[ilikemonkeys]

I have a pair of Etymotic ER4's and they're going on 10 years old. Etymotic won't repair the miniplug for me and I don't really want to pay 50 bucks for a new Etymotic cable.

Just curious if this was a possible repair.

Thanks.

 

[rellik]

The wire is really low diameter and will be hard to manage. That and the conductive sections via cross section are really really small. My suggestion would be to build a brand new cable as the stock etymotic cable is built with the terminations taking this cross section effect into account. Adding solder will kinda meld the cross sections and the low gauge stock wire will sound like just bass which the ER4's just don't do well anyways.

Aftermarket cable vs stock cable may cause the drivers to fail earlier as well due to increased current in the really tiny driver and may give you a headache due to ultra high fq coupling to the ultra small driver from the increased current throughput of the new wire...it will probably sound better though if your amp can dissipate or sink this high fq ringing through a fast negative feedback or a strong trump signal(think resistance division(impedance matching) and/or holding the driver from ringing by keeping the input steady right at the driver and ground at the source steady...).

The problem is etymotic stock cable is quite compliant and sealed in ear drivers suffer from extreme microphonics of the wire moving against clothing. This is the worst part...