Thanks so much for making this video. Not having much experience soldering, I thought I was going bonkers watching my headphone wire reject the solder no matter what I did. Someone below mentioned using paint thinner... I didn't have any on hand but I used some of my wife's nail polish remover as a substitute and it got me over the hump. Thanks again!

Use a bit of sandpaper on the wire ends, very lightly or you'll break them. After that the soldering is easy. Thanks for your video, my headphones work again

I fixed my headphones fr and literally saved 20 bucks with my father. Like actually a legend

People, after years of experimenting, I have finally found the BEST way to solder these tiny headphone wires. Firstly strip the plastic wire housing. Next apply PAINT THINNER on each of the tiny wires. Wait for it to dry(2 mins). Then grab a soldering iron, put some solder on it, and run the tip of the iron through the wire in a DOWNWARDS DIRECTION -the wire should start bubbling - this actually gets rid of the enamel coating as it sticks to the solder. Let this solder drip on the table/remove this solder. (If you use lighter to burn the enamel, you don’t actually remove the enamel - you just melt it, which is why people find it so hard to solder these wires. ) Now, you have actually REMOVED and TINNED the wire (which is impossible if you use lighter to melt the enamel) At this stage you just need to connect the tinned wires together and solder. `

A pro solder would know: How to choose the right temperature for the type of solder he has, your solder just evaporates. Use flux, although already incorporated into solder better to flux for fluffyness. Clean the wire before soldering. Never try to convince audience how hot shit his soldering is.

I've found that actually dipping the wire in a jar of flux paste after burning off the coating and getting the wire good and saturated with flux will cause the solder to flow nicely onto the wire. The flux actually cleans the oxidation and residue from the wire and pulls the solder into the strands. Using flux core solder just doesn't have enough flux in it to properly clean the wire. Be sure and use a good quality flux paste. Once both wires are properly tinned this way they can be easily soldered together. Been doin' it 50 years now.

The charred black residue from the burn, and copper oxide if you heat the copper too much, is very non-conductive AND very good at preventing solder adhesion. I find that it's best to gently clean those charred ends with some fine grit sandpaper before soldering, either gently press wire onto sandpaper and drag OR fold sandpaper over wire and pull it through. Try to rotate the wires between swipes to expose as much copper. You should be able to see the clean exposed copper when it's clean.

Wow! Thanks! I just did a set of headphones using your technique, I scraped the wire after the torch _very lightly_ with an X-acto. It was pretty reluctant, but I kept applying it on up the wire, and away from the end, there was a place where it stuck. Two piece of heatshrink spaghetti, and one for the outside and we were done!

Thanks for this vid! I will start with that I am a complete moron when it comes to diy and repairs. My kitten found my Sennheiser gaming headphones and obliterated the wires. Got this fixed following your instructions and I did not get nervous that I cant get this soldered (as mine was also a pain to solder and was shedding off the solder). Thanks again man! Big thumbs up!

I actually learned how to do this around the same time as this video was posted. I saw another video on YT by someone with a higher end soldering iron with temp control and they used a really hot bead of solder captured on the tip to burn off the enamel and tin the wires at the same time, it is contaminated but because of how the enamel burns off you can strip and tin several of these wires at the same time without worrying about it adding impedance to the joint- just make sure to drop that blob off on a solder wick before actually committing the connection. also, if you are a fan of the NASA method of staggered soldering, you could get away with a very fine, narrow Gage of heat shrink that would fit inside a piece of paracoard or a shoe lace to give your repaired cable that braided look.

I Love You... I was wondering how i was going to just throw away my $40 Havit headphones, until i saw this. Bless you bro...

wow dude this was awesome thanks so much. I had mine all spliced together and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. so, I found this video and when i got to the part about melting the insulation I immediately went and got a lighter and melted them while they were already spliced, and they instantly worked perfectly. thanks so much awesome video.

Dude,its so real to hear an experienced solderer say this because i thought it was just me(i was crap at soldering)anyway thanks for the tips and video,as you say these headphone wires "suck donkey dangles" appreciate it...

great video, helped me solder my sons headphones back to working (thanks!). Used your tips and I also used rubbing alcohol to clean the wires after burning off the insulation which appeared to have helped.

I was having hard time to solder these wire. I cleaned them with acetone, it really helped to make the solder stick

I just made this same repair bud and had the same problem with the soldering part. I noticed though when i hit the area of the wire that still had coating it took the solder right in. I then re cut the wire DID NOT burn the coating off and it took the solder like a dream headphones now work perfect. Dont burn the coating off guys!

Thanks. It was really helpful watching this, and made me not feel so crazy. I taped the insulation so I wouldn’t need to blow on it. There is also a small string I. The middle of each wire that they are wrapped around. I found that tons of flux and using lead helped.

Good. You done it so good. Loved the video, I did repair my head phone today, it helped. best of luck to you buddy!

If I had a nickle for everytime he said, "I'm a really experienced solderer, I'd be rich!

Thanks Alex! Studio headphones chord chewed by our cat. Repair exactly as you described. My 1st ever soldering attempt with Aldi supermarket soldering iron 😜🙏. Works good as new. And I pack them away after use now…cheers!

I know exactly where you're coming from :) (Almost 20 year replacing defective discrete components, and 74xx series ic's) on printed circuit boards I thought headphone cable suck too! But then brain kicked in. Its all about buoyancy. Keep in mind, industrial soldering is supposed to quick, easy and dependable! First I tried burning off coating too, but looking at the result thru a magnifier. Yikess! That was awful. No wonder solder didn't "bite". Fortunately I still have my 40 year old Weller. Set the iron to the right temperature. Briefly heat the tip of the wire, immy apply quality solder with flux core and presto, there is a solder-blob on the end of the wire. I assume the melted coating floats up thru the solder while the flux prepares the copper wire surface.

You oxidized the outter layer of copper. That's why the solder won't stick.

love your attitude Alex. relaxed and strait forward

never coould get it to solder but i see now why!!!! thanks for the tutorial . soldered thousands of wires and copper joints had the same prob as u tks again

Thanks, I've had to solder mine three times now and it drove me nuts.

Love you drumming at the end!

thanks, it was really helpful...... i have repaired my headphones with ur help :)

Thank you 🙏 so much, I was so confused about the coating

this was super helpful - thank you!

The suggested method of putting a hot solder blob (via the tip of the soldering iron) onto the plastic coating of that particular sort of head-phones wire works better than a charm. When the plastic melts away due to the hot tip and hot solder blob, the solder then penetrates into the copper wire portion ----- and it gives a fantastic 'tinned' wire-end ....... which can then later be very easily and conveniently soldered to whatever we need. Also - I found that regular solder with tin and lead works nicely. I think there are some solder out there sold with not much lead in it ------ which is not always easy to melt or work with.

I was about to pull my remaining hair out (And yes, I was using flux on both ends when everything was still going to hell!) Thanks for the vid because it saved my $350 studio headphones ! Gracias Amigo!

Just did this too! Does take a lot of patience

bro thank you i fixed my fav headphones

Thank you very ...finally I fixed my Sony MDR earphones 😎😎😎😎

Flux is your best friend when soldering anything

Worked like a charm, tyvm !

My first soldering experience is going to be a ripped turtle beach headset that my cat ripped.... I has 6 different wire strands..... This is gonna take a while(yea im doing it right now. Wish me luck)

Oh I’ve used fine sandpaper. It helped a lot.

I have an early set of Sony noise canceling headphones, that a 14 year old broke the plug half off, it has 4 wires, I assume that they are both grounds, salvaging another plug that has three wires, what is the process to connect them? Good video on yours!

Try stripping and dipping next time. Lightly sand down the ends using scotch guard, dip in flux and then dip in melted solder then let cool, repeat if needed. Do this to each end and then try and soldier on a connection. Just a thought, dont worry about any haters. Obviously they clicked on your video out of a issue they were having or just randomly, point Is your connections stayed together and your overall goal was achieved and for that do not be sorry. Sure if you did it a few more times it would come out more visually to you're liking as in soldering there is always stuff to learn.

Cool, now what’s the white fiber string in the cable for?

i bought a replacement cord for my samson sr850 but it only has one connector and the replacement cord has two. can I still just sodder both of them to the same ground? its pure copper so hopefully it'll prolly be easier to sodder than fixing the goddamn thing

Thanks really helpful man...

thanks bro it works ❤️❤️🌹🌹

Would acetone strip the enamel from the copper? If so I'll have to "borrow" some off a lady friend Got the same problem with a pair of sennheisers. I've tried the burn method and the solder fails to tin every time.

I broke my Shure headphones at the male adapter. I cut off the wire coming out of the headphones about 2 inches down and soldered on a female 3.5mm plug. Bought one short and one long aux cord, now just change em out as needed, works great!

would flux do any difference at this stuff? flux paste would pierce through the contaminates in no time and dicipates the heat really fast

Is there any way to use this method when the wire is broken at the headphone jack end?

How do you solder directly to speakers. There are vids about soldering the wire to jack but none for directly to speakers.

thx so much for this video dude

I soldered the wires on the magnet, and it was working. then i realized i had to pass the wires through another place, so i melted the solder and when i removed the excess it ripped off the brown part where the solder was supposed to be. i tried to solder it without that but it just doesn't work. is there anything i can do?

Simple solution to this problem.......clean the wire as you mentioned burning off the insulation. Then.....use a " fine " standard wire..... like a hair. Wrap that wire around the other two wires. This wire acts as a splint. It helps hold the solder in place. I had this same headache when I cut my DJI drone motor wires. " No " solder would stick !!! And these wires looked like normal wire. They are not ! I use the same splint method. My drone is back to flying !

I wonder if you can help me solder the wires correctly on the inside of the left earpiece. Let me know.

do you need to solder or can you just use electric tape?

Thanks for the video =)

Brush on a tiny touch of solder flux for plumbing and it’ll help clean up the wire so it takes solder better. Apply it to your iron between joints, and your wires being soldered. Much better success rate.

Any reductionin ssound quality after this? Any noise?

"I'm really good at soldering" Sure..

its actually really easy, if you twist the wire counter-wound you'll see that there is a material like compound inside, separate that from the copper, then burn it away, then the solder takes like a dream

Thanks for sharing

Have you ever tried removing the insulation with a hot blob of solder? I have had success with this, but I think the temp needs to be at least 700F.

i broke my razer headset and couldn't figure out how to solder. thank you so much

at first thought that my headphones were dead but then that enamel coating is the culprit haha

Good its not just me with these stupid headphone wires. :) I mean bad that you had to do it but good that its not just me.

I've got some headphones with 10ft cord that's a hassle to carry around , I've been thinking about cutting it and doing this to make it shorter , would this help?

Do you have to solder them in order for them to work again? What if you just twisted them together and put some electrical tape around? My cat ate my headset and I'm trying to find ways to fix them

I am a satisfied your video.

HI! I too, think these cables are GARBAGE bro! I've just totally rewired my trusty Sennheiser HD201s all the way through with a 3.5mm to 2xRCA plugs (I dismantled the headset and fully rewired it!) - so thanks for a cracking little video. By the way, sandpaper can remove this shitty laquer coating too! I am also going to rewire my 0.50c earbuds bought from poundland too! You are like me and so many others - long live the repairers society - you don't learn ANYTHING by just trotting off to the mall when something breaks! - you fix it like I do... Keep up the great videos!.... TJ the DJ, Blackpool England

I used S_39 and the solder will flow nicely.

hahahah I know that pain bro,soldering headphones wire,,,,,I thought I`am the only one

Best thing I find for these connections are “Solder Seal” which is a heat shrink connector complete with solder inside so it does the complete job in one. You can always add some heat shrink to go over the Solder Seals to make a neater finish. After burning the insulation off the wires, I’d reccomend cleaning the wire up with some isopropyl alcohol, this will help the solder. Let me know what you think?

Firstly I will admit these types of wires are a pain to do, but one of the biggest rules for soldering and especially audio connections is make sure what you are soldering is very clean, after burning off the coating the wires are full of carbon and also residue of the strain relief thread that runs through the core and also using some flux on the join would help even if the solder has it already in the core. Yes the headphones worked but not a good demonstration of how to do it.

Thanks ! 💯

Omg I was losing it on these type of wires ended up brushing off the ends with Emery clothe and wiping with rubbing alcohol in order to tin the connection properly. Such a mind f@&$ trying to figure out how though lol glad I wasn’t the only one having trouble

Thanks for this video my headphone was broken too because of my dog

Is there a special kind of tape that you use?

Maybe a stupid question but is it really important to solder the wires together, can I not just twist them together and secure with electrical tape? I don't have a solder iron etc.

Thanks didnt knew the groundware had insulation too so I burned it and twisted together and put electricity tape.

Very thankful omg connection between in

So the Navy paid for my soldering skills, Electronics Technician Maintenance School (ETMS) where we could do depot level repairs in the back of a pitching submarine. Being that the training was mostly based off the 80's, cleanliness was king. Prep was 95%, actually making joints was 5%. I tried the burn off method, but then I abraded away the burnt coating.. I used 0000 steel wool (had on hand) but a white/grey eraser was my favorite abrasive.... after scrubbing the wire, the RA solder I had took hold with little effort. I my last job, I used to use no-clean type flux, but had a bottle of old-school pine rosin flux for the tough stuff. Activated Rosin is fine, as long as you wash away the residue . The way I was trained flux did not improve the wetting of the solder, it removed the oxides that impeded the smooth flow of solder. Get rid of the oxides for a good joint.

I came looking for a solution to exactly the same problem, the solder just won't go into the wire! I've even tried dipping the hot wire into flux, nothing works other than burning off with a lighter flame then scraping the wires back to copper then twisting them together with heat shrink tube over the joint.

I have two different Sony headphones. One set has 3 wire and the other set has 4 wire. I’m trying to replace the jack on one with the other. This seems challenging.

LMAO all the Lil nerds disliking this video when in fact this is the most informative video on this topic.

i feel your pain.

Its to nice gud one

Does that work?

after buring the insulation off, you should have wiped the wires to clean, using some paste helps alot even if you are only using a cheap solder. well thats what i did

Put 2-3 times the length of heat shrink on, even a double layer - really reinforces it rather than letting the forces come onto the strands - just my 2 penny worth!

Ugh, the right side of my headphones stopped working and I noticed two wires on the bridge of the headphones were exposed. I tried some liquid electrical tap hoping it was just exposed wire, but it didn't seem to fix the issue, so they must have frayed a bit. Looks like I'll be experiencing the joys of soldering them as well. Hopefully it's not the right side driver that shit the bed.

Cable name plz.Thx

Try getting two strands of regular speaker wire and use those clips to hold them in place then soder it and tape it off

One if your using non leaded solder which it looks like you are its the worst as it just balls up especially for those wires in which case you should use drop techniques as i have to do when i don't have leaded solder which again sucks. Next why did didn't you use multiple heat shrinks as the insulation? prolly because you have some decent specialty tape from the looks?

hi please make a video on how to fix cables of sony headphone. Mine was cut in the middle portion where there are 3 connections. thanks a lot.! :-)

Is it gonna work if u just put a electrical tape on the cut wire?

I tried repairing a cheap pair of earphones and I think I forgot to flame the wires enough. Since it was only on one side of my earphones, only one side is affected. The audio isn't as loud as it should be. But at least, it works, so I was on the right track to repair them.

For mine. I accidentally dropped my pair and only one of the speakers got its wires yanked out. Its so damn hard to fix it because the wire is super short and thin. Its probably 10x harded than the one in this video. I feel really sad right now because its impossible to fix it without dark magic or stuff like that. :..(

ty

I'll never again buy a fixed cable headphones.

Your better off going on line and ordering a new upgraded wire and replace the whole thing all the way to both speakers with thicker gauge non warped wire . If you look at the wire your soldering under a 10x microscope there is a coating around every strain of wire along with a core fiber in the middle of the wire . You have to fold every strain of wire back out of the way and leave the fiber core sticking up and catch it on fire ,once you have the center fiber burn down out of the way then under the scope scrape the coating off each wire all the way around each wire . Then twist the wire together and the solder will now flow on the wire . Once you do that regular silver bearing solder like 96/4 .32'" wire will work great . no need to use expensive solder wire your using . It really takes a 10x stereo microscope to prep the wire to get it ready to solder . Its all about prepping the wire . That center core fiber if not burned down or cut down will just flow over the wire and stop the solder from flowing on the wire . Its the biggest mistake people like yourself make . That tiny center fiber that is surrounded by the tiny strains of wire is really hard to see until you fold each strain of wire down and out of the way you really can't see it . So next time get rid of the inter core fiber and then twist the wire only together and the solder will flow right away with no problems at all . I do all my soldering on small wires like headphone wires under a 10x scope so I can see exactly what I'm doing and I can see that there is no fibers anywhere around the strains of wire . Your making something that is very easy to do seem hard because you didn't get rid of the fiber core first .

Hi The copper wires are far to hot use flux and a more controlled heat on the wires. Andy