Help please, none of my recable's work!

[USAstrat]

Can somebody please help diagnose my recablling problem? I recently recabled a ksc75, and reterminated (new plug) a e2c, and both are experiencing the same problem.

Both make sound come out, and it is in stereo, and the correct channels. However, the sound is not right. There is lliterally no bass, and they just sound tinny. I'm not sure what to do, or what's wrong. I asked a similar question back when i recabled my ksc's but could not trace the problem, but now that I have the same problem with my e2c's which I only reterminated, I am pretty sure it has something to do with the way i'm wiring the plug.

Anything I should look at to fix this? I'd really like to figure it out, as these are really my main headphones (both of them) and now neither works. I know, I shouldn't have done it....but I really wanted to get into DIY : )


Thanks!

 

[USAstrat]

EDIT: Okay sorry...I just realized, THEY'RE playing in MONO!

I feel stupid lol. I really don't know what i'm doing now (obviously). I can't visually see any shorts, what could I have done to make them play in mono? (as well as sound like crap) It's kind of a "liquidy" sound. I'm not sure how to describe it.

ANy help is greatly appreciated. I REALLY want to get these working again.

 

[Zorander]

Pictures of the soldering job tell a thousand words.

 

[USAstrat]

Okay, I'll get pics up asap. I didn't even think of that. PLease don't be too hard on me if something is very wrong ; )

 

[USAstrat]

Okay..never posted pics before so I hope this works.

e2c^

KSC75^

 

[[AK]Zip]

How are you soldering it on the other side? Pics please.

-Alex-

 

[USAstrat]

Assuming you want a picture of how the cable is soldered to the ksc75's?

I'll get pictures of that too, but it wont' be til tomorrow evening.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[splaz]

Maybe they're wired out of phase... ?

 

[USAstrat]

Sorry for my ignorance...but what exactly is out of phase?

 

[Paragon]

You have the live wire and ground wire to each driver. If you connect the live to the + and ground to the - on the right side, and the ground to the + and live to the - on the left side, they are out of phase. If you have a signal that should push out the driver toward the ear, it will do that on the right side as it should, but the left would be pulled away from the ear.
It will change the sound a bit HOWEVER.. it would still be in stereo. The Change in sound is sometimes more evident with speakers and enclosed areas like cars.. but it all depends.

Hard to tell from the pics, but the lower one looks like it might be a cold joint meaning either there wasnt enough heat overall or not enough flux. The solder should have tinned the exposed wire if there was enough flux but I see copper on the blue. Also, the ground wire should usually go through that hole on the ground strap and soldered in place and the strap should be crimped around the cable houseing (the black around the wires). This is so any tugs on the cable will not go directly to the solder joints.

Having mono means there is either a bad connection somewhere (usually ground if memory serves me right) causing the signal to travel a path it would normally not or there is a short between the channel wires.. Check your joints.

 

[USAstrat]

Okay thanks. I'm about to go resolder the e2c and hope it fixes them. I should have left them alone...especially since they cost so much! (for me at least)

Quote:

the strap should be crimped around the cable houseing (the black around the wires

Is there somewhere I can see a picture of this? I'm not sure what it means : (


Thanks for all the responses, i'll get pics up of the cables soldered to the ksc's on the headphone side asap, but I'm really more concerned with the e2c's.

 

[Paragon]

uhh.. in your top picture.. where you have the ground soldered.. there is that hole to the left of it. solder the ground in there or if that will get in the way of the screw-on casing, then leave it where it is and the two prongs that are aiming up (on either side of where you soldered the ground) those should be bent around the cable housing to hold it snug.

 

[USAstrat]

Thanks paragon.

Well I resoldered, putting the ground through the hole and clamping the ground edges over the cable. Same problem exists : (

Nooo...anything else I should look for? I miss my e2c.

 

[Awk.Pine]

A few thoughts. (1) Is your source fine? Got another pair of headphones you can test it with? (2) If you change the balance to entirely left or right, do the headphones change balance as expected, even with the same tinny sound? (3) While the headphone is plugged in, and the source playing, does bridging the connection make a difference? Take a short scrap of wire, and connect from, eg, the plug's ground to the ground wire above the solder joint; no need solder, this is just temporary. (4) Where did you learn to solder? If you've effectively done the same job four times now, and the results are identical, there may be some systematic problem (you're trying to do the wrong thing) rather than a simple error (it didn't do what you intended).

Oh, and (5) don't give up. DIY can be very satisfying, but it requires learning skills, and everyone makes mistakes on the way.

 

[USAstrat]

WOW!
Okay, I'm so happy : ) I got the e2c's to work, and how it happened is completely lame. Basically, I have a case on my ipod. While I had dremeled out the top of it to make larger plugs fit in the headphone jack (the case had a small opening), the radioshack plug was ever so slightly too large to fitinto the the jack, and was not going completely in. So reading awk.pine's comment, I decided to go look for my old flash player. After finding it, I plugged in the ksc's and WHA-LA! it worked! I havent' actually tested them out on my ipod yet, cause i'm using it to sync some music at the moment. As soon as it's done I will test it, and assuming my "case" theory is correct, it should work. I still can't believe I didn't notice the plug wasn't all the way in, but it explains why it was playing in mono : /.

On another note, my ksc's still don't work. I treid them as well with my flash player, and no luck. Same thing happens. I'll post pics of the headphone-end of the soldering job asap.


Thanks to all who helped, and sorry for makiung such a "dumb" mistake. At least I won't do that again ; ).