Upgrading The Old Cable On My Pioneer SE-405

A few days ago I bought a 20 ft stereo extension headphone cable with a 1/4" male and female end from Radio Shack for $10. Today I decided to swap the old stretched out original coiled cable on my Pioneer SE-405's I had picked up at a thrift for about $5 that were still in pretty good shape.

Two things I found out when I did the upgrade. 1) Nothing is as it first seems, and 2) Nothing goes easily back together as easily as it came apart.

After removing the driver assembly from the left ear piece I thought it looked pretty easy. From the original cable there were three wires, a red, a black, and a white. Pretty simple, or so I thought until I cut the female end of the new straight cable from Radio Shack. The wires where wrapped in some sort of sheath, maybe for shielding.

When I removed the shielding I also found 3 wires. One red, one black, and one braided silver colored bare wire. OK, must be the white wire.

I removed the plastic insulators at the paired up red and white wires and then using my soldering iron I de-soldered the red and white and then the black wire which was soldered with some other black wires. Easy enough.

Then I soldered in the new wires from the new Radio Shack cable, red to red, black to black, and the bare silver wire to the white wire leading to the left volume potentiometer. I then put it all together (not so easy to get it to fit because of the slightly thicker and stiffer new cable but I finally got it to go) and replaced the ear pad.

I connected the headphones to my Pioneer SX-636 and turned it on. I heard music but something didn't quite seem right. It seems that the left and right channels were now reversed or something.

Broke the left driver down again and switched the red and black wires and so now the black wire from the new cable was connected to the red wire inside the headphones and the red wire to the black terminal. Put it all back together again and gave them a listen. OK. I think. The right and left channels seemed right but something still didn't quite sound right to me. I played with the balance control on the receiver and then the individual volume controls on the headphones and that didn't quite seem right either.

When I adjusted the balance control from center to far right or left I could still hear music from one side or the other. Hmmmm....that shouldn't be happening.

More surgery needed and here is what I finally figured out. The old cable had three colored coded wires of red, black, and white that matched up with the same colors in the driver assembly. However, the new cable had a red and a black but no white, only the bare silver wire that I assumed was supposed to be the white.

As it turned out (a note to any of you who may do the upgrade on your Pioneer headphones similar to mine) the black wire from the new cable must be attached to the red lead inside the driver assembly, the red lead to the white wire that is connected to the volume control pot, and the bare silver wire soldered to the black terminal assembly.

The balance control works as it should and left and right channels work as they should. I am listening to them now as I type this and my SE-405's sound pretty damn good.

Check out the pics but remember that the pic showing the new wires attached is wrong. I did not reshoot the pic once I figured out the correct wiring assembly.

Old Coiled Cable



Left Ear Pad Removed



New Radio Shack Straight Cable



New Wire Stripped



New Wires Attached. NOTE: The red goes to white, black to red, and silver to the solder terminal block



Driver Assembly Reassembled

Excellent.................(Mr. Burns Voice)

Howdy,pioneervato......Very good job!!

I have SE 305, need the same job done.........Thanks to you, I can attempt this without going insane, (maybe).......

Great write-up, great pix.......Thank You!!!!

Hasta la vista, baby......willhowl:thmbsp:

A year old post I know, but ...

Here's a good test to prevent extra work and soldering.

1. Before you take the old cable off, take a picture of where the different colored wires hook up so you won't forget.

2. Take the old cable off and put one test lead of an ohm meter on the tip (Left channel) of the TRS connector (phone jack). Put the other lead of the ohm on each of the wires until you measure zero (0.0) resistance. That's the wire that's connected to the tip.

3. Repeat step 2 for the ring (Right channel) and then again for the sleeve (Ground).

4. Repeats steps 2 and three for the new cable.

5. Now you know which color wire on the new cable goes to each place in the headphones.

aabottom's advice is rock-solid, and the best way to do it. No guesswork.

If you don't have a meter or don't trust your assignments, you can still try it out before soldering or re-assembling anything. Assuming you have some short wire leads with alligator clips on each end (and what workbench doesn't have a bunch of those around?), you can just temporarily clip the leads and test. (You have to be careful with the connections, and may need to put your ear to the 'phone, instead of wearing it normally, when first testing. Be careful not to let any exposed wire leads short out!) Once you know it works right, THEN solder and re-assemble.

Another tip: If the construction of the headphones doesn't clamp the wire firmly, you can help anchor it against pulling out, by (1) tying a knot in it, inside the body of the 'phones (before the wire exits). The knot should be larger than the exit hole, so it can't/won't pull through. Also, you can help anchor the wire with a dab of hot glue. Hot glue sometimes also seems to help reduce "wire noise" (audible noise being transferred when the wire is bumped/handled), if that is a problem with your particular cans. (If it is an issue, also try damping the cups themselves. It shouldn't be a problem with the better-designed headphones, but sometimes it is.)

Adding some heat-shrink or similar tubing around the area where the wire exits/enters will also help make the joint stronger. "Layering" --that is, putting more/thicker layers where the cable first exits, and tapering those layers down over a few inches past the exit-- will help distribute the stresses, and minimize potential damage. Most of the time when headphone wires go bad, it's because of excessive stress and bending right around that exit point.

If you're changing the plug on the end of the cable (maybe putting a 1/4" on the end instead of a mini-plug, or vice-versa), then you can also use hot-glue on the soldered connection inside the plug. The screw-on body of the plug will hide it from sight.