Hello everyone.
First please notice the mostly removed < jennifercrock at jenalabs.com> postings. Those postings from the UK were bogus and were removed.
We understand that quite often on forums some assumptions will be made that don't always depict an actual sequence of events in the order the evolved.
That leads to confusion and anger.
So with a calm mind we have a detailed sequence of actions and states of efforts noted and performed on what must be admitted to be a well traveled set of Sony R-10's
Perhaps if we realized that these would end up a star attraction we would have better documented every minute with minutia documentation... but we did not assume such would have been necessary.
When we received the R-10 the first time they were ALREADY modified.
* I noticed this on page 32 of this forum message 316*
"I had mine recabled to go balanced, which did improve them abit. Some people DO know how to recable R10, though all are leary of the expensive risk and most won't hazard it. This is part of why the price is higher than for other recables.
Mikhail did it. He did not leave short wires that he soldered the new cable to. He was able to remove the driver in my case, so did it in the best way. He tells me he always tries do this first, but if he can't safely remove the driver he resorts to leaving the shortest possible wire to solder to. Clearly reports that he alway cuts and solders are inaccurate and typical of the unfounded assertions and opinions rampant in this thread from all sides."
If Mikhail did not remove the driver as is his normal approach, ( the first mod prior to JENA Labs receiving these headphones ) Then it was because something alerted him that he should not have done so... What was that abort point for him? How much pushing and pulling occurred before not going any further?
We don't know who worked on the headphones before they were sent to us. There are inferences in the chain posting that it may have been Mikhail, but PLEASE DO UNDERSTAND THIS> We Don't know who worked on them first!! And we are not making assertions that it was anyone in particular, it just was not us!
We only mention this because ultimately we did have to splice a driver coil wire after these were returned on the third time. Perhaps we should have notified Scott of the “kinked” driver coil wire but at that time it was a judgment call to simply fix it with solder, a length of fine wire and placed it with a a few drops of epoxy. We believe that the pushing and pulling of lead wires into and out of the cup during the first rewire job damaged the voice coil wire which led to its eventual failure. We also believe that at the time of original manufacture, the length of voice coil wire between the body of the driver and the terminal was not properly routed, leaving an exposed portion of wire unsupported. Had the phones never been take apart, this would likely never been a problem.
Note - pictures from start of the thread, page 1 first entry
The torn urethane spongy material and fabric 'filter' shown in the photos on "A Pure Sound" had already been damaged before we got them. The cushions were also not installed properly, as the 2 metal pins that fit into corresponding alignment holes were not in those holes, and had been simply bent over. The adhesive surface of the cushion that is intended to hold it to the ear cup had very little adhesion left to it. We DID use a series of double coated adhesive strips on the cushions to help them hold in place, as the original adhesive surface would lo longer hold the pads in place. Removing the spongy material and the fabric to gain access to the drive units was a delicate operation. They were stuck down with lots of glue in a manner that we had not seen on other the R10s we had previously worked on.
When Scott was not happy with the now improved and validated headphones...
*reviewed and heralded by others than ourselves* (Part of a validation process we employ sometimes to get others to notice the quality of our work... Not casual, very controlled exposure to others qualified to judge. )
...we said we would put lighter gages of our ultra wire.
When he returned those, repeat of a full processing of events with a new smaller harness...
...and at that point we said that we would restore to the factory wiring.
They were sent back to us *_*already disassembled*_* from the head band by an unknown party. We received them in pieces!, missing the entire head. we had to send back the headphones with the stock wire now attached with NO headband and with no way to properly test them. We believe that when someone later did install the headband, they pulled on the wires and again created additional damage.
This turned out to be a real loose/loose deal for everyone involved. The headphones were already worked on before they were sent to JENA Labs. The sponge material and fabric screening were already messed up and torn here and there, with excess glue used to put it back together before we ever saw them. Lead wires had been spliced poorly with the splice and very stiff solid core wire being shoved back into the ear cup. It is here where we believe the original problem with the voice coil wire developed, being tugged or pushed on by the wire mass being pushed in. We did our best to place the previously damaged urethane foam and screen fabric back in place each time the headphones were apart. We KNOW that some of the damage the Alex found was done before we ever saw the headphones. Some of it was done putting the headband back on by persons unknown, we believe that the ripped lead wires he found was caused by whoever it was that put the headband back on.
Several weeks went by after they were returned to Scott the final time before he agreed to pay us anything. Eventually we agreed on only $1000. This was plenty of time for him to have heard any defects and to have said so. Later on they apparently failed and Scott sent them to Alex. Alex found the same original damage to the foam and other elements of the headphones that we did and that we had to deal with. He also found the voice coil wire repair that we performed. This was a repair made because of a condition that PRE-EXISTED our involvement with the headphones. Scott then demanded a refund of $700, and later yet a larger amount in excess of $1000. We refused, citing the preexisting condition and the fact that in the final install of the stock wire he send us the headphones in pieces and we had no control over how there re-disassembled to put a headband back on them. He then threatened to "ruin our reputation" if we didn't pay up, so he went public with it.
As I said there does seem to be quite a few assumptions on this forum and the exact sequence of events is being assumed rather than understood.
Perhaps we were brave to attempt to work on pre-distressed headphones but a part of our character is to do what others will not.
I don't think we need to apologize to anyone, but we have learned from this experience...
Something about rare customers.
Something about forums and chaos.
And something about never touching someone else's damaged goods.
JENA Labs.
I digress...
