How To Replace Your Headphone Jack
Replacing the phono jack on your headphones is a fairly easy process if you know how to solder and an easy skill to learn with a few practice wires if you don't. There are a few reasons you may want to replace the jack. First, you may be getting some crackling caused by a bad connection. Second, an angled plug may work better for your particular MP3 player than a straight plug. Third, you may want to upgrade the plug to something more sturdy and rugged (Neutrik, Switchcraft, or Canare to name a few).
The cost of this project is minimal. Even if you went with a higher-end military grade plug, you will only be set back about $4 for the plug. If you don’t have any of the soldering tools, plan on spending another $10-$20 on a starter soldering kit and the tools needed.
One of our forum moderators put together a great how-to on this. Check it out.
Comments
mons on March 1, 2008 1:40 AM
anyone know how to change a 3.5mm 4-pole plug to 2.5mm 4-pole plug. for example, I would like to modify a pair of very good headphones with a microphone (cell LG 10000) to fit my non-standard cell phone? Also where to find the parts. Or a dongle that has nice thin connectors as to not strain the female on the phone?
I have changed the stereo plug for my grado's as described in this article, but am weary of the pin config and tiny solder points.
anonymous on June 8, 2009 4:16 PM
To clear up the terminology: this is a tutorial on replacing the headphone plug. The "jack" is the female part, the plug is the male part.
It can be confusing as "Jack" is a male name, but trust me, jack is the part you stick the plug into.
Andreas Ødegård on June 9, 2009 12:20 AM
The male part is called a jack plug, not just plug. Both plug and jack are used for the male part, regardless of what the original intent of the name was. Just as we use mp3 player instead of DAP which is the technically correct term.