[Mko]

Hello,

I purchased Shure e500 earphones from ebay, and have run into the common cracked cable problem.

Shure will not repair them under warranty (due to the fact that they were not purchased from an approved distributor), even though they had earlier communicated on this forum that they would repair e500's with cracked cables.

I would like to recable these myself.

Has anyone undertaken this, and is there a "how to" that I can use?

If not: if I remove the plastic housing around the ear-piece (and thus expose the connection point of the cable to the earpiece), will there be any future issues with sound quality once I (try) and put everything back together again?

I had seen an earlier post concerning "tuning", and that performing such surgery might damage the tuning of the earphone.

I am very disappointed that such an expensive product could have such a fundamental design problem.

Marko.

 

[ClieOS]

I don't think even Shure have ever tried to recable the E500. They will just send a new pair out once they received the old pair.

 

[Mko]

Thanks for the reply - do you know of anyone who has ever taken apart a pair of e500s?

I don't want to give up on my earphones. I love the way they sound, but am very disappointed with the cables, which need to be repaired.

Mko.

 

[Mko]

Is there really no one who has taken apart or repaired a pair of Shure e500 or SE530s?

 

[lewislink]

If I were in your situation I would certainly leave the housing untouched and plice the cable somewhere. You'll be dealing with 4 wires ...surely very small ones...but won't have the housing issue.

 

[Mko]

Thanks for the reply. I've already tried this - unfortunately, the crack developed right below the physical ear piece.

Originally what I did was I cut the affected "right ear-piece wire" well below the ear-piece, at the point where the left wire and right wire connect (in a "Y" shape), before becoming one cable.

Once the cable was cut, I slid a piece of heat-shrink tubing over the now "severed" wire, and slid it up over the cracked region. Using heat, I shrunk the heat-shrink tubing, effectively repairing the crack. At that point, I re-soldered the cable together, and it worked very well for several months.

Unfortunately, the cable has now cracked below where the heat-shrink tubing ends!

It looks like I might have reperform my surgery, but this time put heat-shrink tubing over the complete cable.

I would actually rather perform more drastic surgery, and remove the cable housing, and (hopefully) expose the solder points where the cable connects to the earpiece. I want to unsolder the affected wires, attach brand new wires, and reassemble the housing as best as possible.

Alternatively, I was thinking that I might be able to "roll-up" the rubber portion of the ear-piece that covers the cable as the cable enters into the ear-piece. At that point, I would like to splice-in a new cable, and then roll-down the black rubber portion to hide the surgically repaired region. This is more drastic, but would probably offer the best cosmetic fix. I'm not sure that this is possible however.

I must say: this is too frustrating. I advise against buying Shure SE530s because of this critical flaw. I am also thinking about creating a website to give better exposure to this issue, and hopefully save a few more people from buying these earphones.

Mko.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mko /img/forum/go_quote.gif I must say: this is too frustrating. I advise against buying Shure SE530s because of this critical flaw. I am also thinking about creating a website to give better exposure to this issue, and hopefully save a few more people from buying these earphones.

What you should also do, is to tell people not to buy SE530 from an unauthorized dealer. I understand Shure rep. has promised early they will try to replace the cracked cable under warranty even if it is purchased from an unauthorized dealer. However, they are doing this out of good faith since they do not need to warrant any of their products that are not sold by authorized dealers. It is the consumer who decided to take the risk when buying from an unauthorized dealer. Also note that Shure has changed the plastic material used in the cable so it is more resistant to cracking now. It will be unfair to claim that their new cable is just as fragile as the old one.

 

[lewislink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif What you should also do, is to tell people not to buy SE530 from an unauthorized dealer. I understand Shure rep. has promised early they will try to replace the cracked cable under warranty even if it is purchased from an unauthorized dealer. However, they are doing this out of good faith since they do not need to warrant any of their products that are not sold by authorized dealers. It is the consumer who decided to take the risk when buying from an unauthorized dealer. Also note that Shure has changed the plastic material used in the cable so it is more resistant to cracking now. It will be unfair to claim that their new cable is just as fragile as the old one.

I agree with this, even though it's painful for the owner.

 

[Mko]

I think that there are two issues, that get unfortunately confounded into one.

I concur that it's reasonable to have a customer service policy where Shure only honors warranties on items purchased from authorized dealers. (What I do not concur with is having their employees articulate a different policy on these forums, which they then arbitrarily change).

The second, and completely separate issue is that Shure is manufacturing a defective product. These forums are full of people who have had multiple returns, only to experience the problem again and again. You will find people on this forum who have had 4 returns, yet continue to have cable cracking.

Nevertheless, I am not out to sound like a sore loser; the objective of my post is not to complain bitterly against Shure, but merely to fix my investment with minimal cost. Any help or guidance on this front would be much appreciated. I love my earphones.

Marko.

 

[kaldaim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif It is the consumer who decided to take the risk when buying from an unauthorized dealer.

I can understand them not standing behind the reseller if you get screwed with a knockoff, but if it's a genuine Shure product they should stand behind it even if it wasn't purchased from an authorized reseller.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mko /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think that there are two issues, that get unfortunately confounded into one....

I undestand your situation. Perhaps you want to start a poll to collect data regarding user experience od SE530?
Quote:

Originally Posted by kaldaim /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can understand them not standing behind the reseller if you get screwed with a knockoff, but if it's a genuine Shure product they should stand behind it even if it wasn't purchased from an authorized reseller.

Easier said than done, mate, The status of an authorized dealer isn't just a good way for promoting products, it also carries a certain responsibility on ensuring customer satisfaction which ultimately will reflect on Shure's reputation. In return, Shure must also carries their own promise to the authorized dealer by providing technical and well as sale support. It is a symbiotic relationship. Unauthorized dealer on the other hand care very little about reputation nor customer service which in return, as in this case, hurts both the consumer and the manufacturer. Further more, how would the authorized dealers feel if Shure treats unauthorized dealer as the same as an authorized dealers? Genuine product or not, the bottom line isn't just sell figure. Shure needs to protect their own business as well as the business of their partner.

 

[lewislink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif I undestand your situation. Perhaps you want to start a poll to collect data regarding user experience od SE530? Easier said than done, mate, The status of an authorized dealer isn't just a good way for promoting products, it also carries a certain responsibility on ensuring customer satisfaction which ultimately will reflect on Shure's reputation. In return, Shure must also carries their own promise to the authorized dealer by providing technical and well as sale support. It is a symbiotic relationship. Unauthorized dealer on the other hand care very little about reputation nor customer service which in return, as in this case, hurts both the consumer and the manufacturer. Further more, how would the authorized dealers feel if Shure treats unauthorized dealer as the same as an authorized dealers? Genuine product or not, the bottom line isn't just sell figure. Shure needs to protect their own business as well as the business of their partner.

Well stated and very true.

 

[simssmo]

When the right cable from my SE530 split, I emailed Shure and they gave me a Returns Authorisation Number(RAN) without any problems even though I bought them from ebay.

 

[insyte]

Wow another shure cable issue thread....

try searching for the thread where a shure e500/ se 530 was modded, I know there's one