Soldering replacement plug on headphones..

[Lee Cardan]

I'm pretty darn good at soldering if I may say so
But I just can't solder a replacement plug onto these headphones

Beyer DT770, curly cord
Inside are the three lacquered cores

I've tried burning off the lacquer (couldn't get anywhere), scraping with a knife is usually no problem for me and gave that a good go, scraping very carefully for almost an hour but the solder just doesn't hold to this wire for whatever reason.. it must, but I just can't get it

any thoughts?

[Alistair]

Are they conducting or is it non-conductive due to the lacquer?

If it's conducting, use some flux. If it's not conducting, try VERY carefully using some sidecutters to cut an angle into the end of the cable to expose some conductive wire.

I've also opened up some headphones that have a loose braided shield on the outside, that is some sort of coloured non-conductive metal. That stuff is an absolute pain and you just have to cut it and pull it apart to work on.

[audioio]

Inside are the three lacquered cores

I feel your pain. Virtually all the manufacturers do this... sometimes it appears as if each strand of copper is coated with a fibre sheath.

I think it's a ploy to make us pay for a new pair of headphones or an over-priced replacement cable.

[Thirteen]

I think that they are not designed to be soldered, isn't that material usually crimped or clamped?

[Ben M]

There are screw terminal trs jacks available online which may make things easier.

[rob]

yeah ... headphone cables ... darn hard. Each strand is individually coated.

I usually have success by getting as much solder onto the iron tip as possible and just sitting the wire into the blob of solder until you see the varnish burn off and the solder take to the wires. So this is tinning or prepping the wires before you even get a plug out of the drawer. If you have a variable temp iron, crank it up a bit and just give it time for the heat transferred through as much molten solder as you can get, to burn off the insulation.

[Lee Cardan]

Ok Rob I'll give the burning another shot!
What a pain in the butt they are though.. If the solder thing works then that'll be fantastic

Failing that, screw terminal plugs it is

Thanks guys

[Sammas]

Are you particularly attached to the curly cord?

I found it easier to replace the whole lead on a pair of AKG's. Similar situation... no luck soldering the existing leads as they appeared to be coated in something. When I popped off the cover of the earpiece that the cord enters I found a nice set of solder terminals to work with.

[Hookemeister]

Not sure if this will help you Lee, but I do remember some headphone cables that used stainless steel wire, so you would have a hard time getting solder to take to that.

but while we're on the subject of headphones...

Back in the days when I used to burn the midnight oil doing studio maintenance I had to repair a whole bunch of faulty headphones with blown drivers... I think they might have been of the Fostex variety.

The drivers had aluminium terminals and the only way you could solder to them was to use aluminium solder.

Also remember trying to solder plugs onto the Sennheiser headphone cables, that was also a nightmare.

Shoot of an email to Beyer... of course they'll want to sell you a cord assembly or a new set of headphones... but tell them you need to solder an XLR on to the end of the cable... and maybe they'll share a few secrets!

A few Soldering tips:

Always file the surface you're going to solder to... Solder will run off a shiny surface like mecury off glass.
Make sure you file back to the brass under the plating... I don't know how many plugs I've resoldered over the years as a result of the cheap plating breaking away from the brass on chrome or nickel plated jack plugs.

Tin the wires and the connector terminals before trying to solder the two together. Hold the tinned wire against the terminal and heat the terminal from underneath with the tip of the iron. When the solder on the terminal starts to melt, the solder on the tinned wire will then flow and you should end up with a smooth flat solder joint.

The advantage of this method is you're not applying the heat to the wires and therefore hopefully not melting the insulation. Remember, when soldering, always apply the tip of the iron to whatever has the most mass... usually the terminal... and if possible appy the tip to the underside as heat rises and will be transferred efficiently.

Note: If you end up with a ball of solder on the terminal, instead of a smooth flat solder joint, then you'll need to start again.

Last but not least, I always keep a small bottle of flux around for those difficult soldering situations. brush a bit onto both surfaces before soldering.

Now the Hookemeister tip of the week.... Never, ever, solder in shorts... ouch!

Hope this helps