[evilZardoz]

Hi,

I have a pair (two pairs, actually) of Sony MDR-E888LP headphones and both have busted cables on them. The cable break has been a result of damaged insulation and the cable has worn away/broke in that part.

Is there an easy way to fix these? The cable seems to have no insulation between the positive and negative wires which confuses me immensely. How the heck does this work? There is some sort of white cotton-like (fibreglass?) substance also inside the cable.

Has anybody performed a repair for such a pair of headphones and can tell me how much pain I'm in for?

thanks!

 

[Zombie_X]

Positive/negative wires usually are color coded. If you can determine which is which, you can just use electrical tape and put some between the wires, then wrap around the outside of the wires.

 

[flick]

Unlike thicker headphone wires (or any insulated wire for that matter), the leads on earbuds or top end headphones have each strand of the wires coated in a microscopic insulating plastic. This is to make the lead as thin as possible and also is what also gives them the colour, for polarity indication.

When you heat the wire with a soldering iron this melts the plastic off and allows you to flow solder onto the wires at that point and then join to the speakers and plugs at either end. Or wire to wire if the lead has snapped

Make sure you insulate after you make a join if there is a risk of shorting with other connections as the bare solder will short with other solder.

A good hint though is of you are soldering both + and - wires (in the event of a total lead snap/break) make the join each of wire about 10mm apart. Then each of your solder joints will have the coloured insulation directly next to it from the other wire and you'll then only need to insulate (with heatshrink tube or electrical tape) the overall ouside lead insulation..... keeping it nice and thin overall.

hope this helps!