Bad soldering

[olds1959special]

Is bad soldering a threat to sound quality? I made my own Sennheiser headphone cable from Mogami 2543 and it works, but should I be concerned that my amateur soldering work might impact the performance of the cable?

 

[Doodski]

Is bad soldering a threat to sound quality? I made my own Sennheiser headphone cable from Mogami 2543 and it works, but should I be concerned that my amateur soldering work would impact the performance of the cable?

Yes, sometimes a bad solder joint can conduct but not 100% conduct all the time as it is intermittent. It sounds static'ishy. I've seen it rarely but I have seen it. If your joints look like they where nice and wet with hot solder and no flux between the solder and the base metal then they should be good. You can snap images if you want and we can analyze them.

 

[DVDdoug]

If it's bad-enough to affect sound quality it will usually sound very bad, and like Doodski says, possibly intermittent when flexed.

 

[olds1959special]

Pictures

 

[Soandso]

When the new solder surface looks dull a poor contact might develop in time underneath - even if that solder blob still looks in place and resists you test pulling the connection apart.

 

[Doodski]

Pictures
View attachment 398986View attachment 398991

It's difficult to see the joint(s) or not seeing them at all. If it works for you then it's good and if it fails in the future then fix it at that time.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Having fixed lots of bits of kit with bad solder joints, the general situation is: even at the first use they can increase distortion, but often it's not obvious and so a lot of gear goes into service as working (but the measurements might be marginal). Over time, bad joints increase the likelihood of audio impacts, but generally they are first spotted when something stops working. The likelihood of a failure can often be spotted by tapping or knocking the PCB (or warming or freezing it). Noise produced by this can be measured and sometimes heard if there is a poor solder joint.

 

[Roland68]

When the new solder surface looks dull a poor contact might develop in time underneath - even if that solder blob still looks in place and resists you test pulling the connection apart.

Most new lead-free solders look matte. This doesn't necessarily indicate a bad solder joint.