How To Repair Speakers In Your Tactical Headsets

Bose Triport Tactical

"Why should I buy the Bose QuietComfort 15 (QC15) when I can find at Army surplus or online the rugged Bose Triport Tactical headset ? ... especially when Bose claims it uses the same technology in both". This is how it all started. Information technology fifty-fifty became obvious that I needed both, 1 for domicile and one for outdoors activities. If you lot're unsure about the differences between these two, I suggest you read my other post explaining why they're completely different things.

I got my U.s. Army Bose Triport Tactical headset on eBay from a very dainty human in selling army surplus. From the get-go I knew information technology would ask a little trial and mistake to understand the pinout of the AP-107 connector (or more precisely the AP-107BR, specs here) since all I could find were the connector specs not its pinout simply I was still far from expecting what follows...

A broken headset with only i ear working

Since it was not working as it should, the seller from eBay kindly suggested to refund me. Since I had zippo to lose anymore I took information technology appart and tried to ready it. Hither is how I did it:

• Checked all the wires with a multimeter. This is the commencement thing to exercise: y'all unplug wires on both sides and cheque for broken ones. All connectors were glued with transparent silicone (which is easy to remove): it did not work.

• Opened the headphones and the control box to look for burned components (visual inspection): no luck neither.

• Cross checked the noise cancelling circuits and speakers by plugging the left ear cup dissonance cancelling circuit on the right ear cup speaker and ... bingo !
  The correct earcup speaker was not working with the left earcup excursion, but pregnant it was not working.

Opening the ear loving cup

Remove the mic (or the plastic cover) and unscrew the noise cancelling excursion

First, unscrew the mic (or the plastic embrace, if you're working on the other side) and disconnect the cablevision going to the bombardment compartment. Y'all then demand to remove the 3 screws on the other side of the ear cup. This will give you access to the racket cancelling excursion.

From there, y'all will need to remove the silicone glued to the connectors to detach them. Yous tin then disconnect all connectors (except maybe the for the cable going to the other ear cup). Yous now demand to remove the dissonance cancelling circuit before opening the ear cup and replacing the speaker.

Replacing the speaker

Detaching the speaker from the metal frame of the headset is esay. Y'all need to slightly curve the metal (don't worry, it will go along its shape).

Unfortunately the (lacking) speaker is trapped inside a glued encasing and it is non meant to be serviced. Yous can however intermission it open, and if you do,  I recommend y'all to use a small apartment screwdriver (see motion picture on the right) to force it open.

Note: yous will need to use a lot of force to break the glued plastic. Starting from the lower right corner is the all-time place to get-go as y'all will make a paring there and this identify is hidden backside the noise cancelling circuit.

One time open up, you will need to remove the cleaved speaker (which is also glued to the plastic casing.

The original speaker still glued
to the ear-cup

Removing the quondam speaker
spotter the cherry-red dot for +

If you're going to replace the speaker of a racket cancelling headphone, there is one single thing you should non get incorrect: noise cancelling works by playing the opposite (negative) audio wave in the earcup to cancel the noise. Although I accept not tried it but I suppose if you connect it wrong it should double the noise instead of cancelling information technology.

In one case you lot removed the old speaker, and soldered the wires to the new ane (polarity !), make sure you glue the new 1 properly. You actually need to make sure the mucilage completely seals the front from the dorsum. I personally used hot gum.

I used a speaker from an old pair of headphones with a cleaved cord. If y'all do this too, yous should be careful not to pause it. I learned information technology the hard way using my screwdriver every bit a lever.

New speaker salvaged from
an old pair of headphones

If you want a practiced sound insulation, y'all'll want to seal dorsum the earcup (with e.g. hot glue). You tin can then reassemble the whole affair and enjoy your headset.

Lessons learned

This investigation led me to make ii discoveries:

• These headphones are not stereo, as-is they but have a unmarried audio aqueduct on the connector that is sent to both earcups. This perfectly makes sense since they were designed to piece of work with vehicle radios.
  EDIT: These headphones can however be adapted to go stereo. You lot can find out to procedure here.

• Headphone speakers are not serviceable ! The cup is glued and y'all cannot take them apart to bandy the speaker with a working ane (the same goes for the microphones).

• These headphones have a very detail behaviour. They do not forbid you lot from hearing ambient noise, they instead regulate the book and then it remains within a safe range. Y'all tin read my review of the Bose Triport Tactival headset for more info. In that location is however an Active Dissonance Reduction (ANR) functionality that is active simply when in a vehicle (read how to work around that)

Related manufactures:

Source: http://www.martinmelchior.be/2014/01/repairing-bose-triport-tactical.html

Posted by: ricedond2002.blogspot.com

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