Headphone Repair Guide – Fix Common Audio Problems

Having problems with your headphones audio? Here is a troubleshooting guide that can help you fix your headphones yourself. We will show you how to repair certain headphone audio problems yourself. We also have a simple straightforward troubleshooting guide that can fix common issues with headphone audio. Troubleshoot what may be wrong with your headphones audio below…

headphone repair

Before you take your headphones apart or send them off to a company that can fix them, try the simple troubleshooting guide below first.

Is the Audio cord correctly plugged in?:

Is the cord fully plugged into the audio device? Double check to be sure that the cord is completely plugged into your audio device. If you are hearing audio from only one ear, sometimes this indicated the headphone jack is only pushed in halfway.

Does your headphones have control buttons on the cord?:

Make sure you correctly push the volume and or play/pause buttons. Press the buttons with enough pressure that the audio device receives the command. On most headphones with buttons on the cord, you should hear a click noise every time you press a button.

Is the volume muted?:

Be sure the mute button on either your headphones or the audio device is not muted.

Is your audio device faulty?:

The problem may not be your headphones. It could be a faulty jack on your audio device. To test to see if this is the case, plug your headphones in another device. If your headphones work, then you know the audio jack on the previous audio device is bad.

Does the headband on your headphones fit incorrectly?:

If the headphones do not fit well over your head and ears, the headband may need to be adjusted. Some headphones have a button the needs to be pressed to adjust the headband. Check to see if this is the case.

common headphone audio jacksCommon headphone audio jacks

Headphone Audio Cable Problems:
If the cables from your headphones have been damaged and pulled out from the headphones or the jack… The damage may be that the cable is cut, frayed, ripped, sliced, or hanging loose. If so this headphone audio jack repair fix guide will show you how to fix it.

repair headphone wire

Repair Headphone Wire – Right, Left, & Ground

Headphone Jack Problems:
If the jack on your headphones is bent or damaged this can be fixed. If so this headphone jack repair fix guide will show you how to fix it.

Headphone Internal Sound Issues:
The audio problem may be located inside the headphones audio driver. The symptoms for this particular issue could be… audio coming from only one side of the earcups, the sound is too quiet, or the audio is scratchy with interference. These issues may show that a headphone may have a simple fixable cable problem. If so this headphone replacement parts guide will show you how to fix it.

Headphone Physical Damage:
If the hinges, the plastic headband, or any other part of your headphones is damaged, broken, or cracked, these parts can be fixed. This headphone plastic repair fix guide will show you how to fix it.

Things needed to fix a pair of headphones yourself:
1 – Pair of wire strippers
1 – Pair of wire cutters
1 – Roll of masking tape
1 – Roll of electrical tape
1 – Small sheet of fine grit sandpaper (optional)
1 – Solder gun repair kit (optional)
1 – Piece of shrink tubing (optional)

Check online for more info as many headphone makers offer a warranty on select audio headphone products. Links to the most popular headphone manufacturers are: Beats, Bose, Klipsch, Monster, Philips, Sennheiser, Skullcandy, and Sony.

Do you know of some easier cheaper methods to repair headphones? Please leave a comment below to assist others.

8 thoughts on “Headphone Repair Guide – Fix Common Audio Problems”

  1. My headphones have a grounding issue so the tip is not reaching far enough in to tell my phone to switch the audio output to headphone jack output so I lick the very tip and it gains contact and is not able to harm my phone because it’s actually connecting it so that’s my fix

  2. I Built a new rig i have 3 sets of headsets so its a sofware issue i fixed this same issue with realteck audio hd manager before but the sound is great but when i talk i cant hearmyself talk and when i say this i dont want a eco i feel like i got ear plugs stuffed deep in my ears and i have no idea how loud my voice is i feel muffled

  3. My headphones worked perfectly fine until last night. Today, all of a sudden, I hear muffled sounds.. I can hear music but not voices.. in a YouTube video, i can only hear the background music and not a word of what is being said.. i tried cleaning my android headphone jack but nothing helps.. how can i fix this?
    I have samsung headphones that came with the phone.

  4. I’ve got a different problem. See, i’m playing counter strike game and for that game i need to have good headphones so I can hear the enemies and stuff. For example, when i’m standing and my teammate is coming from my left side, normally I should have stronger volume on left side of headphones, but in my case, my volume is completely the same, I hear both the left and the right in same volume, and I can’t figure out is it left or right side. Can I get help?

  5. DIY Project Help Tips

    Himanshu,
    If the sound (whether bass or treble) gets distorted when you are turning up the volume on your headphones or ear buds, this is an indication the speaker is blown or bad. If speakers get turned up too high, sometimes it will damage the speaker and distortion will be heard.
    If you have an expensive headphones, we recommend to replace the speaker if it makes financial sense. If you have a cheap pair of headphones, buy new. If you need parts for expensive headphones like Beats By Dr. Dre or Bose, here is a good place to get headphone replacement parts.
    -RR

  6. Whenever I increase the sound the bass of my headphones, the sound gets distorted on one side of the headphone but the other side is good.
    Please tell me how to fix this?

  7. DIY Project Help Tips

    Lawrence,
    Has the sound from your headphones gone out in both ears or just one side?
    -RR

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.