Headphone repair, Ipod repair (separate, but didn't want to make 2 threads)

[Cream Soda]

Alright, broke the tip off of the part that plugs into the headphone jack on my Ipod



The first thing I did was contact Audio Technica and see about repairs (warranty is long gone). $33 and they replace the entire cable, not just that part.

That being said, I want to see if I can cut the end and cut the end of another pair of headphones and tie the wires together and hold w/ electrical tape. If it didn't work out in the end, they replace the whole cable anyways.

As is, they play out of the left ear(plugged into anything), and the right ear if you stick it in the Ipod where the other half is broken off into.






Annd as for the Ipod, I want to know how to get that piece out of the Ipod without damaging the Ipod. (aka, something like WD-40 probably wouldn't be a good idea). It's wedged in there like Gary Oak into Misty.

[Vandole]

you could probably get it out with a toothpick/bobby pin/needle or with a smidge of adhesive attached to the end of it. it won't be hard. i got a huge cake of lint out of my iphone once

[Norellicus]

Doing that ghetto shit with the electrical tape is going to make the connection dirty as fuck, you'll never have clear audio again. Probably.

As for getting the other thing out, could maybe try a straight pin.

[Isiolia]

Instead of cutting the cable from another set of headphones, I would buy a plug with places to solder onto. They aren't expensive (note, PA sells through Amazon, so you may get better shipping costs if you search for what you want on there). Not sure if the Audio Technica plug is one you could take apart or not (I have ATH-50s at home I could look at, but I'm at work). If it is, would be simpler than needing to cut the cable/etc.

iPod, not sure...some fine tweezers maybe? Worst case you should be able to buy a new jack/hold button assembly from iFixit for $30 or so. Most of them don't seem like they're open on the bottom or something to push the remains out of, but you could look at a teardown for whatever model you have to see if that might be viable.

[Cream Soda]

Alright, thanks. Would you mind PM'ing or posting back when you find out?

[Isiolia]

Alright, thanks. Would you mind PM'ing or posting back when you find out?

I think the answer here is "sort of". On mine, the actual plug is gold colored, the rest of the connector is silver. If you hold the plug with some needle-nose or something, you can unscrew silver part and it pulls off just fine...but the solder points are still under some hard rubber shell that seems fused on (or just really tight). My assumption is that you could cut that off and desolder the plug directly, but since my plug is still fine I'm not inclined to do so.

Pic:


You can just cut the cord too, strip it far enough back to put on a different plug, and go from there.

Honestly, not something I've actually had to do myself, though if you look on enthusiast forums, re-cabling headphones is something some people do entirely on purpose (there's even a thread here with more ideas for plugs). I've also stumbled across a couple mods for the ATH-50s going the other direction, putting a port in them to use a modular cable (like here).

[Jojimbo]

Semi related Q with headphones. My wires near the headphones themself (and for about 30cm) have gone hard and brittle, the rest of the wire is perfectly ok though. This has happened with a rubber necklace/bracelet as well and I have no idea wtf is causing it.

This was ok up until the insulating wire split (less than a a cm from the headphones iirc) and has exposed the actual wires, currently I have some insulation tape (all we had) wrapped around although the thicker support bit prevents a decent wrap.

In the event that it does break, could I just cut the wire further down where's it soft still and reconnect them into the headphones, instead of buying an entire new wire (Audio Technica again).

And does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? I don't really use any products and for this to happen to my headphones+necklace+bracelet or w/e (I think it happened to both anyway) is a bit weird, never had these problems before this.