[Gensou]

So since the padding on the Fidelio X1 is not removable I decided to wash them..completely.
Water + dish detergent seemed to get a lot of the grease and dirt out.
I let them dry for 3 days.
Plugged them in, seemed to sound fine at first.
 
But upon closer listening I noticed that something just sounds off and I can't put a finger on it. Things seem more distant, could this be a result of water damage?
 
Any way to fix this? Possible moisture trapped?

 

[Armaegis]

Er... you dunked the entire headphone? You might very well still have water in the headphone, or damaged any paper backing/filters, left a soap film on the driver, etc etc etc.
 
Put them over an air vent for a couple days and report back. Some deoxit sprayed into the jacks wouldn't hurt (assuming removeable cables, I don't remember).
 
For future reference, dish detergent is actually somewhat abrasive. If you're going to attempt something like that again, regular hand soap will do.

 

[fjrabon]

could be three things:
 
1) residue left in the felt covering over the driver.  This is the most likely culprit.  It's highly likely you couldn't get all the soap out, and as it dried, it made the covering less permeable to sound. try cleaning it again with distilled water, VERY carefully.  If you can smell any soap type perfumes, this is likely at least part of what happened.  When I washed my grado L pads, I had to repeatedly rinse and ring them out at least 4-5 times.  Ringing them hard.  Since you couldn't do this at all with attached pads, my guess is there's a lot of soap still in the pads that got even less sound transparent as it dried/crystalized.
 
2) water damage.  I think this is somewhat unlikely, as water damage would tend to have shorted the thing out, not just make it sound bad.  But it is possible that the water and soap eroded the driver somewhat. Unfixable.
 
3) residue left on the driver.  Similar to #1, but some soap got on the driver and then dried.  Unfixable without risking totally screwing your headphone up by taking it apart and cleaning the driver with alcohol for something you don't even know for sure is the culprit.  If you are sure this is the culprit though, take it apart and use a cleaning kit for dslr (digital camera) sensors.

 

[fjrabon]

  Er... you dunked the entire headphone? You might very well still have water in the headphone, or damaged any paper backing/filters, left a soap film on the driver, etc etc etc.
 
Put them over an air vent for a couple days and report back. Some deoxit sprayed into the jacks wouldn't hurt (assuming removeable cables, I don't remember).
 
For future reference, dish detergent is actually somewhat abrasive. If you're going to attempt something like that again, regular hand soap will do.

my interpretation is that he just used a cloth and washed just the pads carefully by hand, not dunked it.  If he dunked it, the thing is likely unfixable and will only further continue to sound worse as the detergent continues to corrode the delicate interior elements.  

 

[Gensou]

Nope, I dunked 'em. 
I took em apart, rather, ripped them apart since the pads don't twist off or anything. Apart from a ton of black gunk glue **** everywhere it wasn't bad. I wiped down the stuff and applied some deoxit to the solder points. Gonna let it sit with its guts out for a bit to air out.
Took it apart down to the driver btw, nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure why it sounded so distant.

 

[Andreeww]

Once my friend did this to his ue900,but the iem was fine.

 

[Armaegis]

When you say it sounds more distant... like everything is an echo? Is there also a large drop in volume? If yes to both of those, you likely have a broken ground wire.

 

[Gensou]

  When you say it sounds more distant... like everything is an echo? Is there also a large drop in volume? If yes to both of those, you likely have a broken ground wire.

Yes and yes. There is a very very slight echo and there is definitely a significant drop in volume. How to fix? I'm not sure which wire is ground but I have a soldering kit.

 

[Armaegis]

First you have to determine if it's the cable or the headphone. Do you have another cable you can try? Do you have a multimeter? Check for continuity in the cable.
 
If it's the cable... well, simpler to just replace the cable instead of trying to fix it (but I can walk you through it if needed)
 
If it's the headphone, my guess would be likely the jack either has a broken solder joint on the ground or residue on the sleeve is preventing contact with the plug.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Nope, I dunked 'em. 
I took em apart, rather, ripped them apart since the pads don't twist off or anything. Apart from a ton of black gunk glue **** everywhere it wasn't bad. I wiped down the stuff and applied some deoxit to the solder points. Gonna let it sit with its guts out for a bit to air out.
Took it apart down to the driver btw, nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure why it sounded so distant.

 
Wait...what?! So you dunked the headphones first, then took them apart?! You should have taken them apart first then dunked them, if at least to not dunk the drivers and the cables soldered to them.
 

  Yes and yes. There is a very very slight echo and there is definitely a significant drop in volume. How to fix? I'm not sure which wire is ground but I have a soldering kit.

 
Look for the - or GND. Still, since you dunked them, you might as well resolder all of them.

 

[Gensou]

   
Wait...what?! So you dunked the headphones first, then took them apart?! You should have taken them apart first then dunked them, if at least to not dunk the drivers and the cables soldered to them.
 
 
Look for the - or GND. Still, since you dunked them, you might as well resolder all of them.

Thanks a ton! I went ahead and sprayed down the solder points with some deoxit and then after a while I went ahead and re-soldered. 
They sound much better. 
 
The reason I washed them first is because I tried taking off the cups but it was too difficult and I did not want to damage anything. After hearing the muffled sound I just went full tilt and decided to go ahead and rip them off.
Funny thing though, the pads took some prying to get off as they're glued with some black gum ****. But, they just snap back on easily. It just seems they made removing the pads difficult for the sole purpose of it being difficult, maybe had a X2 already planned?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
The reason I washed them first is because I tried taking off the cups but it was too difficult and I did not want to damage anything. After hearing the muffled sound I just went full tilt and decided to go ahead and rip them off.

 

I hope you realized by now that there's something contradictory in those two parts I highlighted?.Headphones have electronic components, although passive, and many parts can be damaged by water immersion, like corrosion in the copper parts or the driver diaphragms getting warped even if they're not made of paper unlike some speakers.

 

Dunking the whole thing in water because you don't want to damage it would be tantamount wanting to clean the carpet in your car, but you couldn't remove it and not wanting to damage anything you just decided to put a bucket of car shampoo inside the cabin then drove the car into a pond. That's just not how things work; even when people take Grados apart using hot water they immerse the side of the cup with the grill on it instead of dunking the side where the driver is mounted.
 

 
Funny thing though, the pads took some prying to get off as they're glued with some black gum ****. But, they just snap back on easily. It just seems they made removing the pads difficult for the sole purpose of it being difficult, maybe had a X2 already planned?

 

Hold on with the conspiracy theories about their marketing and engineering departments and learn how to properly deal with the equipment first, regardless of how they're put together. 

If you want to remove earpads stuck on with adhesive try a hair dryer on high heat setting to partially melt the adhesive, then you can pull it off easier. Still, you need to watch the angle you use it - you should blow it at an angle from the side and avoid having high velocity warm air slamming into the drivers inside the earcups.