Money saving headphones tip

[soop]

I just had a great idea.
Because I go through at least 2 pairs of headphones a year, and it adds up, I figured:
1)  The expensive part is the speaker driver.
2)  cable faults can happen anywhere, but the less cable there is, the less chance of a fault.

So I'm going to take my busted Sennheisers, lop off the cable just below the mic, and then solder on a 3.5mm socket.
Hey-f*cking-presto, I have my decent headphones back, and if there's a cable fault again below the mic, I just have to shell out about a quid for a piece of wire.
Plus, I have a bunch of other busted headphones this will work with. I reckon I just saved myself a bunch of money there.

And for the 3.5mm socket, I've at least got a couple of discmen (bought for lasers, pew pew) laying about I can use, and probably more besides.

[jperryss]

Here's a tip or two from someone who has done that exact thing with a set of cans (not because I go through headphones, but so I could swap cables at will depending on needs).

-Make sure the 3.5mm jack is secure and keep in mind that, depending on how you attach it, you might be compromising some strain relief compared to the original design.
-Mine did not come out very clean when I did it. How nice it actually looks may or may not matter to you.

Also, what are you doing to these poor headphones? I'm a bit of a headphone nut and have gone years without issues with many pairs (including Sennheiser and Grado cans and some $15-30 IEMs).

[soop]

I listen to the radio a lot, but generally they're either in use or rolled up in my pocket.  It's probably the pocket treatment.  I'm not too worried how they look (although it's high time I got some heatshrink tubing).

[vestcoat]

This topic is a little different than I was expecting. What kind of Sennheisers do you keep in your pocket? And they have a mic? Are you talking about a headset?

On a different note, here's a pair of $23 headphones that compared favorably to Sony 7506 studio headphones in a recent Tape Op review:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10823&cs_id=1082302&p_id=8323&seq=1&format=2

[SignOfZeta]

The better headphones from Sennheiser have user replaceable parts. Even their cheapest over the ears are pretty easy to repair. No need to throw out anything.

[Jibbajaba]

I never have problems with headphones down near the headphone jack end.  It's either the mic unit or one of the earbuds or cans themselves.  That being said, I generally don't have headphone problems in the first place. 

Chris

[soop]

Oh right, these are the in-ear bud kind of earphones (hence how they fit in my pocket) - I suppose you can call them a headset.  I don't really like the over-ear kinds

Apparantly though, this is not a new idea.  And there I thought I was being all clever.