How to Wire the Output on Stereo Headphones
- 1). Strip off the last half-inch of insulation from the wires. The wires that carry the sound will be colored and there will be copper ground wires with no insulation. Typically the red wire will go to the right earpiece and the green wire will go to the left earpiece, but each headphone manufacturer is different. The only way to be sure is to check the connections at the jack. The tip connection goes to the left earpiece and the ring connection goes to the right earpiece. The sleeve connection is the shared ground that goes to both earpieces.
- 2). Cut two-inch sections of heat-shrink tubing and slide it over the headphone wire.
- 3). Hold the tip-wire to the positive terminal on the left earpiece. Touch it with the soldering iron until both the wire and the terminal are hot. Touch the connection with the solder until one drop melts off. Remove both the solder and the iron. Repeat for the sleeve-wire on the negative terminal of the left earpiece.
- 4). Solder the ring-wire to the positive terminal of the right earpiece and the sleeve-wire to the negative terminal of the right earpiece.
- 5). Slide the heat-shrink tubing over the soldered connections and then shrink them using the heat gun.