[lukEM22]

The cable on my HFI's is way too long, I want to make it about 1.2 meters long, and it could be nice if I could make it detatchable, unless thats a lot harder.
 
Is simply cutting the cable at 2 spots and then soldering it back together fine? That seems like it would be easiest but I don't know if that will affect audio quality. I have been reading around the DIY thread and can't really find a simple guide to do it. I have the cable braided right now but its too heavy, which is why I plan on shortening it.
 
I saw a thread where someone made the cable detatchable, and it looked pretty tough. I have quite a bit of experience soldering and my grandpa has some good gear for it that he would let me borrow.
 
I really don't know where to start, or even what kind of stuff I would need, if any.

 

[lukEM22]

bump...

 

[Armaegis]

The simplest method is to just cut off the cable at the desired length and put on a new plug. There shouldn't be any loss of quality doing that.

 

[lukEM22]

any plug like this

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?PartNumber=092-157


is there only 1 connection wire I need to solder or would there be multiple?

 

[Armaegis]

There will be three wires inside the cable. One for each side, and the ground return wire.

 

[lukEM22]

does it matter where the left and right side cables are soldered? they go onto little tabs right? where does the return wire get soldered on?

 

[Armaegis]

... yes, it is critically important. I assumed that when you said you had a lot of soldering experience that you would know at least that much.
 
The ground wire is usually copper coloured, but not always. Best way to check is to open up the cups and look at the drivers and the wires attached to them to determine which colour corresponds to which side. The common colour is the ground. In the case of all four wires being different, you'll have to trace it back to the entry (where it likely attaches to a small circuitboard) and follow the paths to the cable and see which colours match up. 
 
On the plug, the tab closest to the centre is left, the next one is right, and the big outer one is ground. 

 

[lukEM22]

Soldering experience with nimh and nicd batteries, I know nothing about headphone soldering or how headphones work in general. I'm very new to this hobby.

do I have to add a new plug? can't I just cut and solder the wire?

 

[Armaegis]

You could... but that's a pretty weak connection. You'll want a couple pieces of glue-lined heatshrink just to hold the ends together, and probably some skinny ones for each individual wire so you don't accidentally short them.