Image on left is from 4 days ago, but the pimple was slowly forming over around 2 weeks.

The goop was sticky, not oily. Earphones are Panasonic RP-TCM130.

I was not able to find an explanation.
Something to increase cable lifespan, lubrication, rubber disintegrating, sweat and earwax that somehow got into the cable, dielectric grease, SCP-1407, no clear answer.

At first I thought the wires just somehow twisted. Nope.

  • Tylerdurdon
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    1 year ago

    If you put the yolk into a cup of soil, you should have baby headphones within 2-3 weeks.

    • Lost_My_Mind
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      1 year ago

      You gotta be careful with baby headphones. If it’s a boy, he’ll keep the cord. If it’s a girl, she’ll loose her cord, and her teeth will turn blue.

  • bbuez
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    1 year ago

    Makes me think of that shitty grippy rubber material on cheap mice that becomes gooey with time. I would treat those as euclid until further testing

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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        1 year ago

        Euclid-class SCPs are anomalies that require more resources to contain completely or where containment isn’t always reliable. Usually this is because the SCP is insufficiently understood or inherently unpredictable. Euclid is the Object Class with the greatest scope, and it’s usually a safe bet that an SCP will be this class if it doesn’t easily fall into any of the other standard Object Classes.

        Source

  • UsernameHere
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    1 year ago

    High resistance in a wire inside the sheath would generate more heat at that point, causing the plastic sheath to melt/bubble. So if the wire inside the sheath got damaged, pinched or some of the strands of wire were broken.

      • Orbituary
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        1 year ago

        You would be incorrect. If the power source shorts, it would heat the wires sufficiently.

        • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          And how much power do you think the DAC in a phone is going to output?

          The built in DAC in a phone can barely drive my headphones, let alone melt a silicone cable. They typically output less than a watt. On a good day. Rubbers melting point is 365c and 1 watt isn’t gonna do that.

          • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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            1 year ago

            They typically output less than a watt.

            Sounds optimistic. Checking a few USB to 3.5mm dongles, they seem to be around 25mW max at 32Ohms. Not sure how much that would change with short circuit, but I guess not much more.

          • UsernameHere
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            1 year ago

            Have you verified the specs on OPs headphones?

            Maybe I missed it but I don’t see where OP said this happened while connected to a phone.

            • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              They’re earbuds. You’re going to using them with a phone, maybe a laptop, or even in a pinch maybe a desktop. None of those output enough power to melt through a rubber cable without severely destroying themselves and never working again. OP would be posting “my phone exploded and I’m deaf now” not about the cable having a pimple.

              Even my dedicated amp, a Shiit Magni outputs 6 watts with both channels combined, and ain’t nobody connecting shitty earbuds to an amp. The rest of the cable is going to sink away the heat from 6 watts before the rubber could get hot enough to melt.

  • nezbyte
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    1 year ago

    Some sort of chemical reaction. My best guess would be a drop of CA glue that degraded the material over time.

  • VelvetStorm
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    1 year ago

    Sir, you are to remain in your present location until MFT Psi-8 makes contact. Any and all resistance will be met with force!

  • snooggums@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    I am so intruiged by the fact that the mass of good accumulated at the one spot. The mystery of what pressures were at play for it to flow to that one spot.