# *Request* Complete Headphone Rewiring Tutorial.



## twp8888

Hey everyone, i was looking around and couldn't seem to find a tutorial that explains how to rewire Headphones. If someone could point me in the direction of a tutorial or make a tutorial explaining these key points:
   
  - What type of wires are needed
  - What the difference in the wires are
  - How to properly set the wires into place
  - Where to buy wires
  - Suggestions on there favorite wires to use
   
  If anyone could direct me to a tutorial i would be very great full!
   
   
  Thanks


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## GREQ

I don't know if there are any FULL tutorials, but practically the most important things to remember are the wire colours, what they mean and where they go.
   
*CABLE TO HEADPHONE DRIVERS:*
  Black - ground (or return signal) - sometimes there are two, or another blue one to differentiate between each return signal.
*R*ed -* R*ight channel
  White - left channel
   
*CABLE TO JACK:*
  The tip of a stereo jack has two black bands and 3 gold connection rings, the TIP (the end point), the RING (surrounded by two black bands) and the Sleeve/return signal (at the base).
  The solder connection points at the back are in *the same order.*
   
  Tip LEFT CHANNEL - most difficult to reach short one.
  Ring RIGHT CHANNEL - the middle length one.
  Sleeve *RETURN SIGNAL* - the longest one (which often has two clamping prongs to hold the entire cable in place) - if there are two return signal cables, they BOTH connect to this one.
   
   

   
   
  Can't really comment on the other stuff.


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## twp8888

Quote: 





greq said:


> I don't know if there are any FULL tutorials, but practically the most important things to remember are the wire colours, what they mean and where they go.
> 
> *CABLE TO HEADPHONE DRIVERS:*
> Black - ground (or return signal) - sometimes there are two, or another blue one to differentiate between each return signal.
> ...


 
  This works. Thank you very much!


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## GREQ

Ah - I did forget one thing though - not all headphone drivers label the connections. 

 Sometimes you'll see a + and - beside each soldering connection, where + represents the LEFT or RIGHT signal, and - represents the RETURN SIGNAL.
  However if it is not labelled - it is usually + on the right and - on the left (when looking at the driver from above with the soldering connections at the bottom of the circle)


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## Pingupenguins

Depending on your headphone, google search can be your friend.
   
  Navships on eBay sells CHEAPPPP wire, but it's insulated in teflon which is known to be noisy. So if you have extra cash, you can pick up nylon multifilament from Furryletters or 550 paracord.
   
  Another wire of interest would be Mogami and Canare quad cables. Great cables, but a little bulky compared to raw wire.
   
  My favorite wire gauge is 26, but people often use 24 AWG too.


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## twp8888

Quote: 





pingupenguins said:


> Depending on your headphone, google search can be your friend.
> 
> Navships on eBay sells CHEAPPPP wire, but it's insulated in teflon which is known to be noisy. So if you have extra cash, you can pick up nylon multifilament from Furryletters or 550 paracord.
> 
> ...


 
   
  If i bought some wire from Navships what size Nylon sleeve should i get? 1/8"? or 1/4"?


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## Pingupenguins

Quote: 





twp8888 said:


> If i bought some wire from Navships what size Nylon sleeve should i get? 1/8"? or 1/4"?


 

 That's not very specific. What AWG are you looking at? How many conductors? Braid pattern?
   
  If you want it easy, go buy some Mogami 2893 and get 3/16th black sleeve for the body and 3/32 sleeve for the split.


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## twp8888

pingupenguins said:


> That's not very specific. What AWG are you looking at? How many conductors? Braid pattern?
> 
> If you want it easy, go buy some Mogami 2893 and get 3/16th black sleeve for the body and 3/32 sleeve for the split.




Sorry it's 26 Awg 19 strands and I'm looking to do liz braid or something like that


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## Pingupenguins

Quote: 





twp8888 said:


> Sorry it's 26 Awg 19 strands and I'm looking to do liz braid or something like that


 
   
   
  1/4 is way too big. Just so you can refer measurements. If your using a Rean/Neutrik 3.5mm jack, the cable entry is 4mm wide. 1/4 is 6.3mm. So right there you know it won't fit. I believe furryletters sells 3/32 sleeve. I use that sleeve on most of my cables, but my wire is pretty thick compared to teflon, OD of 1mm. Teflon is usually pretty thin.
   
  So the answer is 1/8 to 3/32. I'd go 3/32 so I could also use the same 25ft segment after the split. Cause 1/8in is a bit large for twisted pairs of 26 AWG.
   
  Hope this helps.


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## twp8888

Quote: 





pingupenguins said:


> 1/4 is way too big. Just so you can refer measurements. If your using a Rean/Neutrik 3.5mm jack, the cable entry is 4mm wide. 1/4 is 6.3mm. So right there you know it won't fit. I believe furryletters sells 3/32 sleeve. I use that sleeve on most of my cables, but my wire is pretty thick compared to teflon, OD of 1mm. Teflon is usually pretty thin.
> 
> So the answer is 1/8 to 3/32. I'd go 3/32 so I could also use the same 25ft segment after the split. Cause 1/8in is a bit large for twisted pairs of 26 AWG.
> 
> Hope this helps.


 
   
  Ah, i see. Yeah that would be a good idea. Thank you so much for the help!


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## mchang

Looks like you have a lot of the info you need already, but here is my recap of how I recabled my Denon D5000.


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## twp8888

Quote: 





mchang said:


> Looks like you have a lot of the info you need already, but here is my recap of how I recabled my Denon D5000.


 
   
  Thank you for a reference. Now i can kinda see what im doing


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## jdogw

greq said:


> I don't know if there are any FULL tutorials, but practically the most important things to remember are the wire colours, what they mean and where they go.
> 
> *CABLE TO HEADPHONE DRIVERS:*
> Black - ground (or return signal) - sometimes there are two, or another blue one to differentiate between each return signal.
> ...




What about on the driver side how do I know which wire goes where? I wanna recable my superlux hd681so what would you recommend for cables that i should buy?


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## GREQ

Quote: 





jdogw said:


> What about on the driver side how do I know which wire goes where? I wanna recable my superlux hd681so what would you recommend for cables that i should buy?


 
  Unfortunately unless it's clearly marked it's really a matter of just remembering which colour goes where. Often - is on the left and + is on the right (when looking at the rear of the driver and the contacts at the 'bottom'), but it's* not a rule.*
   
  It's been a while since I posted this 'tutorial' and I've re-wired quite a number of headphones since then. 
  So at this point I'd like to point out that for whatever reason, the few headphones I had rewired back then were actually wired contrary to 'convention'.
  I can now say that most headphones are wired (at the plug) *WHITE to RIGHT, RED TO LEFT, *and black to ground/return.
   
  Can't comment on cables.


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## jdogw

Ok then thanks for the info


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