Why can't I buy junky mmcx earbud cables in bulk?

[starry]

A very simple question:

I bought Linsoul TIN T2s which has MMCX connectors for one reason: every pair of earbuds ive ever owned has developed a cable short after mere months.

Does anyone know where i can buy a multipack of junky MMCX cables to last me the next year or so?

I keep looking around and its all just HiFi premium snake oil cables and idk what to do.

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, starry said:

A very simple question:

I bought Linsoul TIN T2s which has MMCX connectors for one reason: every pair of earbuds ive ever owned has developed a cable short after mere months.

Does anyone know where i can buy a multipack of junky MMCX cables to last me the next year or so?

I keep looking around and its all just HiFi premium snake oil cables and idk what to do.

How many cables will "last you the next year or so"?

 

As for the cables themselves - do other EarBuds besides the Linsoul use MMCX cables? I've never heard of that being a thing, but I won't discount the possibility.

 

If they're unique to Linsoul, my suggestion would be to contact customer support (or if they have a general inquiries/sales contact) and see if you can arrange a bulk purchase of just the cables? I assume they sell replacements, yes? Looks like you can buy them from Amazon, but they're pretty expensive (cheapest I saw was around $25 CAD).

[starry]

28 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

How many cables will "last you the next year or so"?

 

As for the cables themselves - do other EarBuds besides the Linsoul use MMCX cables? I've never heard of that being a thing, but I won't discount the possibility.

 

If they're unique to Linsoul, my suggestion would be to contact customer support (or if they have a general inquiries/sales contact) and see if you can arrange a bulk purchase of just the cables? I assume they sell replacements, yes? Looks like you can buy them from Amazon, but they're pretty expensive (cheapest I saw was around $25 CAD).

MMCX isnt proprietary as far as I know, many studio earbuds have such connectors on them so that when the cable dies on their expensive equipment it can be replaced easily.

IG:

        

 

Im just running into a problem where mmcx earbud cables are usually made for premium products and such are premium in nature, so I cant seem to just find a 6 pack of cheaply made ones for like $15 to keep using my earbuds, so am wondering if anyone has any insight on cheap MMCX cables, cause the point of buying these earbuds were to save money on not buying new earbuds every 3 months.

[H713]

Two points.

1) The easy solution here is to stop destroying cables. There is no reason that a pair of earbud cables shouldn't last for several years as long as you aren't an animal. 

 

2) MMCX connectors are a miniature microwave connector that some companies decided to repurpose for audio. As such, the connectors themselves are quite expensive. I highly doubt you will be able to find a cheap MMCX audio cable for this reason. A good chunk of that $25 is for the connectors themselves, and that's just the reality of tiny connectors that are good to 6 GHz. Quite frankly, $25 is cheap when it comes to microwave hardware. 

[Needfuldoer]

On 2/24/2022 at 5:46 PM, H713 said:

1) The easy solution here is to stop destroying cables. There is no reason that a pair of earbud cables shouldn't last for several years as long as you aren't an animal. 

This. I'm only on my second pair of $10 cheapo Panasonic earbuds in fifteen years. I over-under wrap the cord and store them in an Altoids tin when I'm not using them.

 

Either that or just bite the bullet and go wireless...

[starry]

On 2/24/2022 at 5:46 PM, H713 said:

as long as you aren't an animal

Im a dog i chew them up /s

 

On 2/24/2022 at 5:46 PM, H713 said:

The easy solution here is to stop destroying cables.

ive tried, doesnt work

 

On 2/24/2022 at 5:46 PM, H713 said:

As such, the connectors themselves are quite expensive. I highly doubt you will be able to find a cheap MMCX audio cable for this reason.

ah, i guess i will give up on earbuds, its not in my budget

 

While i have your attention could i ask if you know if multi core cables are for redunency or for something else? Ive seen a few of them and they interest me if redundency is their purpose.

[H713]

23 hours ago, starry said:

While i have your attention could i ask if you know if multi core cables are for redunency or for something else? Ive seen a few of them and they interest me if redundency is their purpose.

Depends on what you mean by "multi core cables".

 

Some audio cables will utilize multiple parallel conductors (such as in a twisted quad) for resistance to EMI. You may get some redundancy, but usually by the time one conductor is broken, the others aren't far behind.

 

Copper is quite prone to work hardening, and any cable being repetitively flexed has a limited lifespan for this reason. Obviously moving to smaller conductors helps with this. 

 

Depending on how you're destroying them, cables with an a braided outer cover may last significantly longer. Polyester has pretty good abrasion resistance. It all depends on how you're killing them (won't do much if you're breaking the connectors), but it can help if the cable is deteriorating too quickly.

[starry]

13 hours ago, H713 said:

Depends on what you mean by "multi core cables".

 

Some audio cables will utilize multiple parallel conductors (such as in a twisted quad) for resistance to EMI. You may get some redundancy, but usually by the time one conductor is broken, the others aren't far behind.

 

Copper is quite prone to work hardening, and any cable being repetitively flexed has a limited lifespan for this reason. Obviously moving to smaller conductors helps with this. 

 

Depending on how you're destroying them, cables with an a braided outer cover may last significantly longer. Polyester has pretty good abrasion resistance. It all depends on how you're killing them (won't do much if you're breaking the connectors), but it can help if the cable is deteriorating too quickly.

Its definately not the connectors, its the wires, i always end up with some kind of short where i only get sound in 1 ear or zero ears. This can be temporarily "fixed" by positioning the cable around the short, and its reproducable up until the wire fails all together. 

 

I do put a lot more strain on the wire than a normal person would, I use some type of headphones pretty much 24/7, because i have pretty bad sensory issues. The nice ones stay at my desk at all times plugged into their amp, and Ive outfitted it with a curly 3.5mm/2.5mm cable to prevent accidental pulls and whatnot and for ability to easily replace if needed, these have lasted me over a year now with no issues, because i use them gently in only 1 place. When im not at my desk though, i need something to supplement, and i get headaches from bad sounding tinny audio, so i need at least half decent IEMs. I sleep, walk around my apartment, cook, and do groceries with my earbuds, literally everything.

On top of this i have no depth perception, so accident pulls, cord getting caught on things, etc happens and there isnt much to be done about this. Also cant rly control what i do in my sleep, but rly cannot sleep without some kind of noise isolation.

 

This is a long way of saying that yes, I know i absolutely destroy my earbuds like no normal human does, but there isnt much i can do. I have tried bluetooth solutions but I find them all to make my sensory issues even worse with things like telling me battery is low with some text to speech lady, bright eye searing blue leds to indicate connection, and the fact that i use earbuds so much that no pair can charge fast enough for my purposes. 

 

So with all that out of the way, I absolutely need some kind of corded solution that has replacable cables.

Ive been looking around the past few days and found this other 2 pin connector that some manufacturers use:

 

Is this the same story as mmcx, or is it less expensive to replace?

 

 

-edit-

Oh, and this is what I was talking about with multi core cables:

There are multiple seperately insulated wires, made me think its for redundency, If so, and the 2pin connector has the same problem will probably go with this

Edited March 8, 2022 by starry

[dalekphalm]

Honestly, you might want to consider buying two pairs of high end wireless IEM's. One pair to use, and another that is always charged. When your current pair dies, you swap and charge em back up.

 

That would at least minimize some of your concerns with wireless.

 

If that doesn't work, you're basically back to where you started: Buy expensive replacement cables.

 

You could try to make your own, I suppose.

[starry]

6 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Honestly, you might want to consider buying two pairs of high end wireless IEM's. One pair to use, and another that is always charged. When your current pair dies, you swap and charge em back up.

 

That would at least minimize some of your concerns with wireless.

 

If that doesn't work, you're basically back to where you started: Buy expensive replacement cables.

 

You could try to make your own, I suppose.

holy shit thats fucking genious man why did i not think of that

 

unrelated does anyone know which wireless IEM's have the best battery life? looking for at least 10 hours with noise canceling on if possible... could settle for 8?

6 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You could try to make your own, I suppose.

definately dont have the dexterity to work with tiny components like that, you should see the soldering job i did on my dishwasher's controller board lololol

[dalekphalm]

5 minutes ago, starry said:

holy shit thats fucking genious man why did i not think of that

Sometimes when we're dealing with a problem for a long time, it helps to get outside perspective - we often overlook seemingly obvious solutions.

5 minutes ago, starry said:

unrelated does anyone know which wireless IEM's have the best battery life? looking for at least 10 hours with noise canceling on if possible... could settle for 8?

I don't use wireless IEM's so I'm not sure about that specifically - you may wish to open a new thread specifically about Wireless IEM recommendations (and of course look for recommendations here).

5 minutes ago, starry said:

definately dont have the dexterity to work with tiny components like that, you should see the soldering job i did on my dishwasher's controller board lololol

Heh - practice does help though. Last solder job I did was also pretty rough but I hardly ever do it anymore.

[H713]

8 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

You could try to make your own, I suppose.

MMCX? Not recommended. The smaller the RF connector, the more of a B**** it is to terminate. Small crimping tasks? No thank you. SMA is bad enough.

 

I could probably terminate 10 N connectors in the time it would take me to do 1 MMCX.