[homsar57]

Well I've had enough of just taking advise and other forum members time just for myself so I figured it was about time I give something back. It just so happened that the other day my crazy little brother got to my Creative Ep-630's (Thank god not my Grado's!) and chewed the wire up real bad, so bad in fact that they didn't work anymore! Faced with the tough decision of buying a new pair, or just re-cabling them and seeing as how I'm broke it was obvious. I had never attempted anything like this before; the extent of my modding was Kramar modding a pair of marshmallows and some Altec Lancing headset. (Which is crap imo.)
So now to find a decent cable.... so i opened my draw of random audio related purchases and picked out some cheap ($4 in fact) pair of earbuds I had purchased as backups. The earbuds themselves are nothing to write home about but the cable is fabric covered with a gold plated mini connector. This is very similar to the Zune premium earbuds. So I took em apart, worked my noobish magic and viola! The finished product

And a picture of them with my rig

If you're interested in the cable it can be had here on the cheap.

 

[LeonWho]

How's the sound quality compared to the original?

 

[homsar57]

Well, thats hard to say since mine have taken a lot of abuse over the year and a half I've owned them, plus I don't have much confidence in my sottering skills. Highs do seem a bit more emphasized and detailed now, though some of the bass is missing, partially fixed by amping them I've found. Mine seem a tad unbalanced from left to right but again, this appears to be my error seeing as how it's my first attempt at anything like this. But any sound at all is better than when they were broken lol.

 

[Bombyx]

So, your EP-630 had a wire transplant. Cool. How did you take them apart ?

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

What happened to that Zen ?

 

[ChristianC.]

can you please give detailed instructions on how to open the ep-630, if you got pics of the step by step please post it.

 

[lordnikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChristianC. /img/forum/go_quote.gif can you please give detailed instructions on how to open the ep-630, if you got pics of the step by step please post it.

x2

 

[shigzeo]

yeah, would be interesting

 

[homsar57]

Okay I'll update this with steps and pictures asap. I'm in school right now so i cant do much at the moment. Oh and as to what happened to my zen. Well a bunch of stuff; biking accidents, snowboarding accidents, dog, little brother. Good thing I'm getting a Zune 120 for christmas. (Found it in my Dad's closet lol)

 

[Trippytiger]

I'm impressed! Rewiring earbuds seems like a really finicky task. Did you have trouble keeping the wires separated and sorted out?

Also, thanks for pointing us towards those earbuds. My PK2 cable feels like it's going to be in need of replacing pretty soon, and those look like a good candidate to provide a donor cable!

 

[homsar57]

Wow its been awhile since I've been here. I sincerly apologize about the severe delay over this whole thing, lots of things have happened to me as of lately, though I don't wish to discuss all that mess I will continue to discuss the modding of said headphones.
First of all, I discourage anyone who really values their Ep-630's and doesnt have any previous experience in re-cabling from doing this-you may end up with a useless piece of plastic. I know I'm one to talk; as this was my first job of the sort, but it went surprisingly well. Plus I'd much rather start with a cheap earbud like this as opposed to say a Westone or a UE11.
Sadly, between the time I originally wrote this and now, my Ep-630s have been destroyed in a biking accident, (same with the bike and my arm, it healed though) so I don't have any more pictures for you all.
When going to take these apart I used a very small slot screwdriver and VERY GENTLY pried the silver ring off of each bud. BE CAREFUL WHILE DOING THIS!!! There is a small amount of adhesive attaching the plastic and the ring, and the plastic wall itself is VERY thin and if this isnt done correctly could result in a very messed up earbud.
Once taken off there should be 2 parts- the dome-like backing with the creative logo and wire, and the cylindrical tone tube attached to the driver that you put the foamy/silicon earpiece on. In the left and right buds there should be two wires each; color coded-keep this in mind.
Now we begin disassembling the cheaper earbud to take the cables from. Feel free to be less careful with these things as all you really need is the cabling itself. Use an xacto knife or very small Scissors( the kind on a swiss army knife is what I used) to take all the plastic off of it.This should leave you with the cable attached to the drivers. Note again that these are color codded.
Now Melt the sotter connecting one of the wires to the driver-noting the color on the cheap one, do the same to the respective colored cable of the EP, and using VERY MINIMAL sotter, attach the cable to the you just unsottered from the cheap one to the the one on the EP. Repeat this for all of the cables. Then CAREFULLY tie a small knot inside the casing so the sottering doesn't get yanked out if you pull on the cable to hard. Now put each earbud back together, and apply a little super glue-the official brand one or the equivalent off brand to each silver ring as you put it back on.(DONT USE ELMER S GLUE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HI-FI.)One last thing- stuff the space where the wire comes out of the earbud casing itself with a small amout of foam,just enough to seal it to maintain the closed form of the original. Allow a little time to dry and viola! Recabled Ep-630's