I am the unlucky owner of one of the earliest versions of noise canceling headphones. Replacement exceeds cost of an equivalent pair of noise canceling headphones. However, the speakers are still good and I want to convert them to regular headphones. I need to know which wires to clip to remove the background microphone.
Mike
It should be fairly obvious if you open them up, you can bypass the circuit board entirely. Could probably fix the noise canceling circuit pretty easily though, it's what I'd do, noise canceling headphones aren't cheap.
bypassing the circuit board was my first thought. But there is a complication: there is a small circuit board right on the speaker assembly that is not easily removed. There are 9 wires and I do not know which is which. I lack a schematic and diagrams. I could use trial and error I suppose. Besides, there is an amplifier integrated into the circuit making these headphones work well with very low power portable devices. I know I can ohm out the wires to trace where they go inside the battery/electronics pack. The problem is not that they are broken but that they cannot handle signals from common wireless devices that did not exist when they were designed and built. Replacement cost for a pair of Philips noise canceling headphones was $79. They work better than the Bose headset. Bose wanted $150 to replace/repair but would not promise the new ones would work any better. So now I just hope to salvage the AMP and speakers.
Mike
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