Headphone/wire Care?

[arias]

Hi guys. I wanted to inquire about headphone and extension cord care.. and about their durability. I owned a NH600; it was stolen and now I'm just waiting for the 2nd gen Hi-MDs to appear on the NA market. My current earphones are Panasonic, RP-HZ91, cost about US$40. Recently however, a pretty big problem happened. I'm not sure if this is the appropriate board to post this on, but I'm just dead-curious.

I plugged out the earphone from my computer and later when I plugged it in again, it couldn't receive all the "layers" of sound. I think the technical name of it is channels. Basically, I can hear background music and stuff, but I can't hear the main melody, or the voice of the singer, and it's the same when I watch movies; I just can't hear the voice. I suspect that it just can't receive the "main sound channel" data anymore. I can resolve this problem by plugging my earphone -halfways- or -partially- in, never fully, and I can hear the voice/main melody again. However, even then, I noticed that the sound quality has dropped and it sounds like the background music is playing in a toilet. It has that faint echo, distant (like radio) kind of sound. These earphones are about 2 years old; I started using them frequently about a year ago.

So, can anyone tell me what's wrong with the earphones? And what could have led to this happening? I'd like to know preventative measures, of course.

Similarly, I have a question about extension cords. I bought a 6ft cord so I could plug it into my TV and play games quietly (in a dorm room), but one day, a similar problem happened. I just couldn't hear the "main channel" anymore, I could alleviate this problem (CURIOUSLY), by lifting the wire and like, rotating it in space until there was a position where it could "pick out" all the sounds. It was pretty strange. So I bought a new wire, from a more respectable store (Radioshack), and it worked fine.. until recently, similar symptoms seemed to be happening..

I was wondering if this has anything to do with wire-care. I've googled about it, thought about it, and I'm not sure. Do these extension wires have to have particular conditions, or be handled in a particular way? I just don't want to keep buying and keep replacing them anymore; I'd like to make a purchase of a new set of earphones (I wonder where I can find a pair of respectable quality here in Toronto Canada; I have no credit card to purchase online) and maybe even another extension wire, provided I know how to care for them and keep them in good condition. I mean, I know things deteriorate in time, but the lifespan for them was too short.. The panasonic earphones lasted about a year before this happened (suddenly, which makes me wonder if it was my fault) and the first extension cord lasted 2 weeks, while this current one about 6 weeks.

I'd REALLY appreciate any comments/knowledge you guys can shed on this topic.. Thank you so much, if you respond.

And for now.. I'll have to wait for the 2nd Gen Hi-MD... sigh.

Edited March 10, 2005 by arias

[dex Otaku]

The lines have shorted inside the cabling.

You can achieve the same effect with any pair of headphones [or, in fact, anything that connects using a 3.5mm stereo jack] by inserting the plug most but not all the way into the headphone jack of whatever player you're using.

What's happening is a phase-cancellation of everything that is the same on both channels. What you're listening to, in essence, is all the out-of-phase information. If you listened to something encoded for Dolby Surround you would hear the back channel loud and clear.

I gave up buying expensive extension cords for headphones years ago. The dollar store here sells 3.5m extension cables [3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo female] for $2, and I buy them 3-4 at a time, and throw them out when they quit working.

Many would balk at the fact that I use such cheap cabling, but my experience is generally that expensive cables don't last much longer than cheap ones in terms of durability when you're dragging them across floors and such.

As for cable care.. All I can say is be careful. Don't tug on them, insert/remove plugs using the plug, not the cable, &c. This is mostly just common sense.

Earphone and microphone cables are pretty fragile, really. The best solution I've ever found to making them last as long as possible is to be as careful as possible with them, including pinning them to your clothing when you're wearing a player and phones so the cables can't catch on anything and tug.

[roguefan99]

I like the idea of being able to replace the earphone cable. Mine have just gone with the headphone, and I know on some larger (ala Hi-Fi) headphones you can replace the cable and they still work. Its a shame they dont do this with smaller headphones (buds I can understand, but say streetstyle).

Might have to get the old soldering Iron out and see what I can do, it didn't work on my buds, but its worth a shot.