Denon Recable Guide (56K friendly thumbnails, but large photos)

[FallenAngel]

Hey guys,

I am recabling a pair of headphones for somebody on the forum so I decided that it might be useful to post a guide. For this recable I'm using a pair of freshly modded Denon D2000.

Mods were preformed by the master himself, MarkL; and the job look wonderful (compared to the amount of time I spent trying to mod my own D2000 and having the mods turn out functional but not very nice looking - reason why I bought the D5000 modden by MarkL, he does awesome work). He also offers wood cups for the D2000 which were also installed during this recable.

The cable I am using today is 22awg Jena wire, terminated in Neutrik XLRs.

Without further ado, the guide.

1) Disassemble the headphones.

1. Give the earpads a slight twist until you hear a click, then pull off.
2. Unscrew the 4 deep-seated screws to release the cup, then pull it off.
3. If it is not already marked, use a DMM and measure resistance between the Left/Right signal on the headphone plug and mark a little red dot on the driver so you can identify signal vs ground later.
4. You can at this time unscrew the other 4 screws that hold the driver to the headband (not done in the photo).

2) Desolder original wire

1. I say again, make sure to mark + signal on the driver for later!
2. Desolder the two thin wires from the drivers; make sure you don't keep the iron on the driver for too long, they burn up otherwise.
3. Once wires are detached, loosen the knot and pull it out.
4. If not done already, unscrew the driver from the headband.

3) Solder new wires

1. I use 4 individual wires so this step is simplifier vs a ready-made cable like Mogami 2534, Cardas 4x24, etc.
2. Feed the wires through the original hole.
3. Solder on your new wires. Again, be careful not to use too much heat. For this reason I use Cardas Quad-Eutectic solder, it has a very low melting point so I can set my iron to 650F, solder the wires and have it solidify nice and shiny.
4. For strain relief, I used a simple zip-tie. Cheap and very effective. You can use a bit of hot glue or epoxy, I saw no need in this case.

4) Braid the wire

1. For this step, I attach the drivers back to the headband to make it easier
2. I then put the headphones on my head and twist the wires from the driver in opposite direction and because I'm obsessive, I make sure there is an equal number of twists and they are at equal intervals.
   
3. Wearing the headphones during this makes it easy to judge how long you want the Y-split to be.
4. After the cable is twisted, put the headphones on the table and braid the wires.
5. Since this is Jena wire, I use the same braiding style as Jena uses on all of their cables, it looks nice.

5) Termination

1. This is when marking the driver makes sense. Measure resistance back to the driver and identify the wires.
2. These headphones are terminated in balanced 3-pin XLR, so I split the wires up and twist them again in pairs.
3. Solder on your connector(s); 3-pin XLR uses pin 2 for +, pin 3 for -.
4. Double check to make sure everything is wired properly, you don't want to have to open the headphones later for this.

6) Install the cups

1. This can be tricky, even when you try to align as perfectly as you can, but here's a hint - It was a lot easier to do with the drivers not attached to the headband.

All done

I also made an XLR to 1/4" adapter in the photo for unbalanced use.



Hope you enjoyed it, was tons of fun to do. Oh yeah, they sound very VERY good.

 

[digger945]

Does the stock factory Denon cable have 4 wires all the way to the plug, 2 for each driver?
Thanks for the info and pics, much appreciated.

 

[dazzer1975]

great work, and for newbs like me I also really REALLY appreciate the pictorials too (I don't have d2000 nor plan to own in the future, but all hints and tips and seeing recable work being done is all very useful and educational)

cheers

 

[qusp]

nice one man; makes me wish I bothered to do a tutorial when I did mine a couple of weeks ago. BTW have you got a tute for that braiding style. I have been wondering how to do that one. and dont know what its called. also I notice you havent sealed the solder joints with epoxy?? dont you worry about discoloration?? especially with the whole cable exposed like that.

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digger945 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does the stock factory Denon cable have 4 wires all the way to the plug, 2 for each driver? Thanks for the info and pics, much appreciated.

I'm quite certain that it has 4 wires.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dazzer1975 /img/forum/go_quote.gif great work, and for newbs like me I also really REALLY appreciate the pictorials too (I don't have d2000 nor plan to own in the future, but all hints and tips and seeing recable work being done is all very useful and educational) cheers

My pleasure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif nice one man; makes me wish I bothered to do a tutorial when I did mine a couple of weeks ago. BTW have you got a tute for that braiding style. I have been wondering how to do that one. and dont know what its called. also I notice you havent sealed the solder joints with epoxy?? dont you worry about discoloration?? especially with the whole cable exposed like that.

Thanks and no, I've never sealed solder joints with epoxy before, never even heard of it.

The braid is extremely simple:
Place the 4 wires side by side (can be more than 4, just keep even number).
Take the two wires that happen to be on the outside, cross them and put them in the middle. Repeat until you're done.

Just always take outside wires, always crossing same the same way (left over right consistently or right over left consistently). It's very simple and fairly hard to mess up.

 

[digger945]

Thanks Pavel. I was gonna try to do a quick one tonight so we can listen tomorrow at the meet but I'm running out of time. Just as well, I'de like to do it like you did, although probably not with $Jena$.

 

[B00MERS00NER]

Thanks this is right on time, waiting for my supplies to come in so I can recable my D5000's. Thanks for a great tutorial, and hopefully it goes as easy as you made it look.

 

[musicmaker]

Nice write up Pavel and a very professional job as usual !

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm quite certain that it has 4 wires. My pleasure. Thanks and no, I've never sealed solder joints with epoxy before, never even heard of it. The braid is extremely simple: Place the 4 wires side by side (can be more than 4, just keep even number). Take the two wires that happen to be on the outside, cross them and put them in the middle. Repeat until you're done. Just always take outside wires, always crossing same the same way (left over right consistently or right over left consistently). It's very simple and fairly hard to mess up.

ahh OK must just be how loose it is that they look different. when I have done that braid it looks entirely different; looks like a series of downward arrows if you know what I mean. as far as sealing the solder joints; its not uncommon practice with jena although not as common as it should be. if you do this there will be no oxygen to get into the wire and it will stay fresh as the day you made it. also has the bonus of providing extra strain relief. Mark does it too. I do it on all my copper cables, especially Jena

 

[mrarroyo]

Nice work FallenAngel, makes me want to do it on my MarkL modded D5000 w/ Australian Bubinga Wood Cups.

 

[apatN]

Nice.
Thanks for your work.

 

[digger945]

I can't believe this thread was started by FallenAngel last November and no one replied to it until I did last Friday. Great thread and yes, thanks for taking the time to share all the info and pics with us.

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digger945 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can't believe this thread was started by FallenAngel last November and no one replied to it until I did last Friday. Great thread and yes, thanks for taking the time to share all the info and pics with us.

I cant beleve it didnt come up when I did a quick search when about to do mine. wanted to check if there were any nasty surprizes. luckily there wasnt and had already thought to mark the terminals, which IMO is the best tip in this tutorial

 

[ARwCoco]

So digger .... what wire are you thinking of using ?
I may split wire and cost with you ( for my D1001 )
PM me

 

[digger945]

First thought is to use the end of a patch cable I bought on sale at a local Guitar Center.
It is Mogami 2534 with a 1/4" connector already on one end. Other than that I don't have anything special laying around to do this other than some 1/8" techflex. I have some Mogami 2893 in my cart at Markertek but haven't finished shopping yet.
As always I'm open to affordable ideas