3 Steps to Take When Repairing Broken Headphones

When Repairing Broken Headphones

Replacing headphones can be an extremely costly, even if you're sometimes covered by a warranty. Headset cords and jacks seem to be the most prominent areas of weakness. They can easily snag on things and tear. You can give your old headphones all new life by repairing port and cord issues early. All you need for this project is a new audio jack, a soldering iron, and some head shrink tubing. Take a look at these three simple steps to take while you repair headphones.

Check the Headphone Jack

Plug the headphones into some kind of audio device and listen for a bit. Rotate the jack and listen for choppiness in the audio. Luckily, this is a component that can easily be replaced! Inspect the cable and see if you can visually identify tears and frayed cord. Once you identify the damaged area of the headphones, it's time to get to work!

Replace The Audio Jack

Head over to your local electronics store and pick up a 1/4 inch auxiliary jack. An encasing should screw off this component, revealing three prongs - left, right, and the ground. You will be connecting three wires to these prongs. Use some scissors to cut the old audio jack off the cord and carefully strip the insulation from an inch of the cord. Thread the jack casing onto the cord to use later. Be sure you know how to safely operate a soldering iron, and then solder the copper wire to the large middle prong. Then get ready to connect the blue wire to the left side prong and the red wire to the right side prong. Use a lighter to burn off the colored enamel on these wires, and then solder them in place. Close the encasing up by screwing the jack casing in place.

Sealing Repairs

Cut off a piece of heat shrink tubing to seal torn insulation. This handy component can be used to repair miscellaneous tears on cords, or seal up the gap between your new audio jack and the rest of the headphone cable. Head shrink tubing is excellent, because it won't fall off like tape. It can be a much more permanent solution to cord insulation tears. Inspect the cord to ensure that all connections are tightly sealed.

Test your headphones out with your brand new audio jack! This handy fix can help you quickly fix headphones and save you money in the long term. Enjoy your newly repaired headset!