Buzz
That inevitable day will come when your headphones finally malfunction and stop working. Fortunately, you don’t have to immediately purchase a new pair! You can attempt to repair them yourself by picking up a few items from an electronics store. The components you’ll need to fix are quite small, making them prone to damage. However, if your headphones are already broken, you have little to lose by trying to repair them.
Steps
Identify the Issue
Test the headphones by bending the wire. Plug them in and flex the wire while listening. If you hear sound coming through the speakers, refer to the Fix the Cable section below.
Try unplugging and reinserting the jack. If you only hear sound when you push the jack in as far as possible, refer to the Fix a Damaged Jack section.
Borrow a friend's headphones. If you still hear nothing, disconnect the cable from the earpiece and connect it to another earpiece borrowed from a friend. If you hear sound, refer to the Fix the Earpiece section.
- If the cable on the headphones cannot be detached, proceed to the next step, Use a Multimeter.
Use a multimeter. If you still haven’t identified the issue, use a multimeter. You can purchase one from an electronics store. You’ll also need a sharp knife; if you’re a child, ask an adult for assistance. Use the multimeter as follows:
- Set the multimeter to the continuity test mode ))) or a similar symbol.
- Insert the black jack into the port labeled COM.
- Insert the red jack into the port marked Ω, mA, or ))).
Test with a multimeter. The multimeter will beep if there are no breaks inside the wire. Use a sharp knife to carefully strip the insulation as described below. Be careful not to cut the internal wires.
- Make a cut near the jack and another near the earpiece.
- The copper wire is usually coated with a clear protective layer. Gently scrape it off with the knife.
- Touch the black multimeter probe to the copper wire at one end of the headphone cable and the red probe to the other end. If the multimeter beeps, the issue is with the headphone jack or earpiece.
- If it doesn’t beep, make a cut in the middle of the wire and test each half.
- Make another cut in the half that doesn’t cause the multimeter to beep. Repeat this process until you’ve narrowed down the break to within a few centimeters.
- Proceed to the Fix the Cable step. Skip the re-testing step.
Fix the Cable
Inspect the cable. Put on the headphones and play some music. Bend the cable at a 90-degree angle over your thumb and run your fingers along its length. When the sound crackles or cuts out, you’ve found the break. If the break is near the jack, refer to the Fix the Jack section for repair instructions. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
- Once you locate the break, mark it with a piece of electrical tape.
- If you’ve already identified the break using a multimeter, skip this step.
Strip the cable’s outer layer. Use wire cutters or carefully slice around the outer layer with a knife. Remove about 1.25 cm of the insulation. Extend the cut on both sides until you see the broken wire. This is the area you’ll need to repair.
- If the cable appears to have two smaller wires fused together, each will contain an insulated wire (signal wire) and a bare wire (ground wire).
- Apple headphones and some other models with a single cable will have two insulated wires (left and right signals) and one bare wire for grounding.
Cut the cable. Cut the cable in half. If the internal wire is broken or crushed, trim both sides of the damaged area to fix the issue. Ensure the cuts are even on both sides. Uneven cable lengths can cause electrical damage to your headphones.
- If only one wire is broken, you might consider soldering it without cutting or splicing. This is faster, but the solder joint will be less durable.
Slide a heat shrink tube onto the headphone cable. This is a rubber tube that resembles your headphone cable. Slide it onto the wire for the next step. After repairing the cable, you’ll slide it back over the exposed joint to protect it.
- If you’ve had to cut the cable multiple times to locate the break, attach a heat shrink tube to each cut section.
Reconnect the wires. This means joining the wires together, ensuring that wires with the same insulation color (or lack thereof) are connected. You can use two methods: the braid splice or the twist splice.
- For the braid splice, hold the two wire sections parallel and twist them together to create the joint. This method is quick and easy, but the joint may appear bulky.
- For the twist splice, hold the wires so the small copper strands interweave from one end to the other. Twist the strands in opposite directions. This method is more challenging but results in a neater, more concealable joint.
Solder the joints. Use a soldering iron to melt a small piece of solder onto the wire strands. Repeat for the other wire. Allow it to cool.
- Bare wires without insulation are often coated with a protective layer of paint. Scrape it off with sandpaper or burn it off with the soldering iron before soldering. Avoid inhaling the fumes.
- Once cooled, wrap each pair of joints with electrical tape to ensure the exposed ends are insulated from the ground wire.
Slide the heat shrink tube over the joint. Use a heat gun to shrink it. Do you see how useful it was to slide the tube on before soldering the wires?
- The tube should shrink to about ¼ of its original size, snugly protecting and reinforcing the newly joined section of the cable.
Fix a Damaged Jack
Purchase a new jack. You can buy them online or at electronics stores. Choose a steel jack with a stereo connection and a spring. Ensure it matches your old jack’s type, typically a mm one.
Remove the old jack. Some jacks can be unscrewed from the cable. If your jack is encased in plastic, you’ll need to cut it off, leaving about 2.5 cm of cable.
- When opening the jack, inspect the wires. If they appear intact and unbroken, still proceed with cutting. The issue might lie in the cable section near the jack.
Strip the wires using wire strippers. Typically, there will be one bare (uninsulated) wire and two insulated or coated wires. The bare wire is the ground, while the others are the left and right signal wires.
- Dual cables have an additional bare wire, but the internal wires are otherwise similar to single cables.
Assemble the jack components over the cable. Unscrew the new jack. Slide the casing and spring down to the end of the cable. Remember to add a heat shrink tube as well.
- The main part of the jack should have two protruding pins at the top. If there’s only one pin, it’s a mono jack, not stereo.
Connect the wires to the jack terminals. Separate the strands of the three wires in the cable. Twist the frayed ends to tidy them up. Connect the wires as follows:
- The bare wire connects to the largest pin, which is the longest metal piece. If the headphones lack a bare wire, connect the wire with a striped insulation pattern instead.
- The remaining two insulated wires connect to the other pins (the shorter pins with loops at the top). Since there’s no universal color code, swapping the wires will reverse the left and right audio channels. Otherwise, the headphones will function normally.
Secure the wires to the jack pins. Use a small paperclip or pin to hold them in place, ensuring the wires don’t touch each other.
Solder the wires to the jack. Use sandpaper to roughen the edges for better solder adhesion. Apply solder to the soldering iron. Heat the iron to melt the solder. Repeat for the other two wires.
Screw the cap back on. Reattach the cap over the spring and jack. Test your headphones. If issues persist, the wires might be touching each other. Open the cap and separate the wires.
Fix the Earpiece
Open the earpiece. This process varies for different headphone models. Search online for specific instructions or try the following steps:
- Locate the screws on the earpiece. You may need a size 0 Phillips screwdriver to remove them.
- Gently pry off the cover. Once removed, find the internal screws and unscrew them.
- Insert a thin tool, like a file, into the gap between the earpiece covers and pry them apart. This might damage some models, so it’s better to look up specific instructions first.
- The earpiece cover might detach, but you may need to replace the rubber padding. Often, the issue lies with the wires connected to the speaker.
Find the broken wire. If you’re lucky, the issue will be obvious. Any broken wire inside the earpiece connects to the speaker. Look for small pins on the speaker and hope one wire is still attached. Solder the broken wire back in place.
- If more than one wire is broken, you may need a guide to determine which wire connects where.
- Ensure the wires aren’t touching each other.
Replace the earpiece speaker. You can buy a new speaker online, but it might be expensive. If the replacement seems worth it, take your headphones and the new speaker to a repair shop. You can attempt it yourself, but there’s a high risk of causing further damage.
- Cut away the rubber padding around the speaker cover with a sharp knife.
- Remove the old cone speaker inside.
- Place the new speaker in the same position. Be careful not to touch the speaker diaphragm.
- If unsure, apply a small amount of glue around the edges.
Tips
- Practice on inexpensive headphones first, if you have any available.
- Avoid holding the soldering iron on the joint for too long, as it may melt the surrounding insulation or damage the connection.
- If the padding around the earpiece has fallen off, you can use silicone rubber to create a replacement mold.
Warnings
- Be careful not to burn yourself; the soldering iron gets extremely hot during use.
What You’ll Need
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- Wire Strippers
- Utility Knife or Scissors
- Heat Shrink Tubing (for repairing cables or jacks)
- New Jack (for fixing the jack)
- Multimeter (if you can’t locate the issue).
