This is a sad day for me :(

[aeroripper]

My 5.1 surround sound LTB headphones has been having that intermittent static sound in the right speaker. You know, if you've ever had a pair of headphones crap out on you and you get that one speaker that statics, and you play around with the wire and it only works when holding it a certain way.

these things cost $90 and I loved them for Natural Selection. I'm wishing I had $300 to spend on the wireless 2.4ghz 5.1 surround coming out next month from them... then this cord crapping on me non-sense wouldn't be an issue anymore and I can finally stop having to replace headphones.

Anybody ever fixed a pair of headphones before?

Here's the ones I have:

http://www.listentobelieve.com/ltb-usb-m.html

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by aeroripper

You know, if you've ever had a pair of headphones crap out on you and you get that one speaker that statics, and you play around with the wire and it only works when holding it a certain way.

Anybody ever fixed a pair of headphones before?

Do you have a soldering iron? Do you consider the headphones to be broken right now?

If so, then this is the perfect time to learn/practice soldering!

If you fix them, great! If you don't, well, you've still got a broken pair of headphones that need to be replaced...

[hayes321]

Medusa 5.1 surround sound!!! I got some about a month ago and i love them, they are priced at 130, but they're are worth it, http://medusa-usa.com/
Hope that helps, if you have any questions about them, ask and i can try and help you.

[Sarcoma]

I had a similar prob a few weeks ago, got myself one of those cool-touch sodering pens from radio shak ($20 or so) pulled the speaker out, fixed all the wires real solid like. Headphones are like new.

that was less than 25 bucks I spent on the pen and a little of the really small sodering wire or what ever its called. saved me a ton of money.

btw if you can tie your shoes you can soder, or If I can do it anybody can.

[aeroripper]

Originally Posted by Sarcoma

I had a similar prob a few weeks ago, got myself one of those cool-touch sodering pens from radio shak ($20 or so) pulled the speaker out, fixed all the wires real solid like. Headphones are like new.

that was less than 25 bucks I spent on the pen and a little of the really small sodering wire or what ever its called. saved me a ton of money.

btw if you can tie your shoes you can soder, or If I can do it anybody can.

Did they have the small sodering wire at radio shack too? What did it look like when you opened up, were the wires just sticking out and needed to be re-wired? Thanks I'm definitely gonna hafta look into it

[Sarcoma]

just go in and tell the Radio shack dudes your prob. They will have everything you need over in the electronics parts section.

Your problem MAY be the wire connections on the speakers. pop out a speaker, you will see two (two) wires sodered to the back of the speaker. will look like a glob of silver metal glue with a wire stuck onto/into it. My problem was the soder glob seperated from the speaker, so i just smothered it with soder real good. check your wires, strip the ends a bit more 4-5mm or so. and re-attach. the most important thing is the wires must make a solid connection with the contact on the back of the speaker.
If you have another short in your headset, well, good luck.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by aeroripper

Did they have the small sodering wire at radio shack too? What did it look like when you opened up, were the wires just sticking out and needed to be re-wired? Thanks I'm definitely gonna hafta look into it

That's going to be the hard part. You've got an intermittant open in a wire somewhere, right? You've got to find which wire is broken, where it's broken and then fix it. Unless there are physical indications of damage elsewhere, I'd start at the speakers, then down to the jacks. If it's not at either of those two places, you're probably better off just rewiring the whole thing.

And yes, Radio Shack will have everything you need to repair your headphones or to build a radio from scratch...

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by Sarcoma

soder

Originally Posted by aeroripper

soder

Am I going crazy? Is this soder a new invention? I was taught to SOLDER.

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

solder

Phew, it's not just me!

[Sarcoma]

no your not crazy...im just not spelling it right.

[ScratchMonkey]

Originally Posted by Sarcoma

Your problem MAY be the wire connections on the speakers. pop out a speaker, you will see two (two) wires sodered to the back of the speaker. will look like a glob of silver metal glue with a wire stuck onto/into it. My problem was the soder glob seperated from the speaker, so i just smothered it with soder real good. check your wires, strip the ends a bit more 4-5mm or so. and re-attach. the most important thing is the wires must make a solid connection with the contact on the back of the speaker.

It does take a little skill to solder well. The most common problem with solder joints is a "cold" joint. If the blob pops off, that's a really bad cold joint.

Solder works by "wetting" the metal while it's molten. If it doesn't properly wet (ie. spread out and adhere) to the metal, then the joint will not conduct well and may just fall off if it's really bad. If the metal has an oxide (think rust, but may not be easily visible, just a single atomic layer), the solder won't wet it. So you have to clean old exposed metal (typically done with fine sand paper) and then apply flux to help the hot solder wet it. (The flux keeps new oxide from forming.) Freshly-stripped wire will be clean, so for wire, just cut off the exposed part and strip some fresh stuff. (Oxide usually looks dull and flat.)

The bad joint is called "cold" because the other common problem besides oxide is that either the solder or the metal isn't hot enough for the solder to wet. Getting the solder hot enough is easy. Getting the metal hot enough is the hard part. You know it's hot enough when the solder stops forming a ball on the surface, and flattens down and "grabs" the metal.

To help heat the metal rapidly, you can "pre-tin" each part. That means heating up, for instance, one wire, until applied solder soaks into the strands. Then pre-tin the other part (eg. the connector or lug you'll be attaching the wire to). Heat it up until solder flows onto it. Finally, hold the two tinned parts together, heat them up, and the solder you've put on them will flow together and lock them in place.

Tinning is usually done to parts to be soldered when the part is manufactured. The applied solder protects the metal from oxide so that you don't have to clean it (sand the oxide off) before you solder to it. (If you look at unused holes in your motherboard, you'll see the shiny evidence of solder applied to protect the exposed copper. That's why exposed circuitry is shiny silver, not copper-colored.) If you're doing rework, you generally don't have to re-tin because the old solder has kept oxide away.

You want to hold everything very still until the solder re-solidifies, so no air pockets form inside the joint.

[CingularDuality]

Nice little tutorial, Scratch!

The only thing that I would add is that you don't particularly want the solder to be your conductor. When positioning the wire on the speaker terminal, loop it around it and apply a bit of pressure to ensure that the wire is making direct contact with the terminal. Hold it like this while soldering and while the solder is cooling. It will make for a much better electrical connection. That said, solder obviously conducts and I'm not sure if you'd be able to hear the difference between my way and if you had 3 mms of solder between the wire and terminal...

[aeroripper]

I pulled the speaker apart and it turns out the wire was getting frayed and bent around where it meets the earpiece. I think its just a crappy design on their part.

Anyways I stripped the wire right before the kink and cut off the rest above it and pulled out the wires and tied them together to the ones sticking out of the speakers then made sure all the speakers were working like norma again. Then I bought a little solder pen and "painted" some on them (I didn't put a big glob directly on them b/c I didn't want to burn up the wire inside). Anyways the cord is slighty shorter now but I can't even notice, and I tied them together with tape and a twisty tie at the V so it will hopefully be less stress on the wires from now on.

Thanks everybody! +rep for all

[aesop rock]

Originally Posted by aeroripper

My 5.1 surround sound LTB headphones has been having that intermittent static sound in the right speaker. You know, if you've ever had a pair of headphones crap out on you and you get that one speaker that statics, and you play around with the wire and it only works when holding it a certain way.

these things cost $90 and I loved them for Natural Selection. I'm wishing I had $300 to spend on the wireless 2.4ghz 5.1 surround coming out next month from them... then this cord crapping on me non-sense wouldn't be an issue anymore and I can finally stop having to replace headphones.

Anybody ever fixed a pair of headphones before?

Here's the ones I have:

http://www.listentobelieve.com/ltb-usb-m.html

This may seem extremely obvious, so forgive my asking, but don't those $90 headphones come with a lifetime warranty against wear/tear/defects? Most do, and would cover that type of problem. That is, of course, if you haven't SOLDERED IT :P.

And here it is: http://www.listentobelieve.com/supportform.html

[Iceberg]

Sennheiser. I swear by these headphones. Buy them, use them, abuse them. High quality, High wear and tear. I can not be any happier with any other headphones then these.

[Telorn]

I just found the Medusa headset at Overclockers UK for 25.95 pounds. That's $45.23. Even with international shipping, this will be much cheaper than the $130 from the US stores that sells them. All you need is a power converter to 110 volts which can be cheaply bought at Radio Shack.

I'm waiting on an e-mail reply from Overclockers UK on how much it'll cost to ship. I'll let you know.

And best of all, the UK has the headset in stock! The US website is saying late march will be the earliest for backorder shipments.