[Heprer]

I recently got a problem with my grado sr60i. The 3.5 inch gold plated jack has just lost it's gold... the tip of the jack (left channel) began to exfoliate, i assume bad plating. My problem now is with the brass, it's going to oxidize and lower the audio quality or it'll be ok and i won't be bothered by it? If it's going to degrade the audio quality, is there any method to repair the jack? Thanks!

 

[ergopower]

It might seem counter-intuitive, but it's going to be all or nothing. The oxide has a dielectric withstanding voltage of millivolts, depending on thickness. If you're hearing music out of the left speaker, the signal was able to bridge the oxide, no harm no foul. The difference in total resistance between left and right will more affected by the accumulation of cable length differences, etc., such that you won't notice it.

Unless you live near a paper processing plant or near the ocean, it's not likely to become a problem. If the oxide gets to a thickness where a low level audio signal cannot bridge, you'll hear dropouts when the music is quiet enough, it will be very noticeable. But there's an easy fix - an ink eraser will easily remove the oxide. You can always use one of those contact preserver solutions if you're worried.

 

[Heprer]

Thanks for the reply. My guess is that with some maintenance i won't go into trouble. For now i've just plugged it into a 6.3 inch adapter and twist the adapter till i get it shiny. In time if this won't do the job i'll use contact preserver solution. The headphone cable is a Y type so equal length, hope this won't lead to channel imbalance, anyway as they are now i can't hear a loss in sound quality and i hope it'll never happen..