# I need to replace my cable on my Grado SR60's. Quick questions.



## jeff1965

I don't want to send them in to anyone to repair. Not worth cost.
  I saw this video where a guy got his open by using a hairdryer and some spring clips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zachh7Cf5rY
  I think he is using the clips to put some outward pressure on the earphones.
   
  That looks pretty doable.
   
  Now my first question is this: can I guess suitable wire at Radioshack or Walmart or someplace like that. I live in a very small town. Do I need to find an
  electronics place or something?
   
  I have a saudering iron somewhere, do I need some kind of special sauder?
   
  Also, when I was looking up this stuff I kept running into "modding headphones". If I am going to open them up is there some "modding" that I could
  do at the same time that would make my fantastic, but worn to shreds headphones even better?
   
  Main thing, though, is what kind/size, whatever, wire do I need to do this.
   
  If I mess 'em up I'll get a new pair, but would rather fix these if I can.
   
  Thanks in advance for your replies,
  Jeff


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## jeff1965

can I guess suitable wire at Radioshack or Walmart

 I meant can I GET suitable wire there


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## jeff1965

Can I just use something like this
http://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Cable-SENNHEISER-Headphones-HD650/dp/B0028PGXRE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344265895&sr=8-1&keywords=replacement+headphone+cable+grado


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## noobfikt

This are probably  the most modded headphones on here. Here is a huge thread on modding them.
  http://www.head-fi.org/t/508459/sr60-mod
   
  Steam works really well to open the headphones. I would stay away from the senn hd600 cable its both really long and thin.


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## jeff1965

I wonder if Grado sells replacement cables. I went to their website, but didn't see one. Are there any folks on this site that work for Grado that you know of?


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## fatcat28037

What's wrong with your current cable that necessitates the need to replace the whole thing?


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## mchang

There is A TON of info about modding/repairing Grados on the forums. The Search button will be your best friend.
   
  Here is some info to get you started:
   

 Here is my post on replacing the cable on my friend's SR-80s.
 Without getting into why you're replacing the cable, I would suggest other wire than what you can get at Radio Shack or Walmart. You are most likely going to find very thick gauge speaker wire, which will be very difficult to solder on to a plug. If you have a local music store (I went to Guitar Center), look for 4-wire microphone cable. I went with Mogami 2534 on the Grados here. It's cheap, built like a tank, and one length will have all 4 wires you need. The wire within is 24AWG (larger number is thinner). On a different project I worked with thinner 26AWG wire.
 You will need a solder-able plug, which I doubt you can get from Radio Shack or Walmart. So you're probably better off ordering wire, plug and other supplies (heat shrink, wire sleeving, I would recommend a cheap heat gun) online.
 As for opening the ear cups, I had good success with the heat gun and spoon trick. You can see it here along with A TON of Grado info.
 Use a smooth, rounded edge spoon (I used a spoon from our house PB set) so you don't mar the cups. Heat, slide spoon to gently separate, heat, spoon, heat, etc...
 
 *MOST IMPORTANT (as I read a **cautionary tale here just yesterday**)!!!! DO NOT OVERHEAT THE CONTACT PADS WHEN REMOVING THE OLD CABLE AND SOLDERING THE NEW ONE.* I luckily did not do this, but I just read that if you put the iron on for too long, some magnetic wire behind the contact will pop off and you will be HOSED. Tin your new wire tips ahead of time and work fast. Otherwise, you will be sending your headphones back to Grado for a $40 repair.
   
  Research, read and be prepared. Good luck.


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## jeff1965

Thank you guys. The cable on my headphones is absolutely wearing out. It has lots of places where it is broken, for lack of a better word, and you can see the wires that are inside the outside black covering if that makes sense. I've been wrapping electrical tape around these places for about a year now, but finally the wires in one side are starting to get real loose up by one of the ear pieces. I use them almost daily, I'm not complaining about their quality or anything, they are great - they have just been used and abused so long ya know. I may actually try the mod thing since I have to open 'em up anyway. If I ruin them I think I'll get some of those Sennheiser 202's and try them for a while until I can get another pair of Grados. I was thinking of getting some anyway just 'cause. I tell you guys, it sucks living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It must be nice to live in a real city with real places that you can actually go and listen to stuff before you buy it!


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## jeff1965

I looked at the pics of the SR 80's you worked on. My cable looks even worse than your friends did, a LOT worse, lol! What you did to hers looks great as far as I'm concerned. I just want them to work well and sound good, the cosmetic aspects don't bother me in the least. If you saw what a dork I look like when I walk around the nbh with my cheap mp3 player dangling over my shoulder by the headphone cable and my clunky headphones on you'd laugh your butt off! Ain't it great having great headphones!


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## jeff1965

[size=x-small]the infamous "Grado grattle",[/size]
   
  [size=x-small]I've heard that before, but not often - that rattle. I saw the term on your link.[/size] Will modding do anything about that?


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## jeff1965

Sorry for bugging you, but I looked up that Mogami 2534 and it says that it is an instrument cable. It just so happens that I am a guitar player and have several extra guitar cords, would that be suitable do you think?


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## tzjin

That probably would be fine.

 I personally preferred opening Grado housings with the spoon method, and it worked really well.


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## mchang

You're not bugging. Glad to help when possible.  
   
  I don't know anything about guitar cords, so I would hesitate to say, "yup, cut them up and see." I remember looking at the different bulk instrument/microphone cables at Guitar Center. There were ones with one, two and four wires within. Maybe others (like tzjin) with more experience can speak to this.
   
  Oh, one question I didn't answer of yours was the type of solder. I use 63/37 rosin-core solder. May use the more common 60/40 rosin-core solder. This you can likely find at Radio Shack. I've only ever used the leaded variety, but many use the lead-free stuff.
   
  As you saw from my pics, there is a fix to a jacked up cable. Good luck!


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## cantsleep

Mogami 2534 would be okay. 
  if you can get mini starquad, use minis because the regular version would be too heavy.
   
  get several inches of heatshrinks and grab a pair of cable ties for the inside of the chamber.
  then, i guess you are ready to go.
   
  remember not that blow right to the drivers/elements. that would damage the drivers.
  just melt the glues on the cups.


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## jeff1965

Will do. I'll be going to a decent sized city pretty soon and will try to find all the stuff I still need. If I can't I'll order some online. I appreciate all the help guys. I think I can do this. I am pretty patient.


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## jeff1965

Update, like anyone gives a crap! Anyway, it wasn't all that difficult to do, it just took a little patience. I went and bought some of those tiny little spring clips like I had seen someone use in a video. It was a waste of money in my opinion. They pop out from between the edges/groove/lip (whatever you want to call it) too easily. I can see why the guy in the video I watched used them, but I just found it to be unnecessary.

   
  That pic is just to show you what little clips I am talking about that you probably don't need.
  Okay, so to get the ear thingamabob open I just set it on the counter, then set a small aerosol can on top of the earpiece so it would have some weight on it while I used the hairdryer on it to heat it up. Worked fine. Took a little over a minute, maybe two to heat it up enough so that I could pull it apart with my hands. That little label up there on the pic there is just a little note I stuck on it so I could keep straight which wired were going to which earpiece. I don't know if it even matters, but I thought it might so I did that and know that the wired I spliced onto my new cord would go back to the "correct" side.
   
  As far as the cable part of the project went, here is kind of what I did.
  I cut the cable and reused the plug that came from the factory. I didn't buy a new plug. I just stripped the end where I cut it to expose the wires.
  I found some fairly flexible wire I had lying around the house from some old speakers and spliced it onto the exposed wires with a little electrical tape.
  I used some shrink wrap stuff that I got from an electrical supply shop - you can probably get more than you need for less than five dollars. It was cheaper at the electrical supply than it was at Radio Shack. The Radio Shack near my house only had tiny little sections of the shrink wrap stuff, at the electrical supply store I got a couple of three foot sections for less than $5.00.
   
  Okay, so I used a little soldering iron and carefully applied heat to there the wires came into contact with the "contact spots", whatever THEY are called, and pulled the old wires loose. I was a little worried about getting that part too hot so I just heated a few seconds and pulled the iron away over and over until the old wire pulled free. I don't know if that was necessary, but something I read earlier made me think that it was possible to 'overheat' something inside that little metal thingamabob (driver?) and I didn't want to mess anything up so I did it that way. Anyway, they are fixed now, so apparently I didn't damage anything by doing it the way that I did.
   
  THEN I used some tape to hold down my "new" cord still on the work table. I didn't want it wobbling around while I was trying to solder the "new" wires onto the drivers, OR WHATEVER THEY ARE CALLED. Well, that trick worked pretty well. The cable stayed pretty still while I did my soldering on those little contact places. I also used a little tape on the earpiece itself where the new cable was coming through that little groove/slot place in the earpiece that is just below the contact spot. (I hope that isn't too confusing 'cause I'm not gonna explain it better than that. If you have to do it, you'll know the place I'm talking about when you get to that point in the project.)
   
  Okay, now I'm gonna go back in time a sec to BEFORE I did the final soldering. I put shrink wrap over the new cable from the plug up to where it splits for each earpiece. I put some shrink wrap over each set of wires that runs to each of the earpieces. Then I put another piece of shrink wrap over the "Y".  It worked fine. It's not the prettiest cable in the world, but it works!
   
  I didn't worry about any cosmetic stuff or other "modding". I like my Grado's fine they way they are. I kind of think that if I'm going to be a sommelier of headphones I'll just plop down the doe and get "the best" I can afford. These little Grado's are champs in my book!


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## BECHA

Why did you use spoon? Accordingly the video cans get separated by force of gravity after good heating.
  
 What about the cable?
 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grado-Stereo-headphone-replacement-cable-model-SE80i-and-similar-models-brand-ne-/121082772822?pt=US_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item1c31187d56
 One thing looks weird why it has two 3mm plugs? I can't figure out looking at photo. I have model 60, but it seems no difference to 80i from design stand point.


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## aliquis

I tried to quote someone who asked about original cables, but it's not quoted. Whatever.

 My question is why would one want an original cable? It's **** with the pressed together cables at the Y-thing. It's the reason they break in the first place.


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## 020Assassin

If you check on eBay, there are several sellers who have 'ready to attach' cables made for Grado. I'm going to woody my old SR60i, and I found a copper cable by 'Venus_audio' for 29$ and a silver cable by 'Amplifier_Surgery' for 49$. Both sellers have ship the cables with the ends 'pre-tinned' and a small amount of good solder, so all you need is a soldering iron.
  
 I will probably order one of these, because I don't think I'm good enough at soldering to attach a connector. I contacted the Venus Audio guy to ask which Canare cable he used and what connector, and he replied:


> The cable I use for the Grado replacement cable with a 3.5mm plug is the Canare L-4e5c 4 conductor cable.  I use the Amphenol premium gold plated 3.5mm plug.


 
  
 I'm not sure you can get a good five-feet copper cable for much less than 29$...


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## aliquis

Seriously?
 What's the material in regular cables?

 Personally I wouldn't get a $50 cable for a what? $75 headphone?

 This cable got a bunch of extra crap on it but:
 http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/50116593/

 Is material in a regular Ethernet cable too thin and of too high resistance?
  
 Two strands for ground and signal each? Or possibly four along part of the cable for ground but I guess that require more work.

 Way too ****ty?

 My cable is broken to and the production quality of the Y-part is complete **** and they should replace them for free since they do such a ****ty design imho.

 Another solution would be to simply cut that bit of and replace it with something else and keep the cable I guess.


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## 020Assassin

aliquis said:


> Personally I wouldn't get a $50 cable for a what? $75 headphone?


 
  
 Your opinion of course.
  
 I've had this SR60i for two years and recently bought an SR325iS. So now I'm thinking of modding the SR60i: Nice leather headband from Turbulent Labs, Khaya Mahogany wooden cups through a Head-Fi member and, yes, a new cable.
  
 The standard cable has damage to the outer layer, and I think a nice 'vintage-looking' cable would make the 60 into a beautiful headphone.
  
 And since I'm not handy enough to make a good cable (and I'm not cheap enough to put an IKEA lamp cord on it), I don't mind paying 30-50$ for a cable made to my specifications.


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