SA5000 Restoration

[FA22RaptorF22]

Hey Folks,

I don't think I've been around here much since around the time of purchasing these headphones back when they were introduced in what 2008? I was able to enjoy them for quite awhile until the right side cut out maybe 10 years ago and they sat in storage since then. Thinking it was a faulty Y split, I planned a re-cable for them. Oh did it turn out to be more.

	The SA5K comes with a thin OFC cable which is also single ended. Not great if you want to tame the highs of these cans or use a balanced amp or even have different adapters. This calls for some mini star quad L-4E5C (10 feet) and Neutrik 4pin XLR! Starting at the connector side I trim it down, tin the wires and heat shink the shield.​
	Mini star quad doesn't have markings on the wires so white for the left/ blue for the right + shield. Don't worry you can figure out polarity with a meter later. Use this guide for pinouts https://robrobinette.com/BalancedCable.htm#Make_a_Four_Wire_Balanced_Line_Headphone_Cable_ Generally 1W - L+ 2W - L- 3B - R+ 4B - R -
	Ripped down the other side for the Y split. The shield is braided, its best to not try and cut it but break the braid a strand at a time then pull it off via "caterpillering". Use the natural braid of the starquad and unwind them counterclockwise and they will rebraid.
	Covered the individual sides in heatshrink 1/8". the 1/16" was very tight and would take forever to get wires through. The 1/8" stuff was quality and shrunk up well. I used a gas stove for the shrinking since it was a big area. After shrinking the headphone cables, use another piece of shrink to hold the Y split better.
	Once that's done just feed the wires through and add a tiny zip tie for the strain relief
	The fun part... well at least I thought... Determine polarity of the connector to the wires. On the drivers the RED mark is your positive terminal. Now for a test run... I plug in a quick audio source annnnnd No sound on the right side .. Checked all my wiring and quickly realized its the driver Onto the fun part!
	I started using a guide from GREQ as a reference point https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-mdr-sa3000-driver-repair.968108/ Looked straightforward enough.... that is if I could see what I was doing. Seriously fine tweezers and a microscope are required
	As GREQ explained in the SA3000 article, the only way to do this is by lightly grabbing the wire and slowly separating it with a sharp knife. I'm telling you this is the smallest, most fragile thing ever. I tried to keep the wire flat and straight while forcing the pair of wires apart carefully. This makes a sort of Y shape which can then be used to solder to the pads.
	Here is the grand finale, the back plate is carefully slid over to align the notch with the wire, and at the same time aligning the voice coil into the magnet slot. Sorry for lack of detail here, I was excited to move along. The biggest thing here is to make sure the depth of the backplate is set the same as when it was removed otherwise you won't get proper sound. Also while its a tight fit and the driver won't move, best to seal the edges of the backplate so all the air from the back of the cone is forced out the bass hole. The wire which was pointing straight up is bent over slowly onto the pads to which I heated up while keeping slight pressure on the wire with the tweezers. I measured resistance right after and to my suprise it was within spec of 71 +/- 1Ohm (Sony lists 70 OHM at 1KHz). After testing we need to be sure the wires won't break again. This is best done by completely encasing the thin wires in something (like the factory ceramic potting). I opted for hot glue, which I think works well since it has some give and hopefully doesn't make the wires as brittle
	Lastly with this restoration I opted for new genuine leather pads by Silvian from Beautiful Audio https://www.beautifulaudio.biz/products/sony-mdr-sa5000-black-leather-earpads These things are among the best of quality. Not cheap but nothing good is! Custom hand made better than original replacements. If you care about your headphones, treat them to proper earpads.. not $3 ebay ones! Now they feel and sound as good as they look. The last step will be cleaning up some wear marks on the magnesium frame and they will be good as new.