[kanamin]

I know this will probably sound pretty... n00bish, but, I recently attempted to replace the jack on my Sennheiser PMX200's with a Ratshack (I was desperate) jack for fear of loss of quality/volume because the joint between wire and jack had some frayed wire sticking out of it (my fault, too careless). So, I proceeded to cut the old jack off, strip the insulation, and I found not only stranded and color-coded wire (thank gawd) but some white fibers wrapped inside the strands of wire. Not thinking about the possible harmful effects of burning whatever this stuff was, I attempted to tin the wires, and found that they wouldn't. I'm guessing they're coated, like Sony's headphone cable wire? And that the coating needs to be removed? Also, do I need to worry about the white stuff, at least at the joint?

 

[xstephanx]

throw the radioschak one out unless you feel like doing this crap again in 2 weeks. my plug physically broke realllllyyy quickly and was hell to get soldered.

i foudn teh only way to get ti to stick, was to heat the wires with my butane torch till red hot, then wipe off.

the coating is insulation, and i think the white fibers are as well.

 

[ericj]

The coating is epoxy - get some solder flux, flux them real good, and heat them with your iron. the epoxy will burn off enough that you can tin them. This will stink and be messy, but it works. a quick dip in hydrochloric acid should work too, but i don't recommend it.

The white fibers are nylon reinforcement to keep the cable from breaking. group them together and tape them off to the side for now. When you get to the point of crimping the strain relief on the plug, you'll want it inside that crimp.

 

[kanamin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif The coating is epoxy - get some solder flux, flux them real good, and heat them with your iron. the epoxy will burn off enough that you can tin them. This will stink and be messy, but it works. a quick dip in hydrochloric acid should work too, but i don't recommend it. The white fibers are nylon reinforcement to keep the cable from breaking. group them together and tape them off to the side for now. When you get to the point of crimping the strain relief on the plug, you'll want it inside that crimp.

ACK, I usually always solder with extra flux, but I lost my only tube of rosin flux and I moved away to college and I can't find any place here that carries flux

. Then again some floormates recommended some places that I'm gonna check out soon...

Looks like I'm gonna be using my cheapo sony's for a while (midterms

).

 

[kanamin]

Sorry if this seems like a self bump (oh wait, it is), but I couldn't stand not being able to use my only sealed headphones, someone down the hall is playing hip hop annoyingly loud. I went ahead and took a lighter to the wires. While the tips were pretty bad (I overdid it), there was enough bare copper to tin, and it worked! I can finally study now

 

[ericj]

Good on ya.

Now when you get around to it, buy a decent plug, because the RS plugs will eventually let you down. Neutrik NYS212 can be had for as little as 80 cents, well, plus shipping.

 

[kanamin]

I know this thread is a month old, but I feel I have to share an experience. I replaced the jack on my K81's with another Rat Shack jack (I know I know, I was desperate, again

) but this time with one of those shiny gold plated deals. The problem I'm having now isn't any sort of physical breakage, the jack seems pretty tough, it's just that I think I can HEAR the bad quality of the jack. The left side sounds more... full than the other, it has a bigger soundstage, the bass extends more, etc. I thought it was the music, that it had more easy to separate instruments on the left, then I noticed it was like this on pretty much all my tracks. I opened up the jack and the solder going to the tab for the left spilled (when I was soldering) onto the flat pin-head looking deal, turning the mechanical connection into a solid one with the solder. The tab for the right is still blocked under the layer of insulation from the tab for the left, and I can ROTATE the tab for the right to a degree (meaning a mechanical connection). I guess I should have listened to you guys and ordered some Neutrik jacks, but then again it's this website's fault my ears are so picky now XD