[mrdon]

Three months ago, a channel imbalance had developed in the right headphone of my then "just over 90 days" Sony MDR-SA5000's and I sent them to Sony for repair. Last week, I received my SA5k's back from Sony. I really love these phones and I was overjoyed to have them back. I listened to them and they worked beautifully until you guessed it...the right channel issue reappeared two days later.

I jiggled the cord a bit and it kind of fixed itself but then only to reappear again. I read through some head-fi threads that others have experienced a similar issue and the fix is to replace the rather cheap stock cord. Seeing that I could replace it myself, I ordered a 12ft. length of Mogami W2893 Miniature Quad Mic Cable and a gold Neutrik 1/4 plug from redco.com. Today, I assembled the cord and carefully soldered it to the drivers making sure I had the correct polarities. However, tonight when I plugged it in for a test, the imbalance was still there.

I jiggled things around but to no avail. I tested it with my ohmmeter and there appears to be some bleed in the two channels and ground. For example, when I connect the red lead to the left channel and touch the black lead to the right channel or ground, there is a sparking sound from the headphones. When this occurs the ohmmeter measures approx. 10 ohms.

Other than now selling these phones for parts and buying something else, any ideas of how to troubleshoot this issue?

 

[mrdon]

I just did some more troubleshooting. The right channel has basically no bass. Is it most likely a shot driver? But how could this happen?

 

[[AK]Zip]

Sounds like a factory defect. I would contact sony.

-Alex-

 

[mrdon]

Replacement driver is available!