Replacing a 3.5mm audio plug

[Gollgagh]

The plug on my nice Sennheiser PX100's gave way a few months ago and I've been wanting to replace it since the headphones themselves are still in top condition; rather than pay another $60 for a new pair.


Is it possible?

[Moseph]

You'd probably be able to just buy a cheapo pair of headphones, cut the plug off, and splice the plug onto the Sennheisers. Since there are two wires involved in a headphone cord, I'm not sure how to tell which wire splices to which. Presumably if you got it wrong, it would reverse the stereo.

[Gollgagh]

whelp, I was gonna try that, but it turns out that there are at least three wires involved in a stereo plug.

There were 3 coming out of the plug I cut (green, red, and gold) and 4 coming out of the Sennheiser (green, red, and 2 golds). I'm guessing that the golds are ground, but I wonder if it would be alright to connect the both to the one.

[jmr]

I wouldn't recommend splicing the plug from a cheap set on to a decent set of headphones. While it WOULD work, chances are the plug you're attaching is poor quality and won't last long anyway.

Instead, buy a standalone replacement plug (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103400&cp=&sr=1&origkw=1%2F8%22&kw=1%2F8&parentPage=search) and solder that on to the cord. I've repaired a set of headphones using pretty much the same plug I linked above, and that plug lasted years longer than the original did.

As for whether or not you can connect the two grounds for the left and right channel: well duh! Standard headphone plugs only have one ground connection anyway.

Green is typically the left channel (tip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector#Tip.2Fring.2Fsleeve_terminology) of the plug), and red is usually the right channel (middle ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector#Tip.2Fring.2Fsleeve_terminology) on the plug). The ground gets connected to the sleeve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector#Tip.2Fring.2Fsleeve_terminology) of the plug.

Another thing you might want to be careful of is the coating on the wires, specifically the red and green ones you mentioned. I'm not sure what Sennheisers are like, but some brand names have wires coated with some sort of lacquer rather than plain old insulation. From my experience, unless this coating is removed, you WON'T get a good connection. If you're patient, you can try scraping it off with a knife. (Depending on the quality / thickness of the wire, this can be very difficult to do without breaking the wires) If that doesn't work for you, you can just burn / melt it off with a soldering iron or lighter.

[Gollgagh]

Perfect.

I don't think there's any coating on the wires, but I'll try with the soldering iron anyway.

[starla]

My sennheisers unplug from the headset themselves as well, so the cord is fully replaceable. They're HD590s. I'd double check for this first, since you may be able to just replace them with a straight thru audio cable.

[jmr]

My sennheisers unplug from the headset themselves as well, so the cord is fully replaceable. They're HD590s. I'd double check for this first, since you may be able to just replace them with a straight thru audio cable.
Wow, I've never seen headphones like that. I definitely need to look for that feature the next time I shop for headphones.

I don't that that's an option for Gollgagh though, he said he has these (http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-PX-100-Collapsible-Headphones/dp/B000089GN3).

[starla]

Yeah, mine have a plug only on the left side. They're not the best or highest end headphones ever (even though they do have great sound) and I did buy them off ebay, so they very well may be fake :D However I know that some higher end Sony MDR headphones offer the removable/replacable cord as well.

[Gollgagh]

Got the plug half an hour ago and am about to solder it on.

Wish me luck!