How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones

That horrible day has to occur at some point -- when your headphones or ear buds finally start calling it quits. Luckily, you don't have to rush out and buy a new pair! Regardless of the type of damage, you may be able to fix it yourself with a few minutes' time and some basic tools handy.

1

Put on your headphones. Plug them into an audio source and put on some music. Bend the cable 90 degrees across the top of your thumb and run it along the length of the cable starting at the jack-plug end.When you reach the location of the break, the sound should crackle and drop in and out. You can confirm this by then curling and twisting the cable at that point. When you know that you've found the site of the break, mark it with a piece of electrical tape.

2

Slide on a shrink tube. This is a rubber tubing that looks pretty much exactly like the rest of your headphone cable. This'll be the substitute you use when you rip apart your old one.Do this now. You cannot do this after you solder the wiring.

3

Remove a half-inch (1.25 cm) of the outer shielding using wire strippers. This can be done by carefully running a knife around the outside of the cable. You do not want to cut it in half, splitting the wires.You will find a side by side cable with two wires (left signal and right signal) shielded independently of each other and having separate ground (the copper stuff). In other cases (like with Apple headphones), your headphones may be attached with a single cable made up of two shielded wires that have a single, unshielded ground.

4

Splice the cables. This means you'll be joining the wires together. To splice the wires, you have two options: a pigtail splice and an in-line splice.For a pigtail splice, hold the two exposed sections of wire that you want to join parallel to each other, then twist them together to create a join.While quicker and easier than in-line splicing, this leaves you with an angled join which does not flow naturally with the cable.For an in-line splice, hold the wires so that they overlap end to end, then twist the wires in opposite directions to create a strong join that fits with the natural direction of the cable.This method is more reliable than the pigtail splice and worth the extra effort.While splicing, one thing that should be kept in mind is to join only those wires with each other that have the same colors--i.e., red to red and white to white. For simplicity, all earth wires can be joined together instead of separating them.

5

Solder the connections. All of the connections. Complete all the joins and let them cool.Once cooled, wrap the two pairs of joins in electrical tape to ensure the red and white ends are kept separate from the ground wire.

6

Slide your shrink tube over and apply heat. Aren't you glad you slid it over before your soldered?The tube should shrink down to a quarter of its original size, fitting snugly to protect and strengthen your newly repaired section of cable.