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If you want the life of your headphones to last longer and if you want to get better sound out of them, there are certain things you can do. Try these five tips and you’ll have working headphones for longer and better sound quality. We tend not to pay much attention to our headphones until one of them starts acting up and we realize they will be dead in no time, but here are five essential tips that will work like a charm if you turn them into habits:
You’ve probably heard this before, and it’s true: you need to take care of your headphones’ cable. Cable is not indestructible, which means that constant yanking and pulling can cause internal damage over time. Make sure you roll your headphones up and store them that way whenever you’re not using them because this will help you prevent damage.
Earphones are easily wound up and most of them come with a little special pouch for easy storage, but headphones can be a bit trickier to store, especially if they’re a large model. If the cable is detachable all you need to do is unplug the cable, wind it up and then secure it with a velcro wrap or something else that can do the trick. Detachable cables also make it easier for you to replace them, so you’ll be able to expand the life of your headphones without much trouble.
If you can’t detach the cable, it’s still useful to wind the cable and tie it up, but be careful not to tense the cable close to the earcups. Tension can damage connection points, so be very mindful of the way you unplug your headphones as well. Note that most cables will eventually stop working; that’s just the consequence of constant use. If you don’t want to deal with that kind of problem anymore, consider getting wireless headphones!
It doesn’t matter if your headphones are on-ear (supra-aural) or over-the-ear (circumaural), earwax building up on your headphones won’t be a major problem, but your headphones’ earpads can get sweaty for whatever reason and this can affect their quality of life. The good news is that you can clean them, but first you’ll have to make sure that the IP rating is between 5 and 7. Of course, some headphones will have removable and replaceable ear pads which gives you the option of changing them whenever you need and avoid having to buy a new pair of headphones.
Earphones are very different because earwax will easily buildup on them and you’ll have to clean on a regular basis. Earwax can cause a lot of problems like blocking the treble and altering the stereo image. The good news is that earwax cleaning tools exist and you can buy them for less than $10. These tools will help you scrape the inside of your earphones to get the earwax out of the silicone eartips and the driver nozzles. Also try to keep your ears earwax-free when you’re using your earphones to make sure they don’t get too dirty.
If you want and need more sound out of your headphones, there are apps out there that will alter the sound signature of your headphones which will increase the quality of sound dramatically. However, if you don’t like how your headphones sound in the first place, and app is not going to change that, but it can offer some useful features that will help you improve the quality of your headphones’ sound.
It’s as simple as tweaking the bass or taming high-mids, so look for a multi-band EQ application. This kind of app will make sure to take your mobile device’s audio output through different adjustable EQ bands. A standard feature of EQ apps is that it has different presets based on different music genres like jazz, pop, rock, etc., but sometimes it’s better to customize it yourself and create a better headphone experience based on the sound needs that nobody knows better than you.
This improvement can also work on your computer, so you can easily download software that will allow you to tweak your preferences and customize your headphone sound quality however you see fit.
Digital-to-analog converters also known as DACs are another way to help you improve the overall audio quality of your headphones. They convert the digital signal from your mobile device to an analog signal that your wired headphones or earphones will output from then on. There are portable preamp/DACs that can be plugged into your phone and all you’ll need to do is plug in your headphones to enjoy improvements that include lower distortion, playing high-resolution files, among many other things.
The quality of your audio starts at the source, so you have to understand that most streaming services won’t provide the same sound quality of a high-quality audio file. What’s more, the strength of the stream relies on the strength of the Internet signal, so that can hardly compete with a local file. If you want high-quality audio at all times, it’s a good idea to download high-quality files of the music you normally listen to, so you can always experience amazing audio and you won’t be dependant on the Internet.
If you don’t want to do that, you can still play around with your stream service’s settings. You can go to “Stream Quality” and “Download Quality” on your app and make sure that they’re set to the highest quality available. Know that this will force the app to use more storage and bandwidth, but it will be worth it! You will be able to enjoy your headphones for longer and you won’t have to spend more than $10 to achieve it, so put all of these tips into practice you’ll notice a big improvement on the quality of your audio and on the life of your headphones!
