One of the greatest mysteries of the universe: one side in the pair of headphones/earphones breaks easily and stops working, while the other side can survive the apocalypse and last forever.

This doesn't only apply to headphones, it really applies to any cable as most under a lot of use do end up breaking eventually. I've fixed so many speakers and headphones that were thrown away and the fix was so simple.

Great video however, you should have replaced the cable with a headphone jack input inside the headphones if there is room. So in the future when the cable inevitably wears out again, it can be easily replaced by just plugging in a different cable into the headphones.

This is why I like my Beyerdynamic headphones because when the cord breaks you unplug it and throw it away and plug a new one in and your back in business. No soldering required.

Having recently got into soldering for working on retro handheld tech, it's crazy how much of a useful skill it is. You can get a basic station, depending on your needs and it can be all you need. A fix like this seems like a great way to learn more about soldering wires, since I've mostly been soldering stuff like battery holders directly onto pads.

I've always enjoyed watching your videos. They're all very professional, the camera cuts and angles are great, and your grammar is extremely articulate, while also successfully repairing most of the devices you feature. Keep up the great work, Hugh!

As always I love your videos, in regards to the headphone repair what I normally do is I put a female 3.5mm adapter in the headphones, that way if the cable goes bad, as it will, you can just buy a replacement and plug it in

One thing Jeffery might've not covered but I have experienced is also one of the speakers literally dying completely. I've had this issue with a pair of Focusrite Scarlett HP-60 MKII headphones - the cable itself checked out fine, but the the main issue was a dead speaker inside the left headphone. I had a discarded pair of Genius headphones with roughly the same size of speakers, so I harvested one of them and superglued it on the inside of the Scarlett. No difference in sound levels whatsoever, and they sound marvelous.

I would just buy actually good headphones instead. Fun repair vid regardless

0:59 Poorly made ones could also break inside your device, and I'm speaking from experience. Around 7 years ago, I took some cheap headphones I bought back to the store because the jack broke. They replaced it with the exact same jack you've shown on the video, and the same day I took the headphones back home, a piece broke inside my phone's headphone jack port and was stuck there for a long time until someone I know managed to pull it out. I basically got the no-headphone-jack upgrade (that would soon become a trend among phone manufacturers) early. However, after that I fixed a couple things myself with some better quality jacks, which work pretty well and haven't broken inside my devices.

Now that you worked on them, hopefully they’re much more reliable than they were from the factory. You do great work.

Thanks for producing this video! I have kept a few of my broken earphones because I know that the only problem with them are broken jacks. I don't have the time to repair them at the moment, but this video gives me some inspiration.

I actually got gifted this exact pair and on one windy day a shop door latch snapped and the door swung into me, yanking the cable with the door hand when it swung back, so the headphones have sat mint and un-used as i couldn't find a good video showing how to work on them, hopefully i'll be able to get them working with a new cable now, thanks Hugh!

I soldered a removable jack onto my superlux 681's. Man, I love cheap technology

Hugh Jeffrey’s got that asmr tear down silent voice that gives you tingles. 😴😲 5:23

At one time my sister had about 20 of these in her closet. Long, long time ago. Fun fact. When you go into a store, you sometimes see these promo displays. Most times, the stores DO NOT SET THEM UP. If you, an outside company want to push a product you have to get boots on the ground and have someone set up the display. Stupid. The idea is to make money and the stores go "Nah, it'll be fine". She was one who did. She would have shirts in her car. The stuff was shipped to the stores. So, if she was doing Beats she'd put on a Beats shirt. If the next store was for a Microsoft product, she'd put on a MS Store. She also had to go into the stores to see if the stuff was still set up properly. Reason being, stores cheated. If a competitor also had some promo product, maybe your display would somehow be broken or not powered on, or pieces missing. Obviously because money was being slipped to someone. When a promo was over, the stuff had to come down and had to disappear. That was also her job. Many times, they didn't want the stuff back. It ended up in her closet. Beats, MS Keyboards, MS Mice. Dewalt power tool doodads. The businesses she worked for that did this weird line of work were supposed to gather it back and destroy the stuff. Unless they didn't.

Hugh! Mine has been broken for years, just 3 months ago I was searching everywhere but now you have released this tutorial I shall now proceed to imitate you

Being a little experience with soldering earphone jacks after breaking..... Trust me in this soldering the wires on the jack is a difficult task and that too doesn't last very long...that 3.5mm jack with 3 rings

If you like repaiable headphones take a look at the beyerdynamic DT770/880/990, you can replace basicallyy everything and they even offer all parts as pares on their website.

I've never tapped on a video this fast 😂

Awesome video mate! I have an old pair of wired Skullcandy headphones I've been keeping on the off chance they're reparable and the fault may just be the cable, so I very much appreciate this guide. Cheers!

Interesting to see how my one wireless earbud tried to demonstrate stereo by playing the absent ear at like 20% volume.

I Would love to see you convert one of the headphones so that the cable is removable ( soldering a female soket inside)

Finally audio related repairs, my absolute favorite

One of the greatest mysteries of the universe: We can put a man on the Moon, but can't make headphones that don't break.

Stunning as usual.

I have one pair of wired inear headphones since 2008, I can't say I'm using them always, but for at least five years they were my daily drivers, and I've replaced cable twice now, replaced mesh that covers the speakers, replaced rubber plugs many times, they still my favorite pair and a backup. It's a shame that my next phone might be without 3.5 mm jack.

Really interesting Hugh I thought that you only repair phones but you do a lot of stuff amazing keep up your Excellent work

Hugh should try a NAND repair video. I’ve got two iPhones with NAND failure, a complex repair but seems they’ll be going to a landfill

The best repair to ripped off jack on a soldered headphone would be just putting a 3.5mm connector on the headphone side so you can make the cable detachable.

Hi have you tried adding a female jack on the beat headphone that way you can remove the cable.

I've read some other tutorials online, they said that you need this "audio grade solder" when recabling headphones/earphones. Is this a myth or fact?

Hugh: *fixing a broken headphone* Third-world subscribers when its expensive to buy headphones: Yes! Now I can fix my Earpods'

You could've also used that Liquid Adhesive that is used to on Smart Phones to adhere the Display assemblies and Back Panel. That is actually far much more better and easier to use than hot glue.

I have 2 Beats headphones that I have bought used on a flea market. They both have replaceable cables. On one end, there is the standard 3.5 mm jack that I plug into the phone, the other end has a 2.5 mm jack to plug into my headphones.

I’ve done this fix on a few pairs of Beats. The tips on the 3.5mm jacks seem particularly fragile and prone to breaking off. Nice easy repair.

Nicely done Jeff. Perhaps the next repair you can do true wireless earbuds repair? 😉 Just giving you some suggestions 😸

the black adhesive you use for smartphones do the trick just fine for the pads

Would adding a trrx female port be more viable? or isnt there enough space for one?

Glad to hear that your Beats headphones can now live on another day (or however long they last). Unfortunately, headphones are made to be disposable, so virtually no one else will do this. It's usually more convenient to just buy new headphones, especially if they were on the cheaper side of things originally.

Always when I drop my iPad with the headset plug connected that it always damages the connector

Isn’t attaching a 2.5 or 3.5mm connector better instead of a new cable?

Audiotechnica ANC-9 accepts a standard stereo cable with male plugs at either end. You just purchase or make a new cable and plug one end into the headphone jack and the other into your device's jack. More headphone manufacturers should get on board with this more simple design.

Finally. Hugh just posted another video

My current Headphones are on their 4th plug, their 2nd cable. When your cable dies, it most commonly breaks close to the jack so you can snip 5-10 cm off, resolder (or check for continuity) and are good to go. When you are replacing the cable anyways, think about adding another 3.5 mil jack to the headphone side.

I used super glue for sticking down pad cushions. It's not as thick as "b7000" or superglue.

Oh yes Beats. The iphone of the headphones world.

I'm still having trouble with rewiring 4-pin TRRS 3.5mm with microphone, some of them uses pull-down resistor and it's usually different for each manufacturer, so it's a bit hard knowing which one uses which and i hate it with absolute passion.

Great Video and i dont know how many times i have replaced the pads on my BEATS Solo 3 Headphones

Do not use replacement 3.5mm jacks! i have done many jacks only repairs and the cheap ones dont seem to last more than few months. They also tend to brake inside the devices. Never had any problems with cheap replacement cables.

Can I recommend you to repair wireless headphone like replacing battery which much easier than repairing Apple's AirPods?

those who can repair things are the best kinds

Audio gets a lot better than beats, especially build quality

I had to click this video after seeing the thumbnail: I have the exact pair of headphones, and the cable has been shredded for months but they still work flawlessly somehow

hmmm I wonder if you tucked in the seam for the headphone pads before you hot glued it, it would probably look a bit cleaner

U r a legend man.. u hav saved humanity

I actually fixed that on my headphones too on my audio technica atx m50s if that’s right the jack was metal and I replaced it with a metal one too

Fixing charging cables bitten by pets for the next video?

Why don't companies provide detachable cables, like some expensive and In-ear monitoring headphones.

Could have used the E-8000 glues on the leather holding the earpads. Worked fabulously on my earpads

Hey Hugh, slightly unrelated but I bought a job lot of broken iPhones and unfortunately there are far more iCloud locked devices that expected. After seeing your old videos on the topic I was wondering how you manage to contact previous owners to get them iCloud free.

Awesome work!

I am doing similar project but with much cheaper headphone. The cable for usb light works fine. But the audio does not come out. When connected to a phone, the phone Is having a hard time to connect, and if it does, no sound comes out of the headphone. I tested the continuity from jack to the volume control and it seems to work ok, from the lower part of the volume control to the upper part also works. The mic button works fine too. Then I opened the left ear where the incoming cabled soldered to a board inside the ear behind the speaker. I checked the continuity and they are works fine. I am totally confused as what is causing the headphone to suddenly died and not recognized by any audio devices. Can you or someone give any hint on what I need to search more?

I love hot glue and find it quite useful. I keep a few different glues on hand from low temp to high temp and I have over a half dozen glue guns from 20 Watts through 200 watts and high, variable, and low temp options. I use hot glue a lot in wood working as well as in repairing electronics and they have glue targeted at both. The most important thing is getting glue and a glue gun that matches your needs; higher wattage doesn’t always mean higher temperatures but does tend to correlate to volume of glue per minute/hour. For most electronics I find low temp high flow glues work best as it gets into the nooks and crannies, has decent adhesion, and is non-conductive, it can also be reworked and removed easier than epoxy allowing repairs of protected components; 60-100 watts seems to work well depending on how much glue you want, as I prefer to be able to pour it on when I want I tend to go to a higher watt gun.

To keep the cable from being stretched, I just make a knot on the cable inside of the ears. Hot glue might hold it in place, but when dried, it might slip, so the cable won't be held anymore. It also avoids the solders from being broken too. :)

I broke my beats 🎧 now I can fix them thx Hugh

The Beats executive team are tearing off their hair in despair after watching this video

At this point why not install mmcx or balanced jacks ?

What if any products are designed for lifetime service using maintenance and upgrades? (True Environmental Friendly)

Dude, really RS or Element 14, I have found some sweet looking, non-china 3.5mm plugs on those sites. I do recall even finding replace cables for headphone, but really basic ones.

Would be nice if you could mod them to have a detachable cable!

I have a problem with my 11 pro max it restarting, do u have a Solution for it?

Soldering is actually a very basic skill and people should not be fearful about it. When I saw that I actually managed fix my broken usb cables with just cheap replacement connectors I felt enlightened.

Can you help me to fix my Kyocera durafore ultra 5g the phone is working but the lcd and screen are DESTROYED ? I need some important data from it ASAP

Beats headphones are for people that truly believe mac n cheese in a burger is a good idea.

Feel like manufacturers should pe pushed into modular cable design so if a jack breaks you can just replace the cable not the whole unit if you don't want to/have the confidence or skill to do this

You should reconsider your choice on headphones. The only headphones that died on me were Apple Headsets of the pre Earpods era.

If you have a headphone that uses an aux cable you can just replace the aux cable as they are pretty cheap to get.

You should have change those Ear Pads if you were planning to use them in future...!

Can you please do a Samsung Galaxy note 4 repair soon

Never bought a Beats... My old Sennheiser had once broken wire but they warranted a fix and told me the cable is now a little shorter.

Recently my cat decided my gaming headset wire looked like a great toy… definitely worth a shot what’s the worst that can happen right?!

That's a handy little video 😁

i got 2 set of sony heaphones one wh1000xm3 and a wh900n cost about 500$ together hinges keep breaking for no reason,had to electrical tape and zip tie them back together :(

What vis the soldering iron and microscope that you are using ?

Love your work 🔥

While I'd have replaced the cuffs myself... the only other thing was shrink wrap to the copper for sanity/ocd.

decent jacks are so hard to find. maybe a business opportunity there

Waiting for this moment every week

get one of the kz in ear headphones.

How'd you get bear copper?

This video costs him $0 but he got nearly the price of the headphones only from the ad revenue 🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿

I'm surprised you're able to beat up headphones this far by just using them. If anyone is looking for good headphones: I always recommend the Superlux HD681. They are dirt cheap (around 30€), can be used for professional work using Sonarworks (a software that will balance them, they have a preset in the software for them; they are very balanced out of the box tho, good enough for normal media production). But most importantly, I used my first set of the HD681 for almost 10 years (around 8 hours EVERY day), constantly being plugged in and out of devices, thrown into bags, cars, tents, whatever, before I replaced them. They were still working just fine and nothing was broken, I only replaced them because the earcups and headband got filthy from a lot of hair wax and drinks (partially) spilled over them. If it wasn't for the look and feel of them being basically abused, I'd still be using my first set today.

Try using “Barge” brand adhesive instead.

I miss you with James Mayer and Andrina Grande Wallpapers.

Not having detachable cables for everything is sad. Save yourself the trouble and get something with detachable cables, IEM's come to mind

Hey I did the same thing.. found a pair at Savers for $3.99 and $2 part for it it (the end that is)

One side of my headphone broke cuz the cable got damaged. I wanted to fix it so I tried opening up the headphone but I stripped a screw now I'm screwed.

I do have a soldering iron, using this video as a guide maybe I could flip headphones on eBay people sell them with broken cables dirt cheap and I could sell them used for like 3x more

In my case, I could have just replaced the cable. Mine comes with a user-removable cable