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In the old days, you could easily repair headphone cables just by stripping back the insulation on the wire at each side of the break, twisting the bare wires together, and wrapping insulation tape around them.

However there seems to be a new type of wire in modern headphones - there doesn't seem to be any insulation and the wires themselves feel a bit different, and they don't start working once you twist them together. Is there a way of performing a similar repair on this type?

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    Please include a close-up photograph. That will help everyone answer your question. If you can't take a photograph you're happy with, see if you can find one online and add it to your answer. Oct 18, 2019 at 15:49
  • Brand? Model? Anything else to go on?
    – Stan
    Oct 18, 2019 at 21:49

2 Answers 2

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The wires still have insulation, it's just that it's a very thin, probably clear, coating of some insulating plastic that is adhered to the wire rather than being a sheath. Use something abrasive to remove it and proceed so you would have

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    Very thin wire insulation can be melted off by passing it through a blob of solder on the tip of a soldering iron - this simultaneously tins the underlying wire so that you can solder it to the other wire, too. If you do solder it, also use a heatshrink (before soldering, i've made that mistake before!) so that the other wire connections don't touch and short each other.
    – QuickishFM
    Nov 20, 2019 at 22:10
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In some of the recent headphones, I have seen thin insulation which is hard to detect.

It is thin white (colour may change) thread like material overlapped around wires inside rubber outer layer. You can remove it and twist and repair headphone.

Take care while twisting as the wires are also very thin now a days.

Also if you mess up with thread like insulation, just use light fire using a match stick from far distance. This will burn the insulation but not the wires and you can twist them and apply tape over it.

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