Quick and easy repair of broken headphones at home: instructions and tips. Headphones are broken: how to repair them yourself? Signs of failure will be as follows

How often does it happen that recently purchased headphones begin to act up? The sound in one of them begins to be supplemented by wheezing, interference, and over time it may disappear altogether. Can the headphones be repaired or should they be taken to a service center, or maybe it’s time to buy new ones? You can try fixing them yourself first.

How to fix headphones yourself?

So, before we tell you how to repair headphones if one of them stops working, we will provide a list of the necessary tools and materials for this.

If the headphones require small screws, you will need a screwdriver of the correct size. In addition, you need a stationery knife and a lighter. You will probably need some electrical tape or epoxy glue to connect the broken wires. You can also connect parts with a soldering iron and heat shrink tubes. A multimeter will also help to find the location of the break.

So how do you fix your headphones if one isn't working? Most often, failure occurs due to a break inside the cord or simply poor build quality. To fix these problems, you don't need any special skills or knowledge. You need to first find out the exact location of the problem.

If the sound in the headphone is accompanied by noise and interference, and over time the sound in it completely disappears, you need to walk along the cord with your fingers, connect the headphones and turn on the sound. Pay special attention to the bends and the area where the wire enters the earphone. When you come across a problem area, you will hear a characteristic sound.

Depending on where the breakdown is located, your further actions may develop according to several scenarios. If the break is inside the earphone, you need to open it. If the earphone is on screws, unscrew them. Small earbud headphones are often simply glued together on the sides, so that they can be opened with the tip of a regular knife.

To determine the location of the break in an open earphone, walk along the cord while listening to the sound. When you find a spot, cut the wire below it, strip it down to the wire, and solder it to the previous connection.

Many headphones are tied in a knot inside, so before you solder the wires, tie them too. Before assembling the headphones, check the sound in them again. You can glue them back together using epoxy glue.

If the reason that one ear is not working is due to a break inside the plug, before you repair the headphones, you need to find the location of the break. Similarly, run your fingers along the wire and listen to the sound. Once you find the problem area, you will need to get to the inner wire to cut it.

First, strip the plug of rubber, find the junction of the connector and the wire, cut off the non-functional section and fasten it again using. Restore the cleaned area using epoxy glue. You can additionally wrap the plug on top with threads or put on a thick plastic sheath from another wire.

How to use a multimeter?

If you are unable to find a breakdown by probing and bending wires, use a special device. You can buy it at an electronics store or borrow it from friends.

Set up the multimeter this way: set it to test continuity, insert the black probe into the hole marked COM, and the red probe into the hole marked Ω, mA or))).

Test the wires with a multimeter: it will squeak in places where there are no breaks. You just need to apply it to the wires without winding. You need to carefully remove it in two small areas - next to the plug and next to the earphone. If the multimeter beeps near the plug, then the problem is in the headphone, and vice versa.

It is known that the breakage of the plug at the end of the wire is the most common malfunction of headphones.

Due to frequent kinks, strong jerks and other mechanical loads, thin wires break or tear. In this case, as a rule, one ear stops working or, as in my case, both at once.

Sometimes the common wire breaks, in which case the sound is distorted beyond recognition: high and mid frequencies almost completely disappear. This happens because the right and left amplifiers of the phone/player are turned on in antiphase and their output signals almost completely cancel each other out.

It also happens that the stereo effect simply disappears.

Often there is no sound in the ears, but the microphone works as if nothing had happened. However, if the microphone wire breaks, the control buttons on the headset cord stop working along with the microphone.

Most often, the cause of any described malfunction is a broken wire in the immediate vicinity of the plug.

Sometimes damage to the wire is visible to the naked eye, but most often it is hidden under the insulation.

How to fix headphones at home if the wire comes off the plug

Now I will tell you how to fix vacuum earbud headphones with your own hands if the wire has come off the plug.

I will show the repair process using the example of the Monster Beats by dr Dre headphones, which I received along with the HTC Sensation XE phone. They served faithfully for almost 4 years until the plug finally broke.

The plug in these headphones is a regular mini-jack (3.5 mm) with four contacts - right ear, left ear, microphone and general. By the way, what’s interesting is that this headset has buttons so that you can rewind songs forward and backward, but there are no special contacts on the connector for them. All the buttons somehow miraculously use the same microphone contact.

In short, now I’ll try to repair these headphones at home, and if something goes wrong, screw it! - I'll go buy new ones. Moreover, the choice today is simply huge. And especially since I’m far from an audiophile and any kind will suit me, as long as they’re comfortable.

Initially, the headphones looked like this:

Headphones with a microphone and control buttons, so the plug has 4 contacts and 5 wires inside. The headset connector is, of course, non-separable.

As I already said, this repair method is only suitable if the problem is in the connector - one earphone, right or left ear, microphone does not work, the buttons are not pressed, the sound disappears if you move the wire at the plug, etc. and so on.

So, if you are firmly convinced that the headphone plug really needs to be replaced, move on.

How to fix headphones if one ear (or both) is not working

In order for us to get the highest quality and super-creative plug that no one else has, we will need:

  1. Two .38 caliber shells. Suitable for Makarov pistol or similar. For example, I took brass sleeves for trauma (AKBS 9mm P.A.)
  2. Drill with drill bits (3, 3.5, 7 and 9.5mm)
  3. Hacksaw for metal
  4. Epoxy adhesive
  5. Syringe for 5 cubes
  6. Small vise
  7. Sandpaper
  8. Soldering iron with a sharp tip (solder, flux and an aspirin tablet are welcome)
  9. A small board, approximately 30x30 mm and about 20 mm thick

We will make an L-shaped plug, because... it is better than straight (more reliable and more compact). So, let's go.

Step 1

To begin with, we’ll make a little equipment to make it easier to work with the sleeves, so that you can safely clamp them in a vice without denting or scratching them. We take our piece of wood and drill a hole in it with a 9.5 mm drill, then make a cut with a hacksaw.

You should get something like this:

Step 2

Now we can process our sleeves without fear of spoiling their chic appearance:

Step 3

Since I had spent cartridges, there were dents on the primers from the firing pin. But we need everything to be beautiful, so we knock out both capsules using an awl, a hammer and straight hands:

Then we straighten one of them with light blows from the inside using something suitable (I took the shank from a broken drill of a suitable diameter).

To make it even more beautiful, you can sand it a little more with sandpaper:

Then we press the beautiful and even capsule into its original place:

If your cartridges are brand new, unfired, then knock out only the primer from one of them (you can throw it away immediately, it won’t be needed). We do not touch the second sleeve for now.

Step 4

Then we clamp the sleeve without primer in a vice and drill out the bottom from the inside with a 7 mm drill. You need to drill in such a way as to make the bottom of the sleeve as thin as possible. Those. the drill should come almost close to the hole from under the capsule (I left about 0.5 mm of margin).

Then carefully cut off the bottom to make a puck like this:

Step 5

Now we take our sleeve with a primer and shorten it to 13 mm:

We carefully process the edges with sandpaper to obtain an even cut that is strictly perpendicular to the axis of the sleeve.

As a result, the two halves should fit perfectly into each other:

Step 6

Now is the time to deal with the old plug and wires.

To begin with, very carefully, using a sharp knife, unscrew the old connector to remove all excess and leave only the plug itself with four contacts and soldered wires:

We remember, or better yet write down, where which wire was soldered. My HTC headphones (with microphone) had the following pinout:

Step 7

We unsolder the old wires from the connector, strip the cable, tin the ends and shrink a piece of heat shrink (diameter 2.5 mm, length 21 mm).

To service wires in varnish insulation, it would be nice to take an aspirin tablet, but I didn’t have one, so I made do with regular rosin. If you work with aspirin, then know that the vapors of this nasty thing are terribly poisonous. You have been warned.

Step 8

Drill a hole of suitable diameter in the wall of the sleeve. In my case, a 3 mm hole turned out to be ideal:

Step 9

We thread the cable through the hole and solder the headphone and microphone wires (in strict accordance with the pinout!):

Step 10

Well, the last step: using a syringe, measure out 0.5 ml of hardener and 5 ml of epoxy resin. Mix the ingredients together thoroughly.

Then, to expel all air bubbles, heat the mixture in a water bath to 80 degrees.

We fill our sleeve with the resulting composition to the brim, put everything in its place and, with the help of ingenuity and improvised devices, fix it all for at least 12 hours (or better yet for a day):

Last step

When everything hardens, we take the structure out into the light of day and receive aesthetic pleasure from the work done.

What could be more enjoyable than fixing your broken phone headphones yourself?




Eh, if I also had headphones in the form of cartridges, it would be a fairy tale :)

If this is too difficult for you and you would like something simpler and faster, then we present to your attention the restoration of a headphone plug using an old ballpoint pen and epoxy resin.

Well, now you know exactly what to do if the headphones in the jack break. And if your arms and legs grow from different places, then everything will work out much better, than me!


To avoid disturbing others, many people use headphones when listening to music and watching videos. Unfortunately, over time they break, and if you don’t mind throwing away the cheap ones, you don’t really want to part with your favorite rare and expensive model. Therefore, many are interested in how to fix Samsung, Sony, etc. In principle, the repair sequence is the same for all models, and if you have a soldering iron at home, do not get upset prematurely - restoring the operation of the accessory is not so difficult.

Finding the reason

Before doing this, you must first identify the location of the malfunction. Most often, sound loss is associated with:

Broken wire between the plug and the speakers;

Broken wire at the very head of the plug;

Broken speakers;

Broken volume control;

Rubbing the wires on the headphone arm.

It is unlikely that it will be possible to visually determine what caused the problems with the headphones and where the problem area is located. But still, the preliminary inspection should not be neglected. If this does not work, you need to connect the headphones to your laptop or player and turn on the music at full volume. Then, starting from the plug, gradually bend the wire along its entire length until a sound or crackling sound appears. If you manage to find the fracture site, you can safely assume that the hardest part is behind you. Otherwise, you will have to disassemble the case and check the speakers.

Repairing a break

Answering the question: “How to fix headphones yourself?”, we note that most often the cause of the malfunction lies in a broken cord. To eliminate it, you will need a soldering iron, solder, a board or metal stand, flux, and a sharp knife or blade. The question of how to repair the headphones yourself is very simple to solve in this case. First, cut out a section of several centimeters 10-20 millimeters below and above the break point, then remove the insulating layer from the cord. You need to act very carefully here, since the wires themselves are very thin and easily break off. After this, a heat-shrinkable tube is first placed on each of the contacts. When soldering, be sure to follow the color scheme. The heat shrink acts as an insulator; it protects the soldered wires from short-circuiting. You can, of course, get by with regular electrical tape, but the appearance after that will leave much to be desired. To make the connection more durable, the restored section of the cord is folded in the shape of the letter “Z”, and a bandage is made with thread around the entire fastening. The same will need to be done if the break occurs near the plug. Repairing headphone wires is best done with a multimeter.

Solving problems with speakers

How to fix headphones yourself if you hear noises and extraneous sounds? In this case, you will most likely have to disassemble the speaker housing. In over-the-head headphones, the screws are most often hidden under the soft ear cap, but small headphones are usually held on with glue, and therefore getting to the speaker is not an easy task. Here you just have to rely on your luck and on the superglue that will be needed to reassemble the case. It is much worse if the sound is heard with a creaking or crackling sound. This means part of the coil has come off or the membrane has become deformed. In this case, you will need superglue, a toothpick and extreme care. The body should be connected only after the parts have completely dried.

Eliminating crackling volume control

Dust falling on the resistor layer often leads to poor contact between this layer and the slider. As a result, when adjusting the volume, extraneous sounds appear. How to fix the headphones yourself in this case? Here's how: or is applied to the surface of the resistor. After this, the contact is restored, and the crackling noise disappears.

Sooner or later, this happens to everyone - your favorite headphones break and stop playing, or wheeze and the sound periodically disappears from them. If the headphones are inexpensive, then it’s easy to replace them with new ones, but if they are expensive and of high quality, and you have problems with finances, then you can try to fix them yourself.

So, let's fix the headphones ourselves

The first step is to determine the cause of the malfunction - it is either a wire break or a malfunction of the headphone speaker itself. The problem can be determined by the symptoms. If the sound periodically disappears and appears, or if one “ear” does not play at all, it is most likely a broken wire. If one of the headphones begins to play quieter, or plays with wheezing, this is a speaker malfunction. However, sometimes a faulty speaker may also not play at all.

You should only try to repair the headphones yourself if the wire breaks. If the speaker malfunctions, it’s a lost cause. However, a broken speaker coil is a warranty issue, so if your headphones are still under warranty, you should try sending them to a service center for replacement.

If you are absolutely sure that a broken wire is to blame for the malfunction of the headphones, then this problem can be eliminated. If the sound disappears and appears periodically, the easiest way to find the break point is to turn on the player and begin to pull, bend and unbend the wire along its entire length with your fingers step by step. In the place where the bending of the wire leads to the loss of sound, the desired “snot” is located (the break point). Next, we just need to cut out the faulty piece and connect the ends to each other. If the sound disappears and does not appear at all, you can go at random and try to cut off the end of the wire with the plug (most often the wire breaks near the plug). To check the remaining wire, it is most convenient to use a multimeter in resistance measurement mode. If the headphones are large, then the wires there usually have their own insulation. In this case, before checking, you need to remove 2-3 mm of insulation with a knife from each wire. If the headphones are pocket-sized, then the wires are usually coated with varnish as insulation and it is not so easy to scrape it off with a knife; a lighter will help us here - you just need to singe the ends of the wires and lightly scrape them with a knife. After this, by measuring the resistance between the wires with a multimeter, you can understand whether we have cut off the break point or not yet. If you don’t have a multimeter and you’re not going to give up on repairing your headphones, you can take a regular 1.5 Volt finger or little finger battery. When you connect it to the ends of the wires, a slight click should be heard in the earpiece.

After we have cut off the damaged section of the wire, we are faced with the task of attaching a plug to the headphones. Usually they use a plug called a 3.5′ mini-jack. It can be easily found in stores selling amateur radio products. Another (possibly simpler option) is to buy some cheap Chinese headphones no more than 100 rubles and cut off a piece of wire with a plug from them. Next you just need to splice the wires and insulate them. If you know how to solder, solder them, it will be more reliable. For insulation, you can use electrical tape, heat-shrink tubing, or, at worst, even regular tape.

If your headphones with a microphone (that is, a headset) are broken and you need to repair them, then the repair method is generally similar. The only point is that there will be more wiring.

Those who love listening to music have encountered a situation where a crackling or hissing sound is heard in one earphone and it breaks down. Your task is to find where the breakdown is and fix it.

Don't know anything about technology? Take the unit to a workshop, but most can deal with the breakdown on their own, and we will tell you how to fix it.

Have you spent a long time choosing a device of a good brand, beautiful design, and one day you began to hear a crackling hissing noise? This means that there is a problem somewhere, for example, at the plug, and the device needs to be repaired.

Some people immediately start searching on the Internet or asking friends where is the nearest workshop? In fact, there is nothing complicated in fixing headphones, and we will look at typical problems and how to fix them.

Have your headphones broken before? No? Most often, you will find one of the following problems:

  • the wire broke right at the plug;
  • there is no contact with the wire at the headphone;
  • the channel is clogged;
  • the membrane has broken.

These are the main problems you may encounter. Diagnose the problem and begin to fix it.

We will look in detail at how to repair headphones. Let's start the review with a common problem.

If the headphones are inexpensive, then the jack (connector) will not be very secure. They are mainly produced in 2 types.

You will get 2.5″ or 3.5″. It cannot be said that one is more reliable than the other. Both can break at one time or another.

To fix the problem, you will need to read the theory and start practicing. This will take about 20 minutes. Let's look at how the plug is designed and the purpose of its wires hidden in the cord:

  • one channel right;
  • second channel left;
  • general channel.

In the wire you will find 3 wires, each of which comes from these channels.

The wire is broken

Signs of failure will be as follows.

  1. You will hear a rustling sound in one of the headphones or in both, and then the sound disappears. This means that the wire has broken at the bend. You need to turn on the headphones and feel the entire wire with your hands. At the same time, move it and rotate it. You will hear a rustling sound at the site of the breakdown. You need to mark the place where the break is with a marker or something else. Now disconnect your headphones from the device. Take wire cutters and tear off the wires where they are broken. Strip it so that you can solder the 2 ends. Solder and test the device. Is the sound in the headphones normal? You can wrap this place with electrical tape.
  2. When you carry headphones in a bag, etc., the plug often breaks. The jack has great mobility of parts; due to bends and then creases, one of the wires may break.

Repairing the plug

Often a break can be found at the plug, especially if the headphones are inexpensive and the manufacturers have not taken much care to protect them. You will need tools, and if the plug itself fails, you will need to buy a suitable one.

Will be required the following tools and accessories:

  • tin with rosin and, of course, a soldering iron;
  • special stationery knife;
  • lighter;
  • vice;
  • glue;
  • cambric (heat shrink).

Let's start fixing the plug. You need to disconnect the jack from the cable by cutting it off. Do this just above the place where the wiring is broken.

It is necessary to remove interfering and unnecessary plastic from the connector, and some people buy a new break or take a whole one from old headphones. Strip the wiring no less than 2 cm.

Your task is to find out which of them - left, right, common - through experience.

Connect the wires one by one, and in which speaker you hear the sound, that determines the wire (left or right). The remaining common wire will sound on the left channel.

Solder these wires to your channels. Act like this.

  1. It is necessary to expose one end of the vein, then the second.
  2. Our jack is secured in a vice.
  3. It is required to solder each core to a specific channel. Adhesions need to be protected. To do this, the nylon thread that is in the wire is attached directly to the plug. This is insurance for the soldered joint.
  4. You will need heat shrink cambric to hide the exposed ends with adhesions. You need to cut a piece of the required length, put it on the exposed veins and hold this place over the fire, and it will stick.

If you want to make the protection more reliable, use 2 cambrics here. Cut off the excess with a utility knife. If you follow the recommendations, you will be able to fix the jack yourself.

If you understand the structure of the headphones, you will be able to fix them. Self-confidence will appear during work. Check what works and what doesn't. Start fixing it.

The earphone is broken

You hear that the sound in one earphone has disappeared or a crackling noise has appeared, which means you need to inspect the part. Open it and pay attention to the membrane. If it turns out to be wrinkled, then straighten it, straighten it and it will lie flat.

Specks often accumulate on the membrane. Because of them, you will hear a crackling hissing sound, and the part will fail.

The mesh that covers the membrane must be washed with alcohol.

If the membrane is too wrinkled, it has already failed. There is no point in going to a workshop. They are expensive and it is easier to buy new headphones than to buy a new membrane to replace.

When the wires in the earphone break, they will not work.

So, the earphone needs to be disassembled. The fastenings will be screws or plastic latches. Headphone shells use glue for connection. The headphones need to be opened and the wire cut. Now strip and solder the ends. It will be the same as before the breakdown.

Now check if the sound in the design works? And the 2 halves of the “ear” can be assembled.

At each stage, did you do as experienced music lovers advise, but the headphones did not work? Look for old ones, cut off the plug. Next you need to solder with the top working.

If you are attached to these headphones and want to fix them yourself, then combine parts and try to fix them. Couldn't you fix anything?

Buy new headphones, take care of them carefully, and you won’t have to repair or throw away your favorite thing again. Good luck with your repairs and listening to your favorite music.

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