stellarelephant
100+ Head-Fier
On the heels of my first success with headphone modding with the ATH-M50, my buddy asked me to fix his totally janky looking pair of old Sony cans. He reported intermittent crackling in the old coiled cable. I told him that I thought a removable cable would be the best long-term solution.
First thing I'll say as that these ancient MDR-V600 are surprisingly very good in terms of sound quality, and worth fixing up if you find an old pair for cheap. They have exceptional clarity and control without being harsh in the slightest. They definitely lack some high treble air due to an early roll off, but their upper mids and lower treble are crisp with great speed and detail. The bass does not dig super deep, but it is certainly more present than my old HD598, and considerably cleaner...no mud, very precise and pleasing. I like them a lot.
Here's how they came to me. The pleather was nearly completely worn off the pads.
Under the pads, I found a bunch of totally disintegrated black foam around and inside the driver. Yuck. Careful cleaning this crap out of the holes. The driver is made of insanely thin and brittle plastic. Where did this foam come from?
I did some searching and found images of brand new Sony cans of the same vintage with a ring of foam around the driver. I can only assume that this serves to direct sound to the ear and absorb ringing/reflections inside the earcup. Luckily, I had a sheet of 1/4" thick foam on hand, and I cut out some new foam rings. A mason jar lid and a shot glass bottom are about the right diameter for tracing
Hot glued them in.
Now on to the removable cable. I used the trusty "3.5mm Stereo Panel Mount Jack" from Parts Express, distributed by Amazon. Now, I have to hand it to Sony for building this headphone so well. As you can see, there are three screws holding the inside of the earcup to the driver. Thankfully, the outside of the earcup also comes off with the removal of a single screw, making the mod easier. CAREFUL. Once you remove this screw, its teeny tiny steel nut, inside a slot in the main earcup piece, will now be loose and prone to falling out. Remove it and set it aside. I nearly lost mine.
Before you start mucking around too much, I recommend putting some tape over the solder joints of the two wires that run to the Right ear cup. This keeps them from flexing. I cut the old cable and pulled it out of the housing.
The panel mount jack requires some routing out of the original cable exit hole to fit in there. I used a drill bit that was a little smaller than I needed, and wiggled it around to enlarge the hole. You also have to nip off a small amount of a plastic flange that is right inside of the hole, which would otherwise be in the way (sorry no pic). I used wire cutters and an exacto for this. The exit hole falls directly on the seam between the main ear cup housing and the removanle outside cap piece (see final pic). So I had to enlarge the half-hole on the cap piece a little too.
I chose not to reuse the wires for connecting to the new jack, but you probably could. They are tiny but probably use 5x the pathetic amount of copper that Audio Technica puts in their wires. Still, I have much stouter wire, so why not?
Here is how the jack fits through the hole after routing it out. Notice that the widest part of the barrel is actually going through the hole. This is necessary so that the threaded region protrudes past the outside cap of the earcup when that piece is reinstalled.
I cut and stripped the wires to length. and then fluxed and tinned the wires and the jack terminals thoroughly.
Here are some diagrams I found helpful for wiring it correctly. The solder pad locations in the first diagram are generic but its cool to understand how it all works. The wire colors all all you really need to worry about matching.
After testing for proper sound, I secured the outer earcup cap and tightened down the jack's nut against it. Mission accomplished.
Now I just need new earpads and these babies will have a new lease on life.
First thing I'll say as that these ancient MDR-V600 are surprisingly very good in terms of sound quality, and worth fixing up if you find an old pair for cheap. They have exceptional clarity and control without being harsh in the slightest. They definitely lack some high treble air due to an early roll off, but their upper mids and lower treble are crisp with great speed and detail. The bass does not dig super deep, but it is certainly more present than my old HD598, and considerably cleaner...no mud, very precise and pleasing. I like them a lot.
Here's how they came to me. The pleather was nearly completely worn off the pads.
Under the pads, I found a bunch of totally disintegrated black foam around and inside the driver. Yuck. Careful cleaning this crap out of the holes. The driver is made of insanely thin and brittle plastic. Where did this foam come from?
I did some searching and found images of brand new Sony cans of the same vintage with a ring of foam around the driver. I can only assume that this serves to direct sound to the ear and absorb ringing/reflections inside the earcup. Luckily, I had a sheet of 1/4" thick foam on hand, and I cut out some new foam rings. A mason jar lid and a shot glass bottom are about the right diameter for tracing
Hot glued them in.
Now on to the removable cable. I used the trusty "3.5mm Stereo Panel Mount Jack" from Parts Express, distributed by Amazon. Now, I have to hand it to Sony for building this headphone so well. As you can see, there are three screws holding the inside of the earcup to the driver. Thankfully, the outside of the earcup also comes off with the removal of a single screw, making the mod easier. CAREFUL. Once you remove this screw, its teeny tiny steel nut, inside a slot in the main earcup piece, will now be loose and prone to falling out. Remove it and set it aside. I nearly lost mine.
Before you start mucking around too much, I recommend putting some tape over the solder joints of the two wires that run to the Right ear cup. This keeps them from flexing. I cut the old cable and pulled it out of the housing.
The panel mount jack requires some routing out of the original cable exit hole to fit in there. I used a drill bit that was a little smaller than I needed, and wiggled it around to enlarge the hole. You also have to nip off a small amount of a plastic flange that is right inside of the hole, which would otherwise be in the way (sorry no pic). I used wire cutters and an exacto for this. The exit hole falls directly on the seam between the main ear cup housing and the removanle outside cap piece (see final pic). So I had to enlarge the half-hole on the cap piece a little too.
I chose not to reuse the wires for connecting to the new jack, but you probably could. They are tiny but probably use 5x the pathetic amount of copper that Audio Technica puts in their wires. Still, I have much stouter wire, so why not?
Here is how the jack fits through the hole after routing it out. Notice that the widest part of the barrel is actually going through the hole. This is necessary so that the threaded region protrudes past the outside cap of the earcup when that piece is reinstalled.
I cut and stripped the wires to length. and then fluxed and tinned the wires and the jack terminals thoroughly.
Here are some diagrams I found helpful for wiring it correctly. The solder pad locations in the first diagram are generic but its cool to understand how it all works. The wire colors all all you really need to worry about matching.
After testing for proper sound, I secured the outer earcup cap and tightened down the jack's nut against it. Mission accomplished.
Now I just need new earpads and these babies will have a new lease on life.
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