Hi, Im trying to put a higher quality cable onto my headphones, and not sure where to start or if it’s even possible.
My requirements:
Braided Cable
Higher quality solder (so they don’t keep breaking)
Higher quality 3.5 mm jack (if that’s even possible)
Higher quality thicker copper for the cord
The headphones in question, and all the connections
Pause Button (Optional)
Any help would be greatly appreciated
I hate to say it but unless you want this to be a learning experience and you don't care about price, you'd be better off buying new headphones.
Also, if the solder keeps breaking, the solder isn't the problem. The wire should be held securely at a previous point; if the strain is on the solder, then that previous point has failed. Every modern electrical device has strain relievers where a moving wire connects to a device, and those strain relievers are meant to take the physical forces and protect the wire.
Looking at the pics in that Amazon link, it looks like this device is cheaply made, and so it has no visible strain relievers, which is probably a huge part of the problem. If you're dedicated to fixing these headphones even if it gets more expensive than a new pair, you should improve the strain relief situation. If I'm fixing a broken or missing strain reliever, I'll often use wraps of electrical tape, built up to increase the thickness. It doesn't look great, but it is something. A better solution is shrink-tubing, in layers, but that gets even more pricy. Not super expensive, just a bit more pricy.
> I hate to say it but unless you want this to be a learning experience
That’s exactly what I want.
The soldiering isn’t too much of an issue, my main problem is figuring out all the wiring.
I don’t know how many cooper wires I need in the cord and where.
I don’t know how to attach a new 3.5 mm jack to my new cord, or if I should just buy a premade cord with a 3.5 mm jack already attached. And if I do buy one, how do I know it’ll have enough cooper wires for what I need
I don’t know to get braided cable for the exterior
I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I really want to learn how to do it
All great questions! The easiest way to deal with the repair would be to use an existing wire with a plug on the end, no pause button, and you could get that from another damaged headphone device.
It would probably have three wires in the main cable and then after the splitter, each side would have two wires. Of the three in the main cable, one carries left signal, one carries right signal, and one is ground, aka return; ground is the only wire that would actually split at the splitter. Each headphone would get two wires; one signal, and one return/ground. A pause button complicates the situation; I don't know how those are wired, and as far as I know they work differently for Apple vs Android.
As another person said, these very thin wires are often varnished; each individual strand of wire is covered in a flexible varnish, which insulates it. That varnish needs to be removed before you can solder the wire; I know it is possible but I don't know how. I'd imagine it's done chemically, since the strands are far too thin to withstand any attempt to physically remove the varnish. If I were to try it without finding that info, I'd try burning the varnish off first, then cleaning it very well with a wire brush, and lots of solder flux. Not sure if that would work, but it *seems* like it might. I've never successfully tried anything like this because those wires are so damnedly thin and delicate, I gave up when I tried as a kid.
Are you trying to learn soldering skills, general repair skills, electronics skills, all of the above? Your answers might suggest a more simple starter project.
Most headphones rely on a varnished braid to keep the wire so small. If you’re replacing with something else, be mindful of cable thickness. It might look heavier gauge copper but will probably just be more insulation (not needed)
You will be adding a lot of bulk to the mix
Fyi you won’t see a real difference in audio quality, the power transmission on headphones is super small. The reason headphones sound like headphones is that they generally don’t have active drivers, and the speaker itself is small
Higher quality solder isn’t really a thing (rohs is somewhat prone to cracking but probably not what you’ve got)
> Most headphones rely on a varnished braid to keep the wire so small. If you’re replacing with something else, be mindful of cable thickness. It might look heavier gauge copper but will probably just be more insulation (not needed)
I just looking for something a bit more durable so nothing fancy
> You will be adding a lot of bulk to the mix
Im ok with that
> Fyi you won’t see a real difference in audio quality, the power transmission on headphones is super small. The reason headphones sound like headphones is that they generally don’t have active drivers, and the speaker itself is small
Not really looking for increased audio quality, just durability
> Higher quality solder isn’t really a thing (rohs is somewhat prone to cracking but probably not what you’ve got)
Alright, I’ll keep that in mind
In cables — durability and fancy are pretty much the same.
If you buy “regular” wire, try to find how many cycles it is designed to bend for.
High flex count wiring is quite expensive.
The other option is see if you can just fit a a 3.5mm jack in there. Then its never an issue again and if they get pulled on it just disconnects. Also usb 2.0 cables have enof wires for this (4) fyi and there cheap and easy to get hold of.
OP — this is excellent advice
Check out this sub r/DIYAudioCables/
I’ll do that thank you
you could buy a cable that has a 3.5mm stereo plug on one end and two RCA plugs on the other end. cut off the RCA plugs, expose the copper, route them through the headphones and solder. use zip ties as mentioned earlier as strain relief. i did this when i recabled my brother's Sennheiser HD201. want a better 3.5mm plug? find a Neutrik branded one.
bonyponyride t1_jb5f202 wrote
If your solder points are breaking, it could be because their isn't adequate strain relief, or you're creating cold solder joints. To the first point, pulling on a cable should never put direct tension on solder joints. You could try wrapping a small zip tie around the cable on the part that stays inside the headphone casing, so that pulling on the cable puts pressure on the cable where the clamped zip tie contacts the headphone casing.
As for cold solder joints, you just have to make sure to properly tin the wire and solder point before connecting them. The solder point needs to be hot enough to make the solder adhere securely. Doing this over and over will probably start melting the plastic around the hot metal, so it's not great to solder and resolder a spot over and over.