How To Repair A Headphone

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This wikiHow teaches you how to fix a set of malfunctioning in-ear headphones. Continue in mind that headphones which flat-out no longer piece of work will either demand to have their plug replaced or be replaced entirely, while headphones which have a damaged cable may be repairable by using some other fix of cables and splicing them together. In many cases, repairing cheap, wired headphones is ofttimes more expensive than purchasing a new pair, especially if you lot don't already have the proper tools.

one
Know which tools you'll demand. Depending on the repair y'all end up needing to perform, you'll demand to have (and know how to utilise) nearly of the following tools:
- Soldering iron and solder
- Knife or scissors
- Shrink tubing
- Wire strippers
- Multimeter
ii
Make sure that the problem resides with the headphones. Plug a different set of working headphones into your preferred audio detail (e.chiliad., your computer's headphone jack) and listen for feedback; if you notice that you're not receiving whatever audio via the other set of headphones either, your sound item'south headphone input may be the problem.
- You tin can verify this by plugging your headphones into a unlike input and listening for audio there.
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iii

Listen for cable issues. Plug the headphones into an audio input, then bend the cable while you heed. If you tin hear some audio through your headphones, move on to fixing the cablevision below.
4

Try pushing the plug. If you tin can only hear audio when y'all push or manipulate the plug end of the headphones, skip downwards to fixing a broken plug below.
five

Consider attempting to repair an over-the-ear earpiece. If your headphones have a detachable cable which can connect the earpieces (as with most Bluetooth headphones), try using your detachable cable with a different prepare of over-the-ear headphones. If you lot find that the other set works, your main set'south earpieces are most likely to arraign; you lot tin can try to fix them past using your headphones' documentation and recommended repair strategies.
half-dozen
Set upward a multimeter . If you oasis't establish the problem yet, utilise a multimeter. You tin can find one at a hardware shop. Prepare the multimeter as follows:
- Set the multimeter to exam continuity, marked past ) ) ) or a similar symbol.
- Plug the black lead into the hole marked COM.
- Plug the carmine lead into the hole marked with an Ω, mA, or ) ) ) .
vii
Test your wires with the multimeter. The multimeter will beep if there are no breaks in the wire; to examination the wire, follow the below instructions:
- Brand ane slit next to the plug, and one slit adjacent to the earpiece.
- The bare copper wire ordinarily has a clear protective coat, so gently scrape the coat away with a knife.^[i]
- Bear on the wire in one slit with the black multimeter lead, then affect the other slit with the red lead.
- Expect for a response from the multimeter; if it beeps, the problem is in the plug or earpiece. If it does non beep, make a slit halfway along the cable and examination each one-half of the cable.
- Make some other cut in the half that does not beep. Echo until you've found two points a few inches (several centimeters) autonomously that do not cause the multimeter to beep.
- Go on on to fixing the cable, skipping the test stride.
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1
Exam the cablevision. To effigy out where the interruption in the wires is, wear the headphones and turn on audio, then bend the cable to a right angle across the tip of your pollex. Slide your thumb along the length of the cablevision. When the audio crackles or cuts in and out, you lot have found the problem. If the trouble is nearly the plug, run into the next part for repair instructions. Otherwise, continue to the adjacent step.^[2]
- Apply a piece of record or a Sharpie to marker the site of the break.
- If you lot already found the problem with a multimeter, skip this stride.
2
Strip off the insulation. Utilize wire strippers, or carefully run a knife around the exterior of the cable, to remove ½ inch (1.25 cm) of the outer shielding, then extend the cut in either management until you see a broken wire. This is the area you'll need to repair.
- If your cable looks similar ii cables glued together then each one volition contain an insulated wire (the signal) and a blank wire (the footing).
- Apple headphones and other headphones with single cables accept 2 insulated wires (the left and right point) and a single blank ground wire.
three
Cut the cord. Cut the cord in half. If the wire inside is shredded, cutting on either side of it to remove the problem. If you do this, remove the same corporeality from the left and correct cords. Uneven lengths of cord can cause electrical damage to your headphones.^[3]
- If only i of your wires is broken, you lot might want to skip to soldering the wire, without cutting or splicing. This will save time, only the repair will be less sturdy.^[4]
4
Slide on a shrink tube. This is a rubber tubing that looks just similar the remainder of your headphone cable. Slide it onto the cablevision for later. After your repair, you'll slide this back over the open area to protect it.
- If yous had to cutting the wire several times to find the trouble, slip on a tube over each cut.
5
Splice the wires . This means you'll exist joining the wires together. Make sure to connect wires with the same color insulation (or no insulation). Yous take ii options: a pigtail splice and an in-line splice.^[5]
- For a pigtail splice, pick upwardly the two exposed areas of wire that y'all want to connect. Place them parallel to each other and twist them together to join them. This is quick and piece of cake, just the repair volition be bulkier.
- For an in-line splice, overlap the wires end to finish, then twist them in opposite directions. This is more hard but the repair is easier to hide.
6
Solder the connections. Use a soldering atomic number 26 to melt a minor dab of solder over the wires. Repeat for each splice, then let the solder cool.
- Blank wires without insulation commonly have a thin enamel coat. Sand this off or burn it off with the soldering fe earlier you lot solder. Avoid breathing in the fumes.^[six]
- Once cooled, go along the red and white ends separate from the footing wire by wrapping the 2 pairs of joins in electric tape.
7
Slide your shrink tube over the repair. After the shrink tube is properly fitted over the repair site, y'all can use a heat gun to tuck information technology.
- The tube will compress downward to about a quarter of its original size, which will allow information technology to fit snugly around your newly-repaired cable, keeping it potent and protected.
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one

Purchase a new jack plug. You can notice these for cheap online or at an electronics store. Select a metal plug with stereo connectedness and a bound. Make certain it'south the same size as your onetime plug, typically 3.5mm (1/8 inch).^[7]
2
Cut the one-time plug off. Place your knife or scissors nigh an inch above the point where the cable connects to the plug, and then piece through the cable.^[8]
- While some cables will take a plug which can spiral off, the majority of plug problems you'll experience result from frayed wires inside of the cable.
3
Remove the shielding from an inch of the cable. With a pair of wire strippers, strip about an inch of the cable'south cover from the end. You should see a wire for both the right and left earpieces, as well every bit at to the lowest degree one footing wire.
- If in that location are two ground wires, you'll need to solder them together later.
four

Sort the wires by colour. Typically, you'll observe a ruby wire for the right earpiece, a white (or light-green) wire for the left earpiece, and one or two black or bare copper wires for the "footing" wire(s).
5
Strip the ends of the wires. Remove the safe blanket from the lesser 1/3 of an inch from each wire if possible.
- If your wires are enamel-tipped, y'all may be able to skip this step.
half-dozen
Twist like-colored wires together. If you have two footing wires, yous'll need to twist together their ends before you can solder them.
- If all of the like-colored wires are singled-out, just make sure that any frayed ends of the wires are twisted together.
vii
Remove enamel from the end of the wires. If your wires are tipped in an enamel cap, you'll demand to burn information technology off by touching the soldering atomic number 26 to the cease of each wire in order to expose the copper ends of the wires.^[9]
- Skip this pace if you tin can see the copper ends of the wires already.
8
Sideslip the headphone jack'due south sleeve onto the wire. It should fit with the portion which will spiral into the plug facing the bottom of the wire.
- The plug base of operations should have two pins sticking out of the end. If it only has one, then yous have got a mono, not stereo, plug.
9
Add together a drop of solder to each wire. This is chosen "tinning" the wires, and it will ensure that your wires can connect to the headphone jack itself.
- You should allow the solder to cool fully earlier proceeding.
x

Attach the soldered wires to the headphone jack. Use sandpaper to roughen the edges to arrive easier to solder to metal, apply solder to a pivot in the jack's housing, and heat the pivot to melt the solder. You lot'll repeat this procedure for the other two wire connections.
11
Reassemble the headphone jack. Rotate the jack'south sleeve to screw it into the jack plug, making certain to tighten the sleeve as much as possible. You tin can test your headphones at this point.
- If y'all withal have bug, most probable the wires are touching. Unscrew the cap and tug the wires apart.
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1

Empathize that this is unlikely to work. Different wire or jack problems in standard in-ear headphones, earpiece bug tend to exist fairly complicated. Unless you can't afford a proper repair, information technology'due south nearly e'er better to take your headphones into a repair service to accept a professional diagnose and fix them.
ii
Take apart the earpieces. This process is unlike for each model. Look online for specific directions, or try the post-obit:^[ten]
- Look for screws on the earpiece. Y'all may need a size 0 crosshead screwdriver.
- Tug the padding gently. If it comes off, await for screws underneath it.^[11]
- Insert a spudger or other flat tool into the cleft at the base of operations of the earpiece dome. Lever it apart. This may cause damage to some models, so finding directions outset is recommended.
- Earbuds can be tugged apart, but you may need a new rubber seal subsequently. The problem is unremarkably in the cable for earbuds.^[12]
iii
Look for loose wires. If you're lucky, the problem volition be obvious. Any wires loose within the earpiece need to be reattached to the headphone driver. Await for small-scale metallic pins, hopefully with other wires attached to some of them, then solder the wire back into position over the bare pin.
- If more than one wire is loose, yous may need to find a transmission to meet which wire goes where.
- Brand sure none of the wires touch each other.
4
Replace the driver. You tin can buy a new headphone commuter online, but this may be quite expensive. If y'all determine replacement is worth the cost, accept your headphones and a new commuter to a repair shop. You can try it yourself, only there's a high run a risk of damage:^[13]
- Cutting the rubber seal around the key cone with a sharp knife.
- Remove the conical driver.
- Identify the new commuter back in the aforementioned slot. Be very careful not to impact the thin diaphragm.
- If information technology doesn't feel secure, add a small corporeality of gum effectually the edge.
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Add New Question

Question

What's the problem if only one earpiece plays the audio and other one doesn't piece of work?

It could exist the earpiece itself, but information technology's more likely that the unmarried cablevision leading to information technology is damaged.
Question

I just got my earphones on Sabbatum and on the following week, it was starting to cut off on the left side. Is it my phone or my earphones?

About likely information technology is your earphones. Your earphone is more than decumbent to malfunction. Folding the earphones and shoving them in your pocket will decrease the life of your earphones. Attempt using a friend's headphones to cheque the link. In future, try buying more expensive earphones. The difference between $5 earphones and $30 earphones are significant but the difference becomes hard to find at price ranges higher than that.
Question

What if my earphones are working from both the sides, but quieter than earlier? They aren't old though and I don't think there's a problem in the volume of the device.

It could be the speaker inside the earpiece wearing, and it depends on how loud you listen to music. If you listen loudly, or with a lot of strong bass, the speaker could be wearing and dimming the sound.
Question

Why would my left earphone non work, just the microphone and remote on it work?

There are ii different wires for the mic/remote and earphones. The wire for the left earphone is most likely cleaved and and the wire for the mic/remote could remain untouched.
Question

Is there a substitute for soldering?

Attempt liquid electrical tape. You'd still have to twist the wires, but it goes on with a castor that it comes with it. If stored properly, it tin can can terminal for a long time.
Question

Why is one of my earpieces playing audio louder than the other?

Maybe one of the connections of the wires to the plug is not broken completely merely has come loose.
Question

I take just got new earphones recently and they do not piece of work. What practice I do?

Contact the manufacturer of the earphones as nigh items have a ninety-twenty-four hours warranty when purchased in the United states. Have them try and troubleshoot the earphones to give them a chance to set the phones. Tell the customer service person that you lot but purchased these earphones and they are defective. If the manufacturer wants you to send back the earphones with a receipt then make a copy of the receipt and send both the earphones and the copy to the company. Accept the company pay for the aircraft since your intention was not to purchase not-working earphones. Tell the manufacturer that any shipping costs should be absorbed by the manufacturer of these defective earphones, not yous.
Question

How do I fix the plug if the metal office is bent?

You could buy a plug from a hardware store. Make sure of the quality earlier you purchase information technology also, and then proceed to same plug repairing steps to a higher place.
Question

Every pair of headphones I have ever gotten have been defective. Why is this?

Designed obsolescence, especially in the $xx - 50 price range.These tin can last awhile, merely are usually good for nigh viii - 12 weeks. Look for quality and check reviews.
Question

How practise I repair a right earpiece that doesn't take sound?

Bend the wire and when you lot've found the place where it is bent, strip the wire and remove a small-scale function. After this, yous can connect the wire in i of the ways shown above.

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Practice on cheap earphones outset, if you have them available.
Effort not to concur the soldering iron on the contact also long. It may melt the surrounding plastic or ruin the contacts.
If you merely use your headphones on 1 device, you might desire to bank check them on another device to make sure the problem lies with the headphones instead of a particular headphone jack. For instance, if your headphones work without any trouble when used with your computer but won't work when you utilise them with your iPhone, you may need to fix the iPhone headphone jack instead of the actual headphones.
If your earbud lining has come off, y'all tin can mold silicone rubber into a replacement.^[14]

Be careful not to fire yourself; a soldering iron gets very hot.
Do not breathe the fumes from the solder.
Never attempt repairs of this caliber unless yous know your mode around the necessary tools. If you're hesitant, consider asking a friend or a professional repair service to gear up your headphones instead.

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Article Summary X

To repair dodgy or broken headphones, start by plugging your headphones into an sound input and bending the cablevision while you listen. If you hear some sound while angle the cable, the issue is with the cable and you lot'll need to cut the wires, splice them, and solder them together. If yous don't hear audio when you bend the cable, try bending and pushing downward on the plug. If you hear audio when you're moving the plug, the upshot is with the plug and you'll need to cut it off and replace it. To larn how to prepare a cleaved cablevision or plug on your headphones, proceed reading!

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