Or rather the crappy plug at the end of the wire. They stopped working the other day - one of the phones was not working unless I twisted the cable. So, I thought, I'd be able to get a new plug from Maplin and solder it on.

A mistake. The problem seems to be that the left and right cables are not insulated from each other as expected. There seems to be a bare copper wire and a coloured copper wire running down each part of the cord. These wires appear to be intermingled by some kind of nylon. The result her being that it's hard to separate the two, and it seems nigh on impossible to get it to take solder.

Now, my soldering isn't brilliant, but I do know about tinning wires, and this doesn't work. Nor does tinning the replacement plug, which I suspect I've ballsed up now. The think is that for a brief moment, I had the things working, and then one of the wires came loose from the plug of its own accord. Result - no headphones.

I've given it about 4 goes, each with similar success. I guess I have to write them off and buy a new pair. Not cheap. Maybe I have to find a pair with a sturdier kind of wire so that plug replacement is easier.

I don't suppose that the actual headphone parts themselves are dismantalable, are they? If so, are the headphones expensive enough to warrant replacing the entire cable, soldering directly to the speakers?

My 16€ Hama headphones had a broken cable, so I bought a 10€ pair of Panasonics on Saturday... But it looks like the socket on my iPhone is also faulty!

I've got cheapo Sennheisers. The cable began to look a bit dodgy at the plug end - no stress relief - so I got some self-amalgamating tape and wound it round to reinforce it.

It's not pretty, but it works.

SA tape is used by satellite dish and aerial installers to make watertight cable joints and to seal connectors and stuff. It's a rubbery compound that can be stretched around several times, and then begins to amalgamate into itself to make an almost permanent waterproof joint. It's not cheap, but Best Beloved has a couple of rolls about the place when I need it.

Mine are at home today. I FAIL.

Most headphones use the same sort of wire that's impossible to solder.

The only ones I've been able to resolder were Grados but they were rather expensive.

Might be worth looking at headphones with replaceable cables

No - they don’t seem to be dismountable. Looks like I have lost a decent pair of headphones for want of a £1 component.

Heather - the cable had to be held in a funny way to get sound into the two speakers - so reinforcing tape would not really help here.

Okay. I was thinking more as a pre-emptive strike for the next pair. If I replace my cheapos with the same brand, I'll reinforce them before they get used in anger.

I've left the rather good Samsung ones I got with my phone in work for that very reason

My Sennheiser HD205s have done exactly the same thing... I'm sure it's the kids messing about with them.

Luckily these are "takeable apartable" so once I find the headphone extension lead which I put somewhere safe, (and forget where I put them) I'll be able to replce the cable.

My replacement Shure headphones have just turned up. My last pair died just before the warranty ran out.
That's better than my first pair though, they died just after the warranty ran out.

I really hate headphones simply because of the wire. When they make cordless ones that last all day, don't cost a fortune, sound good and are nice and light I'll be more inclined to use them.

I have a nice big cordless pair in the living room, but there it doesn't matter if the battery goes dead and I don't have to put them in my pocket...

+1, battery tech moves way too slow

Gotta say, my Sennheiser wireless aren't too bad. Comfy, don't weigh a tonne, but they do rely on FM to transmit the signal, so the dynamic range isn't all it could be.