Have a few questions before I solder on a new 3.5mm audio plug to my PC speaker cable.

[Mebryn]

Hey everyone, ok, as time has gone by my speakers (like most) have started to get abit of wear of tear in regards to the connection of the wiring in the plugs. I've got a set of Logitech X-620 speakers and i'm going to be replacing the plugs on all three of the cables that plug in to the auction PC itself (not the plugs that go into the subwoofer)

Now I've already ordered and received the replacement plugs, just for the sake of making things easier I have a link to the manufacturers diagram of the part:

http/www.switchcraft.com/Drawings/35hd_series_cd.pdf

Now here's where my question/concern comes in, when I open up the Logitech cable there's 3 wires (well 4, the standard 2 copper wires but I twist them into one) There's the main Copper Wire, one wire with Red insulation (which i'm led to believe is the right audio) and another wire with Black insulation. (I've included a picture of the replacement plug and the speaker cable, already cut with wires exposed to show what i'm talking about).

Now basically what I need to know (because when it comes to things like this i'm two steps below a noob) is what wire do I solder to each section of the new plug? I can manage the soldering and all that, I just don't want to risk soldering the wrong wires to the wrong parts and causing more strain.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated, as like I said I know little to nothing about audio cable wiring and replacing the plugs, i'm confident that I can manage this, but I just desperately need an "Idiot-proof" explanation to make sure I don't screw anything up.

So that's the pic of what i'm looking at, again, ANY simple help (even if you want to just repost the picture with arrows pointing each wire to where it should be soldered, that would be amazing) would be greatly appreciated as i'm really looking forward to getting my full surround sound back

Thanks to any and all who listened

- J. McLean

 

[USAFRet]

Like this:

 

[ram1009]

I assume the other end of the cable is wired to an existing plug. If so an ohmeter will tell you which wire is attached to which terminal on the existing plug. The contacts on the new plug are called the "tip", "ring" & "base". The ohmeter will also tell you which of the solder terminals is common to the tip, ring or base. Connect the new plug the same as the old plug.

 

[Mebryn]

Like this:

Ah ok, so then the black insulated wire is the ground and I should solder the copper one to the tip then?

Also, when soldering the black wire to the sleeve, does it have to be in any specific spot? Or just generally on the bottom area? (as the diagram shows)

 

[USAFRet]

Like this:

Ah ok, so then the black insulated wire is the ground and I should solder the copper one to the tip then?

Also, when soldering the black wire to the sleeve, does it have to be in any specific spot? Or just generally on the bottom area? (as the diagram shows)

Does this wire lead to one speaker or two? If two, then you do NOT twist the two coppers together.

 

[Mebryn]

Like this:

Ah ok, so then the black insulated wire is the ground and I should solder the copper one to the tip then?

Also, when soldering the black wire to the sleeve, does it have to be in any specific spot? Or just generally on the bottom area? (as the diagram shows)

Does this wire lead to one speaker or two? If two, then you do NOT twist the two coppers together.

Ahh see that I did not know, it leads to two speakers, so once I get them sorted back out (or cut further down the wire) where do both the copper wires go individually?

 

[USAFRet]

The Rght goes to the Ring, the Left goes to the Tip.

 

[Mebryn]

The Rght goes to the Ring, the Left goes to the Tip.

So then of the 4 wires I have (2 copper, 1 red, 1 black) I solder them in this fashion:

- Red wire and one copper wire soldered to the Ring
- Other copper wire to the tip
- Black wire to the Sleeve

Right? Or is there any trick to finding out which of the two copper wires is left or right (without using any sort of device)?

By the way, I appreciate the vast amount of help you're giving, I can already tell i'd have messed it up horribly, lol.

 

[USAFRet]

The Rght goes to the Ring, the Left goes to the Tip.

So then of the 4 wires I have (2 copper, 1 red, 1 black) I solder them in this fashion:

- Red wire and one copper wire soldered to the Ring
- Other copper wire to the tip
- Black wire to the Sleeve

Right? Or is there any trick to finding out which of the two copper wires is left or right (without using any sort of device)?

By the way, I appreciate the vast amount of help you're giving, I can already tell i'd have messed it up horribly, lol.

4 wires? Should only be 3. Left, Right, ground.
ahhh...I did not see there was also a sub.

 

[Mebryn]

The Rght goes to the Ring, the Left goes to the Tip.

So then of the 4 wires I have (2 copper, 1 red, 1 black) I solder them in this fashion:

- Red wire and one copper wire soldered to the Ring
- Other copper wire to the tip
- Black wire to the Sleeve

Right? Or is there any trick to finding out which of the two copper wires is left or right (without using any sort of device)?

By the way, I appreciate the vast amount of help you're giving, I can already tell i'd have messed it up horribly, lol.

4 wires? Should only be 3. Left, Right, ground.
ahhh...I did not see there was also a sub.

Yeah, from what i'd been reading on other sites when I was just trying to figure it out, most said that you would just twist the two copper wires into one, but then again I don't believe those tutorials were specifically for a cable that provided audio to two speakers.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, from what i'd been reading on other sites when I was just trying to figure it out, most said that you would just twist the two copper wires into one, but then again I don't believe those tutorials were specifically for a cable that provided audio to two speakers.

Now that we're including the sub (3 speakers), I'd have to take them apart to see exactly what wire goes where.

The jack on the PC gives up 3 contacts. Left, right, ground. What the speakers do with those signals is the difference. Probably the sub splits it out to the left and right, but again, I'd have to take them apart to see.
A $5 ohmmeter can help you here.

 

[Mebryn]

Yeah, from what i'd been reading on other sites when I was just trying to figure it out, most said that you would just twist the two copper wires into one, but then again I don't believe those tutorials were specifically for a cable that provided audio to two speakers.

Now that we're including the sub (3 speakers), I'd have to take them apart to see exactly what wire goes where.

The jack on the PC gives up 3 contacts. Left, right, ground. What the speakers do with those signals is the difference. Probably the sub splits it out to the left and right, but again, I'd have to take them apart to see.
A $5 ohmmeter can help you here.

Hmm, well the plug that controls the Main front two speakers and the sub isn't that bad...I mean I can twist/turn that plug to get it working, it's just the other two plugs that are completely unusable. The two other plugs each control two speakers each, but they also have two seperate copper wires (in the picture I included, the copper wire shown is the two copper wires twisted together and that's the cable for the side pair of speakers) When I get those two cables (the side and back pair) fixed, did you want me to upload a pic of the cable for the sub/main speakers after i've just stripped the main casing and before i've altered anything?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes...a pic of the whole setup would help.

 

[Mebryn]

Ok, so I snapped some pictures of all I could think of (I couldn't get access to the back of my CPU to take a picture of the audio jacks, but if need be I can try to later on)

So here are the pics that I did take:

1: The back of the sub, has the plugs for the corresponding speakers and then the wider plug at the bottom which has one thick cable running up to the main front speaker, and the power cord as well, hidden behind the wider plug in the picture.

2: The back of the main front speaker, it's not the best of quality due to the available lighting but it has the 3 cables that run from it to the pack of the PC and the thicker cable that leads to the wide plug on the back of the sub.

3: The end of the 3 bundled cords that come out of the back of the main speaker, the green one is the one that's in "decent" shape and controls the sub/front speakers, the one that has the exposed wires was the black plug which (I believe) controls the side speakers and the peach one i'm not 100% sure on.....(I haven't had it plugged in for a long time) So even with just the green and black ones plugged in I've had use of the majority of the speakers.

Finally: This isn't the plug that I cut off of the 3 bundled cord, but it's a plug that I had previously cut off of a cord that came with the speakers, it's just to show what it basically looks like with those wires when I strip back the insulation (note in this pic the black wire isn't in there, I was kinda pulled out as I was in abit of a rush to strip the insulation off to take the pic, and i'd considered that plug useless anyway)