Soldering Litz Wire in modern Headphones

[Old Sparky]

I often struggle to do this, as either the strands of wire won't separate properly, or won't tin.  This morning I was trying to prepare/tin the end of a wire in the LH  earpiece of a pair of headphones, without success.   Having discovered that a new, identical pair, can be bought for less than £6, I gave up and ordered new ones, but can anyone advise the best way to solder Litz wire successfully?

[ppppenguin]

I've not done this myself but the traditional way to solder litz wire is to dip the end in meths and set fire to it. Tha burns off the insulation so it can be soldered in the usual way.

The question is whether the fine wire on modern cans is actually litz. You certainly don't need the electrical properties of litz so perhaps it's someting else. Possibly an alloy that doesn't readily solder? Perhaps it' s usually terminated by crimping?

[Refugee]

A gas lighter also works and is less smelly than meths.

[reset]

I often struggle to do this, as either the strands of wire won't separate properly, or won't tin.  This morning I was trying to prepare/tin the end of a wire in the LH  earpiece of a pair of headphones, without success.   Having discovered that a new, identical pair, can be bought for less than £6, I gave up and ordered new ones, but can anyone advise the best way to solder Litz wire successfully?

I use Litz for hookup wire when the joint will be stressed. I dip it in solder paste and apply the iron to the cut end. The insulation will prevent heating the wire but it will burn off if heated to a high enough temperature to melt solder. When it starts burning the flux will float it out of the way and tin the wire.

Be aware the phone company uses tinsel wire. It will not solder very well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel_wire

I have soldered tinsel wire but it is better to use a mechanical connector with it.

73

[ppppenguin]

@reset, that's the term I was looking for "Tinsel wire". More or less unsolderable, always crimped.

[BusyBee]

Tinsel wire? Horrible stuff! For anyone looking out Litz wire, it can be very variable as some I bought not so long back was easily solderable - Better than most normal enamelled wire.

Tracy

[Mark Hennessy]

I don't think the OP is referring to tinsel wire.

I've just taken a close look at the wire used in a Post Office PO316 patch cord - under a microscope you can clearly see that this is a form of tinsel wire - not braided, but definitely a wound copper foil around a nylon or similar core, with the crimped connections mentioned earlier.

The wire used in loudspeakers to connect the cone to the terminals is called tinsel wire. That is braided, and obviously very flexible. I'm not sure it's the same type that we're talking about though - the ones I've examined look like the strands are just regular (very fine) copper wire. And it's soldered. Next time I come across a damaged speaker, I'll take a closer look.

I recently repaired a pair of cheap headphones, and found that the cable contained very thin enamel-coated wire. Lots of very thin strands. There were 4 different colours of enamel for identification. You can tin them in the usual way to burn off the enamel. I don't think these are tinsel wire. I've seen a couple of people on other forums refer to this as Litz, and you can see why. Even if the RF benefits of Litz are irrelevant here, the flexibility is key.

Some pictures of the headphone cable I'm trying to describe, and what I suspect the OP is referring to: https://hackaday.com/2016/11/22/iron-tip...amel-wire/

A couple of months back a did a few Sennheiser headphone cables. They use steel or kevlar reinforced copper. That's fun

[Mark Hennessy]

This site suggests that loudspeaker tinsel wire really is tinsel wire: http://www.maeden.com.tw/en/factory-4684...insel.html

That's good because I was struggling to think how anything else would have the reliability, but it does solder easily, unlike PO cords, so I wonder how they achieve that?

[Crackle]

Is this a modernish headset?
I have soldered headset multi-strand wire which appears to have each strand insulated, it is not easy but it can be done. My soldering iron is set to 400 deg c. Maybe your iron is not hot enough.

Mike

[Old Sparky]

This is a modern pair of, possibly Chinese made Lightweight headphones, an identical pair of which I have ordered from Amazon. At less than £6 they're not worth spending time on, TBH, but for future reference, I'll bear the points raised by all of you in mind. The wires were originally soldered to the terminals of the midget 'speaker', btw. As for the term 'Tinsel Wire', I don't recall coming across it before, but I have seen similar wire used in headphones and earphones, including a pair of BOSE 'phones. Bring back conventional twin screened wires I say!! Mark, the wire in the 'phones concerned is exactly the type described in thar 'Hackaday' link!