuity.  You might need to press hard, to go through the insulation of the wire, unless you stripped it and exposed the bare wire.  Wire up the new jack the same way.

 

[nsquared2]

How to fix?

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Sometimes the internal wires are enameled and that enamel needs to be burnt off before a connection can be made. Can you let us know how you're doing with the fix? 

 

[retrotails]

  How to fix?

https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104061
Get one of these (doesn't have to be a radioshack one, its just what worked for me), a soldering iron (or 'pen' as some call it) some solder, and wire strippers. A sharp knife can substitute for wire strippers if you're good.
Cut off the old 3.5mm jack on the end and strip the entire wire exposing 3 more wires.
Twist off the black cover of the new headphone jack and slide it onto the cord.
It should look like this (except the green one should also be stripped)
http://99.30.162.147/static/m50.jpg
Solder the black wire to the large prong, the red wire to the bottom prong, and the green wire to the top prong. Each prong has its own hole, so you can tell how they're separated.
Then you just screw the black case onto the new jack and it should hold up well.
 
edit:
For the enamel part I'd use sandpaper, but those M50's didn't have any.
As for the current state of the headphones, I was awful at soldering at the time, it was my 2nd solder job ever, and they only lasted about 2 weeks, so I recommend having someone else do it if you haven't before.
I do know that they didn't work until I soldered them - if I just twisted the wires on, they didn't work at all.
Anyway, my friend actually doesn't care about the wasted $150 so I asked to fix them proper this time, but I haven't been able to talk to him in months. I have my own M50s and they're still going strong years later, but I still have the other 3.5mm jack in my closet just in case.

 

[HipHopDj]

Would you happen to know where to get a stock replacement for the coiled cable? Also, are you planning to get a jack that screws into the 1/4" adapter that comes with the headphones?

 

[retrotails]

  Would you happen to know where to get a stock replacement for the coiled cable? Also, are you planning to get a jack that screws into the 1/4" adapter that comes with the headphones?

It has already been done. I don't know where to get actual Audio Technica ones, but I know you can get a gold one with a spring at Radio Shack. I don't know if it fits the thick ATH-M50 cables or not, and I don't think it has the 1/4" screw.