2025-09-14 - More Headphone Repairs
-----------------------------------

In this article, I want to describe several headphone repairs I
performed recently. I decided to just combine all the repairs into
one long article instead of having several shorter articles.

Notes on Flaky Foam Covers
--------------------------

In my article on the GXT headphones[0], I mentioned that I scrubbed
away the flaky material over the ear cushions, but I didn't have any
proper pictures of the process, so I wanted to show some pictures of
a similar repair on different headphones. The material over the ear
cushions was also completely flaky, so I first started brushing it
while it was still dry[1]. This did help to get a lot of the material
off[2], but I ended up brushing the rest off in soapy water[3]. There
was some other material on the underside that hadn't turned flaky,
so I left that as is[4].

Update on Sennheiser Headphones
-------------------------------

In my article on the Sennheiser headphones[5], I performed a somewhat
hacky repair where I just stuck some foam onto the earpieces. This
worked surprisingly well, but eventually the foam started fraying
around the edges, and hairs and other dirt would get stuck in the
foam[6]. I decided to redo the repair, but cover the foam with cloth
this time[7][8]. The result wasn't too pretty, but it was much better
than before, and it should hopefully last longer without falling
apart like the bare foam[9]. These are my main headphones currently,
so I'll see how they hold up.

Fontastic Tela BS-420
---------------------

I was given some Bluetooth headphones (also usable with an AUX cable
instead of Bluetooth) in very bad condition a short while ago[10]. They
were broken in multiple parts, and the cable going between the two
sides was broken at some point. Since these are very cheap headphones,
no one in their right mind would even consider repairing them, so of
course that's what I did.

First, I had to remove all the old tape in order to access the cable
inside[11]. The foam ear cushions can be pulled off, after which the
plastic piece underneath can be pried off[12]. I guess the plastic
piece could also be pried off with the ear cushions still attached,
but I first removed the cushions. Underneath the plastic piece,
there are four screws holding the speaker in place. Once these have
been removed, the speaker and surrounding plastic can be pried up as
well[13] in order to access the inside[14]. These pictures are from
the left side, but the process is the same on the right side. One
positive note here is that there is a fair bit of space inside, so it
would be possible to fit a much larger battery than the one currently
in use. I noticed that a metal plate underneath the battery (attached
from the outside) had become loose[15]. Instead of gluing it back into
place, I just pushed the metal clip holding it back down to fasten it
properly[16]. If it becomes loose again, I can still glue it. There
was an identical metal plate on the other side of the headphones,
but that hadn't become as loose.

In order to replace the cable connecting the two sides, everything has
to be disassembled completely. Inside each earpiece, there is a clamp
held down by two screws that must be removed[17]. After that, the piece
connecting to the earpiece can be removed and opened[18][19]. The next
piece is a bit more difficult to open because it has to be slid out
(in the direction of the earpiece) with quite a bit of force[20]. You
can see in these pictures that the plastic is broken in multiple
places. In order to remove the rubber piece and foam at the top,
a small plastic piece has to be pried off on each side[21][22]. The
two wires in the cable then have to be desoldered and the new cable
soldered in place[23][24]. Separating all the pieces also gave me an
opportunity to clean them properly.

I first tried to glue the broken pieces using two-component epoxy
glue, which can be seen in some of the following pictures, but that
wasn't nearly strong enough and quickly broke again (more on that
later). The new cable has to be routed through all the pieces again,
which can be a bit annoying in some parts[25][26]. In [26], you can
see that the part on the left (which is connected to the earpice) has
already been closed. This was a mistake because it is impossible to
connect it to the piece on the right then[27][28]. The proper method
is to leave the part on the left (using the orientation in [26])
open, so the connecting piece can be pulled out just far enough so
the part on the right can be closed. In my case, this wasn't really
too relevant because the connecting pieces on both sides broke again
anyways, but if they had stayed intact, I would have had to do that.

Since all the glued parts broke again, I had to find some other
way to join them. The only method I could think of was duct tape,
but I still wanted to improve it slightly compared to the original
state I had received the headphones in. First off, I simply hid the
excess cable underneath the foam at the top since using tape would
lock the headphones in one position instead of allowing them to be
extended[29]. I then decided to cut out some metal pieces from old
laptop hinges I had lying around in order to improve the strength of
the broken parts[30]. After bending the pieces slightly, I first added
one layer of duct tape around the broken part, then placed the pieces
on top, and added several more layers of duct tape[31][32][33]. At
the position where the headphones would usually extend, I added two
metal pieces on the outside and two on the inside, but at the parts
near the earpieces, I only used two pieces on the outside because
the shape on the inside wasn't as convenient for adding the metal
pieces. Of course, the headphones are now locked into place, but they
fit my head in this position (although I do feel a slight bump where
I added the metal pieces on the inside).

Finally, the foam and plastic pieces need to be pushed onto the
earpieces again (after screwing the speakers back in)[34]. The final
result can be seen in [35] (I added some tape even on the side where
the extending part wasn't broken because I realized that I had already
hidden all the cable behind the foam at the top, so trying to extend
the headphones there would have put stress on the cable). This was
definitely a bit of a hacky repair, but the metal pieces do give a lot
of strength to the broken parts compared to the state I received the
headphones in. One option to make everything look nicer would have
been to sew a piece of cloth around the entire part going over the
head to cover all the duct tape, but I decided against that because
it would only be a cosmetic change and it would make future repairs
somewhat more difficult. I can't say yet how long the repair will
last since it was less than two weeks ago, but I do hope it will at
least extend the life of the headphones slightly.

Anker Soundcore Life 2
----------------------

The last repair in this article concerns itself with Anker Soundcore
Life 2 headphones that had flaky material all over[36]. The difference
to the previous flaky material repairs was that in this case, even
the cloth around the foam was damaged.

I started by removing the foam and the torn-off cloth
underneath[37][38]. After that, the cloth covering the speaker could
be removed carefully[39][40]. The plastic ring underneath has some
clips holding it down, so it can be removed with a mixture of pushing
the rings in and prying the plastic ring up[41]. I saw online that
other people just pried the ring up with the foam and everything
still attached, so that's also an option.

Once the plastic ring has been removed, the four screws underneath can
be unscrewed in order to remove the speaker and access the inside of
the earpieces[42][43]. The repair I performed didn't actually require
this access, but it's good to know that it would be relatively easy
to replace the battery (assuming a replacement is found that fits in
the limited space available). When the headphones are used with an AUX
cable and the noise canceling feature isn't used, the battery isn't
needed at all, so another option would be to remove it completely in
order to avoid having a bomb strapped to your head.

I first tried sewing the original cloth back together[44], but I
couldn't really make it fit around the foam properly. In the end,
I decided to simply cut out a long piece of somewhat stretchy
cloth[45], sew it together into a ring/cylinder[46], then sew it
around the foam[47][48]. The piece of cloth I used was around 24x6cm
while not stretched. In order to attach these ear cushions, I first
tried to stick them to the cloth pieces covering the speakers using
double-sided tape. However, there was still some residue left on
those cloth pieces, and even trying to clean it off using isopropyl
alcohol didn't help much[49]. Nothing would stick properly to that
residue. Eventually, I decided to just sew the cloth pieces to the
ear cushions instead[50]. I then removed the adhesive on the plastic
rings and some remaining residue from the flaky material on the
bottom[51]. After that, I could simply add some double-sided adhesive
to the plastic rings[52] and stick the ear cushions to that[53][54].
Unfortunately, I realized too late that the plastic rings aren't
identical, so I accidentally switched left and right[55], but that
wasn't a big enough issue for me to bother swapping them again.

What remained was the flaky material on the part going over the head. I
first wanted to use the same method that I used for the GXT headphones
in [0], but these headphones have a lot of wires going between the two
sides[56], so I wasn't very keen on desoldering them all. Instead,
I simply sewed a piece of stretchy material directly around the
headphones[57][58]. This piece was around 15.5x7cm while not stretched.
It is important to check how far the material stretches so it still
fits around the thick part in the middle properly (the thickest part
had a circumference of around 8cm). This does mean that the seam is
more visible than on the GXT headphones, but it's not too bad. I guess
I could have tried turning the cloth piece inside-out while it was
already on the headphones, but I didn't think of that at the time,
and I'm not sure if it would have worked since the cloth fit very
tightly in some places. In order to make it look a bit nicer, I hid
the ends of the cloth piece between the plastic pieces on the sides,
as I did for the GXT headphones[59][60][61][62].

The final result can be seen in [63]. Some of the seams are visible,
but in general the headphones turned out pretty well, and they can
now be used properly again instead of being thrown away.


[0] gopher://lumidify.org/0/phlog/2025-05-17-gxt-headphones.txt
[1] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/flaky_material.jpg
[2] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/flaky_material_brushed.jpg
[3] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/flaky_material_final.jpg
[4] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/flaky_material_bottom.jpg
[5] gopher://lumidify.org/0/phlog/2025-05-17-sennheiser-headphones.txt
[6] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/sennheiser_orig.jpg
[7] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/sennheiser_cloth1.jpg
[8] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/sennheiser_cloth2.jpg
[9] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/sennheiser_final.jpg
[10] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela.jpg
[11] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_tape_removed.jpg
[12] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_speaker_disassembly1.jpg
[13] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_speaker_disassembly2.jpg
[14] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_speaker_disassembly3.jpg
[15] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_plate1.jpg
[16] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_plate2.jpg
[17] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_wire_clamp.jpg
[18] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_side_disassembly1.jpg
[19] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_side_disassembly2.jpg
[20] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_side_disassembly3.jpg
[21] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_top_foam_removal1.jpg
[22] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_top_foam_removal2.jpg
[23] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_wires1.jpg
[24] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_wires2.jpg
[25] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_cable_routing1.jpg
[26] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_cable_routing2.jpg
[27] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_reassembly_mistake1.jpg
[28] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_reassembly_mistake2.jpg
[29] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_hidden_cable.jpg
[30] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_pieces1.jpg
[31] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_pieces2.jpg
[32] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_pieces3.jpg
[33] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_metal_pieces4.jpg
[34] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_foam_reassembly.jpg
[35] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/tela_final.jpg
[36] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore.jpg
[37] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_removed1.jpg
[38] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_removed2.jpg
[39] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_removing_speaker_cover.jpg
[40] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_speaker_cover_removed.jpg
[41] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_plastic_ring_removed.jpg
[42] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_left_side_open.jpg
[43] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_right_side_open.jpg
[44] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_original_cloth.jpg
[45] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_cloth1.jpg
[46] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_cloth2.jpg
[47] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_cloth3.jpg
[48] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_cloth4.jpg
[49] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cleaning_speaker_cover.jpg
[50] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_speaker_cover_sewn.jpg
[51] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cleaning_plastic_ring.jpg
[52] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_plastic_ring_adhesive.jpg
[53] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_attached1.jpg
[54] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_foam_attached2.jpg
[55] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_sides_swapped.jpg
[56] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_wires.jpg
[57] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head1.jpg
[58] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head2.jpg
[59] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head3.jpg
[60] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head4.jpg
[61] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head5.jpg
[62] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_cloth_over_head6.jpg
[63] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2025-09-14-more-headphones/soundcore_final.jpg