S4i cable meets jack - Klipsch you must redesign it

[YUL]

Hello Klipsch aficionados,

I have been using for less than a year a pair of S4i with exceptional results: audio quality is superb, no complaints about the buttons, all in all rave reviews with a single exception.

The Achilles’ heel of these headphones is by far the way the cable is connected to the 3.5 mm jack. After three or four months of use (I am an extremely careful person when it comes to electronics, so they weren’t abused in any way) the black rubbery tube that holds together all the wiring simply slid out of the black cone that houses the 3.5mm at the other end.

I used some super glue and slid back the tube into the cone and for a while (couple of weeks) everything was perfect. Then, the tube, although still held inside the cone by the glue, started to tear apart right at the rim of the cone and the (coloured) cables inside became visible.

I wrapped some black electric tape around the whole joint hoping to stop the tear and not have the cable severed.

Has anybody had a similar experience? What’s to be done in such case? I bought my headphones from amazon.com, but I live in Canada so I am not even sure the warranty still applies.

Thanks for reading all this and for any ideas you might share,

YUL

P.S. I apologize but I have one last thing to say; compare, out of sheer curiosity if not anything else, the way Sennheiser for example (but cheaper manufacturers as well) reinforces that area; where the cable meets the jack it has been forever the weakest zone of any pair of headphones

[DrWho]

Instead of super glue, I would think something like hot glue would work better and not interract with the rubber to cause it to crack...

But I kinda have to agree about the strain relief...with the pair I just picked up today, the cable diameter is smaller than the strain relief, which makes it loose enough to where the cable can just slide in and out of the jacket. I'll be bringing them into work to do a little surgery, and hopefully I can prevent the cables from wearing out...

I gotta say they sound real good though....considerably better than the Shure SE310's that I just picked up through an employee discount. However, I think that's mostly because I love the way Klipsch voices their products, and the Klipsch earbuds are more comfortable.

[rogens50]

I have the exact same problem. Got my S4i s as a gift and am real disappointed the cable is coming apart at the jack and the little frail wires are exposed and certainly will fail. I can't believe a $100 pair of earbuds can be manufactured with such poor materials and design.

[Rockets]

Make a strain relief boot out of heat shrink. You can fill in any voids between the wire and h/s with silicone.

[rogens50]

Thanks, I was thinking about that. I guess Radio Shack must have these.

[Rockets]

Harbor freight too! Actually, if you built the cable up a bit behind the existing strain relief with some electrical tape and then covered it with h/s it'd probably work as well. You could also split some smaller tube and over lap the wire before you cover it with 1/4" h/s. I just bought a pair and extended the strain relief today ...took 5 minutes.

[YUL]

That was exactly my point.

People have to spend time and money trying to repair a design flaw on a pair of headphones that weren't cheap to begin with and all this because everybody wants to use them as long as possible.

Maybe somebody from Klipsch is reading this post.

[Scientia]

I have Klipsh S4....same problem... the wire with a jack lost contact... Any ideas how to repair it?

[rogens50]

I couldn't agree with you more. These are $100 headphones which is moderate priced and they are made like $5 eBay specials. I called Klipsch again explaining the problem and asked if anyone else complained about it. They said that they have sold 100,000 pairs and they have had almost no problems. I don't believe them. These were given to me as a gift and I did not have a receipt, so I am out of luck. They suggested I get ask the person who gifted these to me for a receipt. These were given to me by my sister in law for Christmas and I wouldn't even think about doing this - that would be tacky. Also, I doubt they still have the receipt. They should just fix or replace the damn things because they know that whatever Chinese factory they subcontracted them to did not make them well. I even asked if I could pay to have them fixed and they said they don't service these. My electrical tape is coming lose and I will try heat shrink tubing.

[rogens50]

I doubt this is repairable. Even Klipsch doesn't repair these. See my previous post.

[Scientia]

what a hell!? the headphones quality is good... but i cant say so about wires and a jack... they are peace of **** and they should fix it... or they are lazy *** or really busy with that....

[aadler]

I have the exactly same problem. I've used portable players for 30 yrs, and have never ran into headphones with such a weakly designed and built headphone jack. I got my first set exchanged, and happily received new headphones believing that I just had got a bad specimen. Well, the next ones broke just as easily, and now my retailer doesn't want to replace them. I think it is totally unacceptable for headphones costing 100.

[rogens50]

I finally repaired them with electical tape and heat shrink tubing. Shouldn't have to do this with moderately expensive earbuds, but it works. Again, unbelievably cheap construction.

[Ddongee]

My klipsch is showing tendency of wire slipping out from the buds like this post is discussing about it. I can literally pull the right wire back and forth roughly 2mm to 3mm from the housing cone. Funny thing is that I bought these phones from the bestbuy 3days ago. Although the sound quality is perfect and all, but I'm worried about the future issues that might occur from this wire instability. Does all klipsch s4s' right cable show this familiar problem or is it just me who unluckly picked up an impaired earphone from the bestbuy? I don't mind of returning mine if the new klipsch I exchange shows the same type of problem again. I might've just losing the burned out effect from my existing klipsch. What should I do?

[rogens50]

Regarding 2 -3 mm of play in the wires entering the earbuds, I think that this is OK, mine does this but does not show any signs of wear, but again, this goes to show how cheaply these are made. The connection and strain relief should be solid and secure.

[kimsmith]

We
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[Jh999]

I completely agree on this. Audio quality is fantastic. Physical build quality is not so great. This is a let down considering the research and comfort with the in ear portion is so great. Both the jack area and ear bud strain area have torn after 2 months of normal wear. But I do love these ear phones and klipsch products. Pls fix or offer repair solutions! It would be great if a klipsch rep would respond to this issue on the forum. I understand the s5i is coming out or already has. I would love to trade in if they are more rugged and have solved the tearing problems.

Thanks

[rogens50]

I fixed mine with electrical tape and heat shrink tubing. This lasted about 2 months and then the heat shrink tubing started to slip off exposing the small fragile wires. I am amazed they did not break. I did a new repair with "shoe Goo" more heat shrink tubing and a few of those plastic wire ties to keep the heat shrink tubing from slipping off. It is very clunky and ugly, but my headphones are still working. I am very unhappy I have had to spend all of this time to repair these due to such poor, cheap design as well as how ugly and unwieldy the earphones are now that I repaied these. These were a gift an I had no receipt so Klipsch would not repair these even though the product is defective. Not very happy with Klipsch and doubt I would buy any of there products inluding home audio again. My experience with their customer service was far from rewarding.

[MShima]

I have the same problem. The cable insulation has cleanly separated from the jack, exposing the wiring. I need to use the S4i's soon, so I've tried Superglue and hope it works. Dear Klipsch, this is not a good design!

[Perko_tas]

I have had a similar problem with my S4's, but with mine the rubber surrouding the cable where it enters the earbud has split and yesterday my left bud starting working intermittently. I love the sound of these buds and for the price they are the best around, but I'm pretty pissed off as I have only had them for three months!