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Jay's Headphone Repair


EffBee

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I've got a set of Arizona Al's headphones (BMWST member Al Schibi) and I absolutely love them. But over the past two years, riding here and there, the covering over the wires, from the plug to where the headphone lead tucks into my jacket (before coming back up into my helmet), was simply exposed to too much heat, wind and general drying out. Al recommends you cover this section with spiral wrap to prevent this kind of problem, but for me it was too late. The outer insulation cracked in a couple of places and the fibrous stuffing that is used to cushion the wires inside, was now poking outside. Ugly, and soon to be non-functional.

 

No problem. I'll just cut off that 10" part of the lead and solder on a new 3.5mil plug. Found a nice plug from my assortment gathered before Radio Shack closed all their nearby stores, and I was ready. Soldering station up to operating temps, wires stripped, plug connection points were pre-tinned. Then I went to tin the wire leads. Nothing. Couldn't get them to take solder. Flux, no flux. It didn't matter. So I called Arizona Al, and he said the bare wires have a special insulation coating bonded to them, and it wasn't easy to get it off. Crap! Now I've got my beautiful headphones, and I can't get a plug on them. Time for Google.

 

I found Jay's Headphone Repair in NYC. Really? I gotta send my headphones from CA to the Big Apple in order to get them fixed? With cash dollars in the same package? To a Postal Annex kind of place below where Jay lives? Hey, I didn't just get fleeced playing 3-card Monte down on West 53rd. My radar fires off!!!

 

But then I started to read the Yelp reviews. Great comments (and one or two disgruntled, mostly because of slow communication). But I checked it out, checked out his Facebook page, and there was simply waaay too much good stuff about Jay Ambrose and his service to ignore. The guy even has great reviews for his work on the multi-thousand-dollar headphones and earbuds that studio musicians wear. So I emailed him about my soldering issue, and he confirmed what Al Schibi had said. There's an anodized or baked on coating on the wires that provides an extra layer of insulation. He's seen it hundreds of times before, and he has a proven method to strip it, that doesn't overheat the wires and cause the plastic insulation to melt further and further up. Hey, every Pro in every specialty has their tricks. So I bit the bullet and sent them in. Cash included. Three weeks was the expected turnaround.

 

Jay's website says he'll contact you when they arrive. Actually, I think he puts them in queue and then contacts you when it's time to work on yours. So after a week, I emailed him and that's exactly what he told me. They'd arrived, and were in line to be worked on. Couple more weeks he said and they'd be back in my hands. OK. Breathe.

 

Today, they arrived. Just inside of three weeks. I asked Jay to install a straight plug instead of the 90-degree plug the headphones came with. Easier to plug them into the pigtail hanging out of my Autocom's helmet wiring. And that's exactly what he did. And it's a robust plug as well. Plus he shrink wrapped the plug to the wires to help enhance weather protection. I plugged them into my iMac and went listening for music. Awesome. Just the way they're supposed to sound. Perfect! Thank you, Jay.

 

No disclaimer here. I paid him full price for his repair (about $37, including return shipping), and he did exactly what I asked for, as he promised. I would send him another difficult repair in a heartbeat. Oh, and I just got through putting spiral wrap around wires, so the wind, heat and weather won't dry out my wires again.

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Doug_Baliko

It's always great to read a positive review. So many people only post negative reviews or comments when they have a problem. And a lot of the time the negativity is unjustified. It's refreshing to read something like this. Thanks for sharing.

 

Doug

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It's always great to read a positive review. So many people only post negative reviews or comments when they have a problem. And a lot of the time the negativity is unjustified. It's refreshing to read something like this. Thanks for sharing.

 

Doug

 

I sent Jay a link to this review, and he sent me a Thank You note, very appreciative of the kind words. Heck, he earned those words. And Jay invited anyone else who needs their headphones repaired (I know that in addition to the great headphones Arizona Al makes for us, a lot of people here use Sennheiser and other good brands as well) to feel free to contact him. Jay has a loyal following in the music industry and would love to have one in the motorcycle industry, too.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jay replaced the wires on my much-loved set of Er6i's and returned them to me in nearly new condition. Mad micro-soldering skills.

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