I was wondering how much abuse a cable can take. Say if I slightly bend or fold the thin cable on my beyer dt770 (the cable connecting the left speaker to right...) to the point where it's no longer smooth, so to speak, once I straighten it out a bit. I mean everything sounds fine, but I guess I'm just a little paranoid.

Short response: don't fuck with it.

It all depends on the cable. A Sony cable (MDR32 headphones, if I remember well) could stand much abuse without any problem, while the Senheiser HD600 cable doesn't even stand hanging between the ampli and the listener's head without toutching the ground for more than one year.

All in all, you can always replace the cable.

That Sennheiser one is known for having weak connector spring.
(Is that the right name? I mean that spring by the jack. Please correct me if it's not.)

In your case Khushrenada, it's just the isolation. Unless you can see the cable, it should be safe to bend - especially if it's stranded, as it most likely is.

I won't always replace the cable, because with the price of three spare cables and three pairs of spare ear-cushions, I can buy another brand new HD600

I've gone through three cables in two years on my HD25 and that one is made of steel for robustness. The trouble is that the connectors into the phones themselves are rubbish and the cable invariably goes in the few inches between the clamp and the earpiece.

I've always found that Beyer Dynamic professional headphones such as the DT100 and DT150 are much more rugged than Sennheiser but never seem to sound as good.

Thanks for the replies guys.

i would think a cake table could take quite a bit of abuse.

mmm cake.

Also avoid fluids and moisture of all kinds. The PVC isolation is not 100% impenetrable, water molecules will always get through it in small quantities.

And if the cable is exposed to a much moistier environment than usual in-door air, for example if the cable's in constant contact to sweaty skin or if it was lying in a puddle of (spilled) water for a few hours (or even days) then corrosion of the inner copper cables is almost inevitable.

Corrosive copper lines in a headphone cable doesn't mean that the cable has to be replaced automatically, but the lines get brittle and thus they're more likely to brake which will result in "crackling" or muffled sound sooner or later. But generally the time between the first signs of corrosion and the crackling noise is much longer than the time between the exposure to the water and the first signs of corrosion. You can tell if there's corrosion inside a cable when bending the cable feels a lot less smoother. Also note that the water inside the cable will spread due to capillary attraction, so if the leak is near the headphone itself then the corrosion might reach into the headphone itself and damage it, unless the cable isn't connected to it via an extra set of plug/socket which would stop the moisture from getting inside.

So also remember to keep the cable clean and dry or in case you build a custom cable as a replacement try to get headphone cables with special water-proof and durable plastic isolation, cloth coated cables might also help and act as a puffer for evironmental and accidental exposure to small amounts of water.

Btw, it's not only water that is bad for the cable, Oils are also a solvent for certain types of chemicals just like water is for others. Although oils (like the skin's sebum for example) are not corrosive to copper they nevertheless will most likely wash out certain chemicals (flexibiliser/plasticiser) from the cable's isolation. Chemicals that are needed to keep it smooth. Without them little cracks might develop in the isolation through which water will get into the cable and corrode the copper (not necessarily spilled water but over a long peroid of time the moisture of the air will be enough to start the thin cables inside to corrode.)

Do you have to break the ear cushion to replace it? I didn't when I have done it last time...
As to the cable... the usual audio-quality cable costs here about 5 zł/m, that is about 1,7$/m. I wouldn't call that expensive. It's durable and electrically good.
Even if you have to replace the jacks, it costs about 3-4 zł per jack (1$).




Unlikely if it's a Litz wire, because all strands are additionally isolated. The quality of the isolation varies, but it's usually some kind of lacquer. Easy to notice, because when you solder, it burns away. (if you're not cleaning the surface before soldering)

These kinds of lacquer tend to be waterproof and wash away only when alcohol is applied.

No, I pull them off every time I have to remove some hair or dead skin trapped inside. But I tore one washing it.



But how do you get the Sennheiser connectors on the headphone side ? I buy the standard Sennheiser replacement cable for HD600 and it costs 40 € ! It is Litz wire, and looking inside an old defective one, i saw that the copper strands were broken.

As to the Sennheiser connectors - the easy answer is that you unsolder and resolder them.

It's true that the wire itself can get broken, usually torn. Happens near the connectors or bends.
But I was talking about corrosion damage, not oxygenation or tearing.