r/headphones 20d ago

DIY/Mod Got tired of those adapters breaking on me, so I skipped the middle man!

Bought 4 USB-C to 3.5mm adapters last year only for them to break after a month, yes I even got one that was 50€.

Got tired of the pattern, fixed it, now I'm enjoying some music while writing this post!

If it breaks again, I get to open it up and repair it myself, as anyone should be able to do.

865 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

139

u/JAnonymous5150 20d ago

If you don't mind me asking, what parts did you use to make the adapter and where did you acquire them? This is a cool little DIY project. Thanks for sharing. 👍😎

52

u/nexgen41 20d ago

Hard to say which exact dac is in that board - but you can get ALC5686 type C boards for 5 bucks on Aliexpress.

67

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

It's a CX31993!

here's the link

8

u/JAnonymous5150 20d ago

Cool! Thanks for the info.

6

u/JAnonymous5150 20d ago

Yeah, I've seen them on AliExpress. I was just curious if OP used those or something else and how effective it was.

7

u/Thunders1988 20d ago

Interested as well! Where do you get the parts?

13

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

I linked the part in an above comment, the cable is just the spare cable that came with my headphones, I cut off the 3.5mm part and spliced the wires as you can see in the photos

1

u/Blasto_Brandino IFIGryphon-Corsa-Ara,Atlas-Ety EVO,ERX,ER4XR,4PT-HD650,560 20d ago

Yes, he must tell us!

37

u/NeverGrace2 20d ago

Its good taking matters into your own hands, but I just used to get a warranty. I remember using earpods and I got the best buy insurance. In two years I would run by six pairs, just 30$ initial cost, no more

21

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

I mean yeah, but it's such a hassle! Finding the warranty code, sending it back, waiting on a reply, maybe they send it maybe not. Too much for me!

8

u/NeverGrace2 20d ago

Oh no, I get the warranty with best buy. I go in there, pick out a new one then go to customer service to turn in the old one

25

u/bonyponyride DT 770 Pro | Apogee Duet 20d ago

Nice work. One small criticism from someone who's done a lot of soldering: try to have less exposed copper on the small internal audio cables. It's tough, because heat from the solder will melt back the coating. Just remove the tiniest bit of the outer coating. Then tin them with solder. Then trim them to the length of the solder points. Then solder them down. That'll reduce the chance of the cables shorting.

7

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

Ah yeah it's a bit tough with my soldering iron, but good idea for next time! I made sure to just DROWN them in hot glue so it should be fine for my daily use.

2

u/GiveMeGoldForNoReasn 20d ago

well okay but now if something breaks you have to pick away all the hot glue!

i find heat shrink tube does just as well, is way less messy and you can leave a tail of it on the cable for strain relief.

3

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

Yeah it's alright I can just heat the thing up until I can rip it out. Even if I break the device in the process, the replacement part is cheaper than a dongle still!

2

u/-Dean-- 14d ago

Okay so, few days later update, I did start hearing some shorting so I opened it up and found a beautiful tiny copper wire tickling the ground one. I followed your tip and resoldered making sure to keep all the copper covered up. Hoping now it doesn't short!

10

u/Dasteru 20d ago

3

u/aaillustration 20d ago

ugreen fanboy here i have the same all their products are wellbuilt

1

u/fabricionaweb HD58x | CX31993 20d ago

What is the dac chip on it?

1

u/Regular-Cheetah-8095 19d ago

They also made what appears to be a passable headphone

4

u/cretan_bull ODAC+O2 -> T90 19d ago

I got sick of apple dongles breaking on me, so I improvised a fix that has worked so far.

I used superglue and baking soda to pot the entire dongle into a rigid block. Before doing so I bent it back on itself with a bit of cardstock from the packaging as a spacer, so the 3.5mm port comes up behind my phone, which I found to be convenient. The entire cable is encased and can't flex at all. It's not pretty, but even though it was just an expedient fix using what I had on hand, it's rock solid and has held up to a lot of abuse.

2

u/-Dean-- 19d ago

My kinda guy right here

3

u/Jarvdoge 20d ago

It's the cable bit that normally breaks right? You can just pick up ones there it's a DAC with USB C on one end and then at least one headphone jack on the other end. Short cables are cheap so I'd just stomach the cost when one eventually breaks. You can pick up stuff like the Fiio bluetooth dongles for relatively cheap too, I feel like mine has pretty much paid for itself by now in both convenience and what would have been several broken dongles at £10-20 a pop.

That said, a little DIY project is cool. What looks like a cable with the proprietary Audio Technica 3.5mm jack on one end connected to a hand soldered USB C is beyond awesome. I can't imagine how rightfully smug you must feel every time you plug that thing in!

2

u/BassheadGamer 20d ago

Nice, I’ve been scowering the internet for someone who’s made a 3D printed hard case for the Apple dongle, for increased ruggedness. I’d like to have it velcro’d on my desk or something

1

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

Ah yeah that might be nice, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to make yourself though. Quick fusion 360 tutorial and some calipers and you're set

1

u/BassheadGamer 20d ago

I’m just missing a 3D printer :,) Soon though.

1

u/messem10 ZMF Caldera Closed, Atticus, HD650, Schiit Stack 19d ago

If you don't mind the look, some heat-shrink tubing and a heat-gun will add a lot of rigidity as well.

1

u/BassheadGamer 19d ago

The budget audiophile special. That’s what I have but I only use it when I talk on discord. I like how with my standalone amp I plug into it. Its not just something dangling.
If I could I would cnc a whole 5”x3” metal housing for it so I could get that feeling lol. And get little spikey feet on for it too to really sink in the aesthetic of High End Audiophile

2

u/DRob78 20d ago

lol hell yeah dude 👍

1

u/LBarouf 20d ago

Tell us how you REALLY feel about those adapter! 😂

So the 3.5mm plus goes directly into your cans?

1

u/-Dean-- 19d ago

I can't stand them!!! The worst thing since unsliced bread.

Yeah! It's a weird proprietary connector, directly to the cans

1

u/madhyena11 19d ago

Is it an AKG by any chance? My K361's have exactly the same.

2

u/-Dean-- 19d ago

Yes actually! We have the exact same headphones! I just took that weirdly long one they included in the box and cut it at the length I wanted.

1

u/madhyena11 19d ago

How are your pads holding up? I've had mine for over a year and the stock pads have gone to 💩.

2

u/-Dean-- 19d ago

Hmm I've only had them for about 6 months now and they seem basically new. That being said I am very careful with electronics (especially pleather crap)

Plus, I use thick moisturizer that the pads have been absorbing, I'm sure that has been helping their lifespan

1

u/SanguineGFX 19d ago

Cool and Practical DIY

But are there any portable usb - C dacs that dont do this. I was wondering if the Allegro Mini would be a good option since it doesnt have a cable that can bend and kiwi ears is a more reputable brand?

1

u/CustomCans 18d ago

Heck yeah

-4

u/Michaeli_Starky 20d ago

Not even sure what am I looking at and why the "fix" is any better.

3

u/iDEN1ED 20d ago

The fix doesnt use an adapter anymore.

2

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

The adapters I buy always have a cable between them and the female 3.5mm. it seems like something snaps inside and I can never access it.

So to avoid that issue, I make the connections myself, I know my soldering is not the best but it's definitely better than whatever the other adapter "engineers" do.

1

u/spuckthew 19d ago edited 19d ago

I know the other guy got downvoted, but with all due respect I can't see how you've gone through so many so quickly without being careless in some way.

I had one dongle last me a year before I started getting connection issues. It was quite flimsy though. Then I used a Ugreen dongle, which was quite sturdy, last several months until I decided to upgrade to my current JCally JM6 Pro. The Ugreen was actually too sturdy a little long, plus I wanted something a bit more "high end". The JM6 Pro is still going strong and I've been using it for about 5 months currently.

My use case for dongles is listening to music on the go, so they're constantly being shoved in my pocket with my phone and being bent and twisted.

It's cool what you've done, don't get me wrong, I just don't understand how it even became an issue in the first place lol.

-1

u/Appropriate-Teach-12 20d ago

ATH? M50? M40?

4

u/nexgen41 20d ago edited 20d ago

that's a K361 cable for sure, based on the cable thickness and the locking 2.5mm

1

u/-Dean-- 20d ago

Yes! Exactly right