Good afternoon. So I have had my Grado Labs Prestige’s Series SR-80 headphones for 28 years now. They have been sent back 1 time for the plastic part that holds the head band on and a wire finally broken in the middle. Well after sending them in to get repaired from 5 years ago it has happened again. I don’t want to send in my headphones for repairs I would like to fix it my self (if I can?). So where I began this repair is asking all of you what wire can I buy in bulk to repair the wire? I can buy, a wire pants boot Y splitter and the 3.5mm connector end. I can solder and I have a soldering station for that. So with all this out of the way now here’s a few final questions?
1. What kind of wire can I use? Balance or unbalanceed wire? Does it make a difference’s in the overall sound?
2.How does the plastic piece covering the driver come off to expose the wire so I can replace it?
3. Will the ohms change if I switch the wire and will it Be close to the ohms the head phones are now? I hope am not being too critical or going overboard?
Here are the wire Companies I am familiar with over the years that I have used in 1 way or another.
1. Gotham Audio.
2. Mogami Wire.
3. Canare Wire.
4. Supra Cables
5. Parts Express’s house brand now (Audtek).
6.Kimber Cable. (Diy stuff only).
7. Duelund Cables. (Given to me only 4 feet).
8. Wire World Cables.
9. Linn Speaker Cables.
10.Audio quest (years ago $5.00 bulk speaker cables).
11. Mono Prices 12 gauge wire (40 feet of it years ago).
12. I hate to say it last but, not least Monster cable ugh I said it. 🫢.
A lot of cables and info. I now it was a long post but, I wanted to put everything out on the table to see where I can go from here? Thanks for reading my post. Here are 2 pictures of the head phones with the wire showing and just my headphones model and series. Thanks Jeff
1. What kind of wire can I use? Balance or unbalanceed wire? Does it make a difference’s in the overall sound?
2.How does the plastic piece covering the driver come off to expose the wire so I can replace it?
3. Will the ohms change if I switch the wire and will it Be close to the ohms the head phones are now? I hope am not being too critical or going overboard?
Here are the wire Companies I am familiar with over the years that I have used in 1 way or another.
1. Gotham Audio.
2. Mogami Wire.
3. Canare Wire.
4. Supra Cables
5. Parts Express’s house brand now (Audtek).
6.Kimber Cable. (Diy stuff only).
7. Duelund Cables. (Given to me only 4 feet).
8. Wire World Cables.
9. Linn Speaker Cables.
10.Audio quest (years ago $5.00 bulk speaker cables).
11. Mono Prices 12 gauge wire (40 feet of it years ago).
12. I hate to say it last but, not least Monster cable ugh I said it. 🫢.
A lot of cables and info. I now it was a long post but, I wanted to put everything out on the table to see where I can go from here? Thanks for reading my post. Here are 2 pictures of the head phones with the wire showing and just my headphones model and series. Thanks Jeff
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The cans are sealed together using hot glue. A heat gun may be used to soften the plastic, without over-heating it, so the cans can be pulled apart.
The process is shown at 1:37 in this video:
Thanks for your help with the video about taking the head phone cans off. I will look to see if the wire that is exposed or cracked and showing the wire? Also another question? Do the more expensive head phone wire really make a difference? Like this company? Whiplash Audio? Here’s a picture of there marketing pitch and the different copper cabling. Am not picking on them I know of the 3 guys that started this company years ago and meet them at the Audio shows and have pictures of the speakers they were selling plus their headphone cabling and amplifiers.
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I'm afraid you are asking the wrong person - copper is copper to me.
However, after forking out loads-a-money for expensive cable, I'm sure owners will convince themselves they hear an improvement!
No I get it. I understand completely. O.F.C. is the highest I will go besides silver tinned copper like Supra cables. Yes some Audiophiles will agree you get what you pay for but, I say do research and buy what you’re looking for in the cable with in reason. A wire should not add or take away sound they are not an equalizer. Thanks for being up front with me.
Copper is copper, and OFC is not required for the best performance as it has no advantages. Its made specifically for ultra-high vacuum and high chemical purity uses, at most its conductivity is 1% more than standard electrical copper, that's 0.086dB improvement in any situation where the copper is the whole of the load, and far far less in all practical situations. Consider 35 ohm headphones with 0.1 ohm cables of standard copper, OFC of the same dimensions would make those 0.099 ohm, leading to an improvement of 0.00025dB.
Money you spend on OFC is better spent on doubling the thickness of the ordinary copper, which has 100% improvement in conductivity, not 1%. That would give 0.012dB improvement in my example (again completely pointless).
Unless you listen to your headphones in a hard-vaccum environment(!)
[ quick note about scammers: On eBay etc buying "OFC copper" is as likely as not to bag you CCA (copper coated aluminium), you are warned - shop at reliable electronics suppliers ]
Money you spend on OFC is better spent on doubling the thickness of the ordinary copper, which has 100% improvement in conductivity, not 1%. That would give 0.012dB improvement in my example (again completely pointless).
Unless you listen to your headphones in a hard-vaccum environment(!)
[ quick note about scammers: On eBay etc buying "OFC copper" is as likely as not to bag you CCA (copper coated aluminium), you are warned - shop at reliable electronics suppliers ]
I agree with you Adason on one hand but, on the other it has sentimental value. The new head phones I bought a few years ago to replace the Gardo SR80’s went from 33 ohms to the 300 ohms. It didn’t work so I took them back. Now replaced with a new model still high in ohms. It’s down to 130 ohms. I would really like to listen on my phone but, Grado has one of the lowest ohm studio headphones. I use them for my PS5 plugged into my controller.
Rather than trying to repair the broken Y junction of the cable, it would be easier to solder a new double sided cable direct to the ear cups.
There's no need for a fancy cable for reasons stated above, so look for a repair cable like this one on UK Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angoily-He...cement+headphone+cable&qid=1710679628&sr=8-10