[bonethugz]

in case if y'all dont know what i mean

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6.aspx

 

[Dr Morbid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by honda Hi Dr Morbid, Good choice of replacement plug! Are you soldering a bare plug or connecting the wires from the ER-6i to the wires attached to the replacement plug? If you are soldering wire to wire, just solder together the wires of the same colour on each side, and the clear (copper) ones can be all soldered together. If you are soldering to a bare plug, see below: Green= Left side hot, upper most lug (the very tip when looking from either the soldering end or the outside plug end) Red= Right side hot, middle lug (middle lug for soldering side as well as plug side) Clear (copper)= Ground, common for left and right, connect both copper coloured wires together at the bottom most lug, it's the bottom most lug for soldering side as well as the base, the longest section of the plug side Let me know if my wording is hard to understand, if you really need a photo/diagram, I'll make one for you.

I'm using a plug with wire. The reason I asked is because the cables are bare, for the most part and I don't want to cause a short with the strands, even though they seem to be run together with that fiber string. I also didn't want to mix up sides, but an odd thing about this is that I tried touching the wires together and nothing happened. no sound.

I like etymotic, but their wiring is cheap. I'm surprised these lasted the 18 months being babied. I just bought a pair of Shure E2c's to test out for a good price.

edit: viewed the headphone wires more closely and can't see the difference between color runs. They appear to be run together and I can't see any difference.

 

[Dr Morbid]

Now attempting a recabling. Got the actual earpiece apart and was kind of disappointed to find out that it's really cheap and basically held together by heat shrink tubing.

Ready to desolder the old cable.

 

[Dr Morbid]

Operation successful. I used an asymmetrical type cable from my Iaudio accessories pack in black. The two sides were better defined.

The hard part is actually taking apart the earbuds, which will have a couple pieces crack or break on their way out. Most likely when Etymotic recables these things, they replace the white portions anyhow.

Step 1: Slide the heat shrink off the bud to the canal side. This is reusable and has a cutout for indexing with the wire.

Step 2: Using an eyeglass screwdriver, drive in between the clear and the white pieces from the canal side. You will see what I mean. They are tabbed and glued and will take some wiggling to remove on an axis. You will crack and perhaps even break a piece of this, but it's still reusable. The glue is soft, so you can lever it out. Slide down cable and note how it enters the housing, including the knot. You will most likely have to bore the wire hole larger, as I did to slip the new one through. On the right side bud, look closely and you will see the white piece is broken.

Step 3: Use a jig, such as pliers to hold the earbud on a surface, index it so you know which side the polarities are on. The wire is ever so slightly different and I'm color vision deficient, so I think I got it. The solder terminals are on a flexible paper. You need a pencil point iron and they desolder and solder within a couple seconds.

Step 4: Knot the wire as close to the terminals as possible and shove it in the crevice. Put the white keeper portion on. I didn't replace the glue for future repair. Slide heat shrink back on, then use.

This method is a hell of a lot more feasible than replacing the plug. Unfortunately, I didn't take pics, but the operation really is exactly what I described above. The first side took some time, and I was referring back and forth to the second untouched one for orientation. The second one took less than ten minutes.

I am more than willing to help this operation for anyone else interested. I'm also in NY, as I see this forum seems to be based around. I'm more than happy to help. Etymotic er6 series can be recabled very easily by the consumer, perhaps for the cost of a sacrificial pair of headphones and about twenty minutes.

Now I'll have a pair of Shure E2c's to go along with these. Now what I do miss with these earphones compared to my old Sony pre-ear canal phones was the bass response and certain portions of the mid range being more pronounced. The Sony bass is utterly obnoxious, but can be controlled with my BBE and Mach3 Bass settings. The er6i's are pretty lacking in the bass dept, but the rest of the music is crystal clear, and more balanced without an obnoxious intrusion of mids every so often. Don't forget the isolation.

 

[honda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonethugz anybody try the musicians earplug?

Hi bonethugz,

I have the Musician's Earplugs. They are really great as noise attenuaters with the 15dB chips in them for attending concerts, sound engineering, and other activities where you need some protection from sound but also need to hear what is going on around you, but when the ER-6s plugged into them, they sound terrible to me (of course, results may differ for others). Because the ER-6s are placed further away from your eardrums than they are designed to, the sound is really... screwed up. I think what I am hearing is a spike at around 7kHz. Can be a very annoying sound with certain female voices that are strong in that range. With that said though, I love my Sennheiser CX300s in them however. Although CX300s are just fine without them.

By the way, Dr Morbid, congradulations on the nice work! Maybe I'll show you my recabling and re-plugging photos later...

 

[HyperactiveChild]

Interesting... I visited the site today because my two year old ER-6i's developed the same problem this morning. I think I'll just see if Ety will fix it for a reasonable fee.

PS - Dr. Morbid: eeeeeewwwwww.... it might be time for new foamies

 

[Dr Morbid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HyperactiveChild Interesting... I visited the site today because my two year old ER-6i's developed the same problem this morning. I think I'll just see if Ety will fix it for a reasonable fee. PS - Dr. Morbid: eeeeeewwwwww.... it might be time for new foamies

They are new

 

[Dr Morbid]

Kind of funny that I fixed my Etymotics after I placed an order with Comp U Plus (fantastic price and next day shipping) for Shure E2's. For the price, I find these to be excellent and offer clean, solid bass without being obnoxious like Sony. Bass in the er6i is practically non-existant. Right off the bat, I had better bass with the Shures, which are still burning in using prog and technical death metal. First album with any new audio equipment I get is Death's The Sound of Perseverence, with Richard Christy on drums. It's considered one of the last albums of the death-jazz genre which sounds odd, but yielded a highly technical and influential form of metal. The drums have to be heard to be believed.

In any event, the fit is fantastic, the contour excellent, as are the wires, and less obnoxious microphonics to boot!

 

[stimpy]

I recieved two packages in the mail the other day. One was a pair of black ER6i's I bought on eBay. The other from Etymotic contained 2 new pairs of white ER6i's. Thanks so much Etymotic.

I had forgotten just how good the ER6i's are after getting used to the E2's. I do not find them lacking in bass at all and the music seems much more inside your head compared to the E2's.

 

[busterzdad]

I've spent the last two hours looking for ANY useful actionable information on how to rewire the etymotic er 6i headphone wire to a 1/8" jack (mine started getting intermittent, proved by wiggling the wire and it going on and off.) 
 
This is the FIRST and only post of any kind, including videos, that clearly explained it. So simple yet nearly impossible to find on the web. Thank you so much for this clear simple logical solution!!!
 
There are a lot of people on the web who try to be helpful but aren't. This worked great.
 
thank you thank you thank you