[mlantinen]

 
Uh oh.  This is definitely a code red.

 

Neither of my drivers are working.  

 

1) I've recabled 3 or 4 sets of headphones including another set of grados.  I marked which side was positive and which was negative when I took the cable off. I resoldered the way they originally were.  Nothing.  I also tried reversing the pos and neg leads and still nothing.  The last pair of grados I recabled I had the pos and neg backward at first but then I simply switched them around and they worked just fine...so I don't think accidentally attaching them incorrectly can ruin them....can it?  I tried the original grado cable and one of my new ones.  Also, the solder tabs are in place and not loose.  

 

2) I did accidentally have them plugged into my amp as I re-soldered for the third time.  Can that ruin them?  I doubt that it could and besides...that was after I had already tried them a couple times (resoldering without them plugged in).

 

3) Could rubbing the face of the drivers on sandpaper ruin them?  I wanted to sand down the plastic face of the drivers and make them shiny because I liked them without the cheesecloth.  Could this have created an electrical shock or something?  I know I never felt a shock at any time, so I doubt it could be that.

 

4) As a side question, if you drop a grado driver (which I didn't) can it ruin it?  Can something come loose inside?

 

 

Anyone have any ideas?  

 

This may end up being one of the worst days of my adult life and I'm about to go ape.

 

[bozebuttons]

You may have overheated the voice coil wire ,it is very thin & easy to do underneath the white compound on the tabs.If thats the case the drivers are toast.

 

[mlantinen]

 
Ok. This my rank up there with one of the most insane things anyone has done to a worthwhile set of drivers.  

 



 

Ok.

 

1)Does anyone know if that copper voice coil is supposed to be glued or affixed into it's groove?  It comes out by just blowing on it.  I don't see any glue residue of anything telling me that it was permanently affixed.

 

2) Also, does anyone know what the clear plastic does?  I'm assuming it helps create the sound but it was loose when I cut open the top of the driver.  I was extremely careful so I know I didn't pop it loose and it's still in perfect condition.  I might be able to glue it back into place with a couple dots of super glue.  

 

Edit: With the clear plastic held into place the voice coil does not come out of it's groove that I can tell.

 

3) You can see the two copper leads going to the voice coil are intact so it can't be those causing the problem.  

 

4) Can dust or bits of dirt/plastic on the driver or voice coil cause and problem?

 

So I'm stumped.  It looks perfectly fine assuming the voice coil is supposed to be un-anchored to the bed of the groove around the actual driver itself.  It seems like these drivers are fairly robust and could handle some jarring assuming the leads to the voice coil aren't broke. 

 

[mlantinen]

 
 
Quote:

You may have overheated the voice coil wire ,it is very thin & easy to do underneath the white compound on the tabs.If thats the case the drivers are toast.

Would that mean that the voice coil wire would be severed?  Or would it still be intact but just not functional?
 
I really don't think I did that.  I barely touch the surface of the solder to heat it just enough to push down the cable.  
 
I fried an Audio Technica driver due to this though, so I'm kinda familar with what you're talking about.  But in that case I had heated it too much and the tab came off.  My tabs appear to be perfectly fine assuming the voice coil wires are intact underneath.

 

[mlantinen]

Should I suck the solder off the tabs and re-apply new solder?

 

[bozebuttons]

The clear plastic is the driver membrane which vibrates to make the sound,you need to reattach it.The copper voice coil just sits in the magnet.
It looks like your voice coil wires are still intact.

 

[bozebuttons]

 
Quote:

Should I suck the solder off the tabs and re-apply new solder?

No,
   Put the clear plastic membrane back. 

 
 

 

[eujaee]

 
Bad news, that copper coil is supposed to be attached to the diaphragm.  I don't know if this is the case with all headphones, but on "How It's Made", they showed how an AKG was put together.  The glue used was UV cured and very thin, I don't believe super glue would be a good replacement because it would change the mass of the diaphragm.  I suppose at this point you got nothing to lose by trying, but my non-pro opinion is you need new drivers.  Bilavideo is the master of all things Grado, and possibly other things.  Hopefully he can hook you up.
 
Better luck.

 

[bozebuttons]

The video pretty much sums up what you did wrong,You may want to try wellwood contact cement(hardware store/home depot) to try & get the voice coil glued back to the membrane & also glue the membrane back to the plastic housing.
Its worth a shot but pretty much you will need new drivers.

 

[Danthrax]

You should put a warning on this thread: "Graphic Murder of Headphones"

 

[joelpearce]

I really hope those were just the SR60s...

 

 

[Danthrax]

Bill always says to just push the mylar back onto the coil but I don't know I really don't know...

 

[mlantinen]

Hey guys, I confirmed from alphones and spork42 that the voice coil can be re-attached with contact cement then the outer edge of the mylar can be re-attached with contact cement as well.  alphones said he's had some success with this. 
 
 
Question:  Does anyone know about the terminals or the "tabs" where the cables are soldered?  If there was a small area where the tab was damaged (the shiny thin metallic layer was pulled off) wouldn't the conduction through the rest of the solder attached to the undamaged area of the tab allow for current to pass through properly still?
 
 
Question: Does anyone know how to replace these types of terminal tabs if one is damaged.  I've been searching and searching but I can't seem to find an answer to this. 
 
 
I've just gotta think that assuming the magnet and mylar diaphram is fine and the voice coil isn't burned then these should be fixable, even if I have to remove the tabs and dig out the plastic to get at the voice coil leads to repair them.  I've been reading up on speaker repair and it seems like every post I read has a successful speaker repair story.  Voice coil leads can be resoldered, some magnets can be re-magnetized, voice coils can be replaced (I know my voice coils could not though).  Even if my mylar diaphragm was ruined I could rip one from an SR60 if I needed to, I would think.
 
 
With all that said, it blows my mind that at first look, all Grado drivers have the same parts, yet can have drastically different sound depending on the density and strength of the magnet, I would suppose.