Friday, September 5, 2014

the vacuum didn't work either. it's really stuck in there. i've got it on deep bass therapy, and am going to let it boom overnight. if that's not successful, i'll have to mix the bass down with the cheaper phones.

i'm going to lose most of the day tomorrow as well, as i have much running around to do.

sennheiser talk pt 3

jessica
hi sennheiser. me again..

i've got this stubborn hair stuck in there, giving me a buzz on the lower frequencies, as stubborn hairs stuck in headphones tend to do.

now, it's been happening for years, and it's never been much of a problem - quick tweezer run over over a quick vacuum gets the dirt out. it's just something that happens to headphones and that headphones people have to deal with.

but this one is deep in the drivers and all attempts to get it out have failed. i'd probably need to use a tool that is something like a surgeon uses to get in there to pull it out, and it's too stuck for the vacuum (or loud bass music) to get it out.

now, i know you can usually take newer phones apart to do this but the way these ones are made suggests to me that the only way this would be possible is by twisting the top and, again, i don't really want to do that until i'm sure they can actually be disassembled. so, can i get in there without breaking them or do i need to call a surgeon?

those are the out of production 440-IIs, to jog your memory.

sennheiser
Hello Jessica,

It is possible to take the 440 apart.

I used to do it all the time. Use caution, however, since there are no more spares for this model, and if an accident happens, you're SOL! Twisting is not necessary. The baffle is held by a series of claws. Slip a fingernail between and pry gently. Easy does it.

To get the capsule driver out, gently pry up on the black tabs, and be careful not to disturb the connecting wires. They are exceedingly fragile and will not respond well to attempts to reconnect. Use both hands.

If you're talking hair, you might need tweezers, but for dust or other particles, a squirrel hair paintbrush will usually do. DO NOT brush hard!

Any wrinkles put on the diaphragm will be permanent.

Note orientation of the capsule driver to the baffle. It goes in one way only!

You mentioned using a vacuum...be careful with that! It's possible to suck the voice coil right out of the gap with force like that.

jessica
thanks again.
i got my $1 guitar fix and put it all together and got nothing but hum out of it.

strangely, there's no ground on the input. so, the circuit isn't completing. but, it completed in the store.

i made an error: i took a walk down the street, and then didn't plug it back in when i came back. who knows what they did. i think they may have ripped the ground out. it would have taken two seconds.

see, the thing is that it shouldn't have worked in the store without the ground - the ground was there when i plugged it in, and it wasn't when i took it home.

it's not expensive to fix, i need a soldering iron anyways, but why do that? it's just upsetting that some people can be that disrespectful.

like, it's not that the ground is loose.

the ground is gone. no guitar can work without a ground. but, it did work.

somebody ripped it out....

either way, that's that for the day, let me take a look at those headphones.

it sounds crazy to think somebody would do that.

but the only other explanation is that somebody was sitting around the corner mimicking my open strings, tricking me into thinking it worked. that's even crazier.

it's just impossible that it could have worked without the ground. but it did. and it was entirely gone when i went back.

ripping a cord off a board like that could create other problems, as well.

but i have a circuit diagram, and it will be very east to fix if there's further damage.

so, you'll have to add $1 worth of solder and $1 worth of wires to the fix price. a soldering iron is going to be around $20, but it's not fair to work it into the price because it's something i need to get anyways.