I have a set of headphones that the insulation covering the wires is cracking and ripping apart in several places, exposing the wire strands. Normally I would just buy a new pair, but these are Shure E2C’s which are anything but cheap. I want to make them last as long as possible. I tried superglue but it only lasted a few days. Is there anything I can do to preserve my headphones for a few more months?
Why not electrical tape? Cosmetically it’s not so good, but it should do the job.
Have you ever used heat shrink tubing? If you can slip it over the end of the cable to the spot that needs patching, it would probably work nicely. You buy it at radio shack in various diameters and use the smallest one that you can get on there, then you wave a cigarette lighter under it to get it to shrink. It turns out nice and tidy.
Heat shrink tubing is nice stuff, I agree, but the problem with it in this case is that it only shrinks by about 50%. If it’s big enough to slip over the plug end, it’s going to be loose on the wire even when fully shrunk (Shrinked? Shrunken?)
If I were going to make this repair I’d either replace the entire cord with one from a cheaper set of 'phones, or I’d cut off the existing molded phone plug, make the repair with an appropriate size of heat shrink and replace the phone plug with a solder-tab type.
I have put some on it, but I don’t think electrical tape will hold out for long, with all the pulling and bending these wires have to do. Not to mention they won’t fit in their case if they’re all taped up. If it’s the only thing I can resort to, I will, but I’m thinking surely there’s a better solution.
Well most of the cracks are above where the wires split, so the tubes would have to fit over the ear pieces to get to where they need to be. I doubt any that big would shrink to the size of the wires.
Most of the cracks are above the split, and I can’t really replace the ear pieces with a solder-tab type. Maybe I could just cut the wires in the middle and then splice them back together. I’ve never had to splice wires that are so small or so sensitive to voltage though. Is there a good chance of reducing sound quality?
And on second thought, I think the insulation is becoming brittle. I noticed the first couple of rips just a few weeks ago, and there are already several more. I may need to make repairs again in a few more weeks, and this method is complicated.
I was hoping there might be some kind of liquid I could put on it which would dry and last a long time.
If you can get the cups open (many times the screws are under the earpads) you should be able to get at the connection from the cord to the speakers.
Something like this:http://www.thetapeworks.com/liquid-tape.htm might be worth trying.
Once the cables are that bad it is best to just replace them. I have replaced many and, in fact, done one set just a couple days ago. The thing is that normally the wires break before the insulation gets that bad. I would just replace the entire cable (and jack if necessary).
Performix Liquid Tape
This is for electrical and not the same as their Plasti Dip.
Harmonious Discord beat me to it. Stuff works great.
Looks like the operation on a set of E2Cs would be akin to sneaking inside of a gumdrop as these are an in-ear design.
For the OP - have you tried contacting Shure? They may offer repair service on these, or if you’ve had them a suitably short time, (I think their warranty is two years) they may even say “Oh, so sorry about that. We’ll send you a replacement pair.”
Very often the problem is the use of cables with very little copper in them and the conductors break too easily. The cable often fails where it enters the molded plug. Often I remove some material from the end of the plug, resplice the conductors and rebuild the body of the plug with epoxi, heat glue plastic or whatever. This works well.
I could’ve sworn I responded to this. I guess the post got lost between here and there. I’ve looked more closely at the earbuds and I have no idea how to take them apart. I see the seams where they were screwed/glued/whatever together but I can’t pull them apart. So I guess I’ll call Shure and see how much they’ll charge me. If it’s a lot, I’ll just buy some new ones. I’m curious what those E3C’s sound like.
They’re probably just snapped together. The halves can be pried apart by levering a knife edge in the seam, but it’s difficult to do neatly without knowing where the locking tabs are and even then, you often wind up chewing up the edges. If you’re more concerned about functionality than cosmetic appearance, it’s worth a shot.
Sometimes it’s tabs but sometimes, like most often on power supplies, it’s glue so strong that you end up destroying the case in the attempt to open it.
…Or the plastic is welded together.
Seems like you could buy the Shure 3 foot Extension Cable (http://store.shure.com/store/shure/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.105435800) for $14.99, cut off the one end leaving the bare wires, cut off all but a few inches of the worn wire on your headset, then connect the 2 sets of wires. That’s assuming your wires aren’t worn and breaking right up to the end, in which case you’re better off just replacing it.