[pokey9000]

That's good!  Like Yoga Flame said, try the lighter under the stripped end of the wires on the now detached cable to burn off any enamel and then ohm it out to the connector.  If it passes, snake it through the pegs and solder it down.  You'll want to tin the ends first, especially with enamel since it's usually designed to burn off with a few seconds of solder heat.
 
Worst case:  Order some mini starquad and a nice plug and recable.  I remember a thread somewhere about this...

 

[Hayang]

thanks so much again.
i tried lighting the enamel on fire, and it did indeed light on fire, seeming to leave the copper behind.
 
but when I did the ohmmeter test from green copper - tip, etc, I always got about 1K ohms (it definitely did go down from infinity ohms) for each pairing.  Isn't it that if even one small strand of pure copper touches the ohmmeter metal, it should drop to a very low resistance?
 
should I go ahead and solder this resultant wire? (i'm going out to buy a soldering iron right now)

 

[Hayang]

wait, do I need anything more than an soldering iron to solder? doesn't an iron just heat up the solder so it melts, whereas tinning requires me to "coat" the wire with solder?  is there a separate tool for applying solder?
 
EDIT: nvm, googled it, i'll get a roll of rosin core.

 

[Hayang]

SUCCESS

Thanks to all of you, I have repaired my ATH-M50s and am enjoying music on them.  It was possibly the most stressful process I've ever undertaken, but I did it!!
 
Soldering was hard... as was stripping the wire without cutting it.  How hard?  Let's just say the 11 foot cable became 5 feet in the end... LOL
At least that will take care of the cables all over the place problem!  How very convenient!
 
If these were any old cheapo cans I would never have done this, but I love my M50s!  And now I can use them again!  THANK YOU!

 

[Yoga Flame]

Congratulations!

 
 
Soon you'll be DIYing a CMoy and before you know it you'll be looking up the parts for a Beta22