[LuthierJeff]

Hey, how are you man? I hope you are doing great...

first of all, I would like to thank you for providing this detailed fix for the focal Elex, it's a lifesaver for almost everyone with broken headphones!!

unfortunately, I'm not that good with soldering, And I have one with the left side not working at all, I would really appreciate it if I can send you my headphone to fix it!!

I didn't know if it's better to ask you here or send you a dm, just let me know, please!!

have a nice day

Hey there, thank you so much for your message! I really appreciate that, it's tremendously rewarding to hear that this post is helpful and/or interesting to people! It's been so much fun to do.

I would be very happy to help fix your headphones. I guess send me a dm so we can talk shipping and whatnot, but here I'll mention my approach in case anyone else is interested in the same thing. Basically, I'm figuring if someone wants to send me their Elex, I would charge $25 per terminal repair plus shipping and any PayPal fees. Sometimes if it's just one broken terminal on one side, it could be a cheap fix! But, since there are two voice coil terminals per side (4 in total), the most it would conceivably be is $100 plus shipping/fees. I've seen some where just one terminal's broken, but sometimes both on a driver go and both have to be replaced. So yeah, send me a message and I'd be happy to help out! I hope you have a great day, too!

Oh, also! Your screen name is fantastic. I grew up playing Link to the Past (presuming that's the reference) and just adore that game.

 

[LuthierJeff]

Just a shot in the dark, but if anyone's at CanJam SoCal, I'll be there in a few hours, and wearing a rather pink shirt with a picture of Shredder from Ninja Turles shredding on the guitar. Come say hi. Also I'll have a repaired Elex or two with me in case anyone's curious to see. I'm gonna approach Focal and ask about possible replacement drivers (I have one that broke so close to the voice coil that I don't think I can repair it), although I won't expect them to sell stuff like that directly. Here's hoping, though!

 

[dougms3]

Sometimes the voice coil wire is still intact when the driver goes dead. This happened on my focal clear.

I have also seen the voice coil wire snap in various parts of the voice coil wire, if you're lucky it won't snap really close to the voice coil, that would be a nightmare to solder.

If you're going to open it and solder, might as well upgrade the driver wire and solder for a nice boost in sound quality. I highly recommend the mundorf supreme solder and mundorf silver / gold solid core wire. I went with 18awg but I think that was overkill, 24awg should be fine as the stock wire is 24awg stranded spc.

 

[W9TR]

I recently had the left side of my Elex become intermittent. I removed the driver assembly and sent it to Jeff for repair. He turned it around in a week. Communication was excellent and the repair is top shelf. I’ve playing the headphones for a couple of weeks it’s nice to have them back in top form. Highly recommended

 

[Paul WB5AGF]

Excellent technical photography (re> the original postings in this thread). What lens were you using for the extreme close-ups ?

- Paul (AKA WB5AGF ... my Amateur Radio Call)

 

[LuthierJeff]

Sometimes the voice coil wire is still intact when the driver goes dead. This happened on my focal clear.

I have also seen the voice coil wire snap in various parts of the voice coil wire, if you're lucky it won't snap really close to the voice coil, that would be a nightmare to solder.

If you're going to open it and solder, might as well upgrade the driver wire and solder for a nice boost in sound quality. I highly recommend the mundorf supreme solder and mundorf silver / gold solid core wire. I went with 18awg but I think that was overkill, 24awg should be fine as the stock wire is 24awg stranded spc.

Thank you so much for this reply, and I'm awfully sorry about not having seen it last year. Life got in the way and such, but this photo is really helpful! I've never come across a Clear, and so being able to see inside is really informative. It's interesting to see how similar some Focal models are inside. On the other hand, I got a broken Elegia a while ago, presuming it'd be a similar fix. Turns out the driver and magnet are encapsulated in an assembly that's glued shut. I was able to fix it, but it involved mangling the plastic on that housing, unfortunately. Also, I've encountered what you mentioned about the coil wire breaking too close to the coil itself. On that particular one, there was nothing sticking out to even solder to, so I ended up with one useless unit, sadly. Spare parts, at least!

That's a great idea bout replacing the bigger wires and solder! I might do that on my personal unit, or offer it to people on the occasion I do repairs. I do have some Cardas solder and wire (26.5 gauge I think, all copper), but it's great to know about other potential offerings (and to know what the original wire used was). Man, electronics are fun, I want to learn the the big stuff some time.

 

[LuthierJeff]

I recently had the left side of my Elex become intermittent. I removed the driver assembly and sent it to Jeff for repair. He turned it around in a week. Communication was excellent and the repair is top shelf. I’ve playing the headphones for a couple of weeks it’s nice to have them back in top form. Highly recommended

Hi W9TR, thank you SO much for the vote of confidence and commendation! Also, I'm sorry I didn't see this when you wrote it, but I greatly appreciate it. I hope it's still going strong and hasn't had any other issues! If it ever does, just let me know.

 

[LuthierJeff]

Excellent technical photography (re> the original postings in this thread). What lens were you using for the extreme close-ups ?

- Paul (AKA WB5AGF ... my Amateur Radio Call)

Hello Paul, thank you so much regarding my photography! I had a bunch of fun doing it and spent a fair bit of time on it. This project helped me justify the lens purchase to myself, haha, so I'm happy to hear it resonated. It is a Laowa 24mm Macro lens. It's quite weird looking, but very unique. I don't understand optics, or why the long barrel is necessitated, but it yields shots that are 2:1 magnification, while retaining a wide field of view, and broader depth of field that what often happens with macro. It's not the most crisp lens, but the types of shots you can get are just so much fun. I have it in E-mount for a full frame Sony camera, but they offer it in other mounts as well.

Also, I'm happy to see a callsign on here! I'm W6JMH (admittedly a vanity, but my family all got them year ago). Sadly I haven't practiced it in MANY years, but I hope to dive back into it some day.
Cheers,
Jeff

 

[W9TR]

Hi W9TR, thank you SO much for the vote of confidence and commendation! Also, I'm sorry I didn't see this when you wrote it, but I greatly appreciate it. I hope it's still going strong and hasn't had any other issues! If it ever does, just let me know.

W6JMH de W9TR

Jeff, didn’t know you were a ham - that’s awesome. The headphones are playing fine and sounding great. No issues. I really like these cans. Thanks again. Knock wood I don’t have any other issues but will let you know if I do.
Tom

 

[LuthierJeff]

Hi Tom, no way, you're a ham, too? That's great! I wonder if there's a relatively high proportion of amateur radio folk on here.

I'm happy they're still going strong! I'll knock on some wood, too.

 

[LuthierJeff]

Should anyone find it useful, I thought I'd comment on the Focal Elear as well. I've read that the Elex has the Elear drivers, but Clear pads (and other cosmetic/accessory differences). I wonder if the Elex was a way to use up old Elear drivers after they ended production? At CanJam last year, I asked focal if they sell replacement drivers and they don't for the Elex/Elear. I have an Elear with me and decided to open it up to check. Indeed, everything inside seems the same, down to part numbers. The driver even measured at 79.9 ohm, which sits well within the range on Elexes that I've tested (from about 79 to 84 ohms). Anyway, nothing really new here, but I thought I'd post if anyone wanted extra confirmation. Photos following, and happy listening!

 

[Kenneth Tang]

It works again, really really thanks!

 

[LuthierJeff]

It works again, really really thanks!

Oh nice, were you able to do a repair? Yeeeeeah! You're welcome, I'm happy if it was helpful!

 

[Kenneth Tang]

Oh nice, were you able to do a repair? Yeeeeeah! You're welcome, I'm happy if it was helpful!

Yes. I repaired it by following your post. Tho I am an electronic engineer and still spent an hour to get it repaired. The most difficult part for me is not soldering but unscrewing the magnet. It was fastened. Noise also appeared after I put everything together, I have to reopen it several times to get it fixed. I believe the noise was coming from the wire ends touching the coil, or some residue of the unknown problematic ‘black glue’.
In fact I owned this Elear by pre-order since day 1. I’ve replaced two new units during the first few months, so including the current unit in my hand, all of them muted at the left speaker. I believe there was a design fault so I seldom use it again until recently. Fortunately, it has been broken now. Yes I literally mean this is good to me so that I seek methods to do a repair myself. I don't need to take very much care of it anymore. Really thanks!

 

[bryancl]

New here, I took a flyer on a set at an auction and they were dead. Nothing. I’m going to play around with some different cables but I’m afraid they may be beyond my help. Gonna try. I was so excited.