[subtle.desensitizer]

Here are photos of the state my HD555's are in.



 
 
 
They somehow cracked, and one of the cans is not connected to the headrest. Basically, it hangs by that thin cable in the photo, the cable that goes through the headphone. I have been using duct tape to tape the broken off tilting piece on the can to the side of the headband, but after a few hours the can detaches due to duct tape not holding strong enough, and the can ends up hanging from the thin wire and its weight puts straight on the wire/connection until I fix it up again. Clearly, this is a good solution, and although I can still hear out of both cans (potentially a little lower in the hanging can, but I doubt it), I fear the possibility of damaging the wire, or wearing the wire out to a point that it could be damaged in the future, and I am going to perform a permanent fix. However, it has done the drop and hang at least 20 times although the connection is not severed, but could be damaged (not sure how exactly I could tell how if it is worse), so keep that in mind (they are HD555's going through a desktop/iphone/laptop/etc).
 
So for repair, I plan to get Gorilla Glue or some other strong glue and glue the can via the broken piece to either the duct-taped part of the headrest, or if necessary glue it to the actual plastic. However, I think that the actual plastic may prove difficult.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should go about repairing the physical damage?
 
And for mods, I would like to do the 2 typical HD555 mods, removing the extra foam piece that separates it from a 595 and cutting out the un-necessary mesh to help improve the soundstage, as they are very simple ways to improve sound quality (http://www.head-fi.org/t/433691/my-sennheiser-hd-555-mods-more-of-the-silk-purse-project http://www.head-fi.org/t/476814/detailed-instructions-for-soundstage-mod-hd555-headphones )
 
When I am performing these mods, is there anything I can check to evaluate potential damage my HD555's incurred as a result of pressure being applied to the cable?
 
Finally, I am interested in re-wiring my HD555 at a later point, to fix potential damage due to stress on the cable/prevent it from creating an issue, to convert it to a 1/8 audio jack (I have to use 1/4 to 1/8 converters which I get off ebay for cheap and after a short period of time are no longer snug and require occasional readjustment for a proper connection, and potentially lower fidelity), and to improve the quality of the headphones audio over the default cabling.

How likely is the potential damage of what happened going to be relevant to my audio experience that recabling might fix (this might be hard to answer, keep in mind is in light of the strain exerted on the visible cable)? What is the best priced converter (female 1/4 to male 1/8) I could get that would not wear out instantly or lead to loss of audio quality? Do you guys think that it's worth my time to rewire, because at the moment I think a quality female 1/4 to male 1/8 adapter and crossing my fingers that I do not experience any audible difference as a result of the pressure that was applied is my best bet.

Could I just recable by soldering to each of the drivers at these points? This is something I will be doing eventually unless I need to fix the cabling due to current damage.

 
 
Thanks for any and all responses! I really appreciate you guys help.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

Uhhhhhhhhhhh unless you have a CNC machine at your disposal, you might want to look at just getting a new pair of headphones.

You COULD get lucky and find a cheap pair of headphones with the same size of driver, and just swap the drivers and rewire them, but repairing that amount of damage might just be a waste of time. If it were just the cables that needed replacing it really wouldn't be too difficult, but that head band is going to be near impossible.

One last though would be contacting sennheiser and explaining that the headphones have been shot to hell and see if they won't sell you the frame. The you could replace the wires and drivers and go about your day.

Long story short, you are going to have to have incredible luck and skill to get your headphones back to the way they once were.

 

[cheapfi]

Step 1:
Dismantle broken headphones, and learn how to put them back together without breaking them again.
 
Step 2:
Buy these off of ebay or another pair that are in good shape physically but don't work.
 
Step 3:
Assemble one good pair out of the two broken pairs.
 
 
If you can't buy a pair that have a good condition case, or get parts from the manufacturer, just buy another used pair and keep the first pair for parts.
 
;D
 
If you are too cheap to do any of the above...  use sugru reinforced with a bits of old coat hanger, then sand and spray paint it.   It will look better than duct tape, but probably still like junk.  Without some tools and experience welding plastic you will find it very hard to fix that casing and even then the repair will be very obvious.
 
If you are worried about stress on the cable, use a zip tie on the inside and some superglue.  I think that's what Grado does.