Surfmaster PI / SMPI - headphone disassembly?

[guy232]

I have a whites surfmaster pi DF, the sliders broke on the headphones. I ordered new sliders and watched a video on how a tech replaced them. The tech just simply pushed the broken barbs into the headphones. I had the bright idea of trying to extract them and now have a problem.
Heres what I did:

1. threaded screw into broken barb
2. tried pulling screw out with vicegrips, screw came out of barb
3. tried threading screw deeper into barb, accidentally applied pressure and screw + barb fell into ear cup, heh

Now I have barb+screw rattling around inside the ear cup.
I carefully removed the foam earpad hoping to find screws beneath it, no screws.
I assume the yellow cup must be press fit with the black plastic cover, probably with adhesive?
Is there any way to pry apart the assembly?
About to try and magnetize a metal rod and attempt to snag the screw in hopes of extracting it, will update if I figure anything out in the mean time.

Attached are pics of front/back of the headphone, also a pic of the control box just to show what model i'm working with.


Cheers fellas

[Carl-NC]

Some of the White's headphones snap together, I don't recall these specifically. I have a pair but don't know where they are, otherwise I'd take a look.

[guy232]

Thanks, looking like it must be snapped together. I notice a very slight gap, i'll ask around and search some more before giving it a go. Will try fishing the screw out as well. I may be able to fit my endoscope in through the hole that the rubber slide pops into, will try that too -- thanks for making me think of trying that, maybe i'll see some snaps and know where to pry.

[guy232]

Update: Problem solved

I used a small blade screwdriver to create a gap so that I could insert a slighter wider blade screw driver. I then gently rotated the blade left to right to twist apart the housing a bit. I removed blade and re-inserted along the seam and repeated until the adhesive broke free a bit. I could then spread the housing enough to allow the old barb to fall out. I didn't have to completely separate the housing, the top side adhesive is still intact, everything snaps back together tight and I cannot pull it apart by hand once I snapped it back together.
I did this to the other headphone as well just so I wouldn't have a barb kicking around inside making noise.

Attached pics, one showing the process and the other of the completed job. I think I routed the cables back to match the stock configuration, let me know if it looks wrong.

Cheers

[Qiaozhi]

It's always good when a plan comes together.
Also, well done on telling us (with some great photos) how it all went. Not everyone can be bothered to report back on whether the problem was resolved, or even how they did it.

[guy232]

Cheers Qiaozhi. Aye, I always search for answers to questions I have on various equipment via sifting through old forum posts. 90% of the time when I find someone dealing with a problem I see they usually disappear with no resolution or conclusion. I really hate those guys haha.