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An In-Depth Look Into How Headphone Cables Carry Audio

2022-11-10

An In-Depth Look Into How Headphone Cables Carry Audio

We often take Wired Headphones for granted: plug them in, and voila, we have sound. As an audio engineer, I find it fascinating to understand exactly how audio is carried through headphone cables. I've created this article for those who share my curiosity and would like to understand audio signal flow and headphones better.
How do headphone cables carry audio? A headphone cable creates an electrical circuit that carries the audio signal (AC voltage) from a source (smartphone, amp, interface, etc.) to the headphones, which turn the signal into sound. Various wiring schematics are used to carry mono or stereo and unbalanced or balanced audio.
In this article, we'll talk about each of the common schematics in greater detail and discuss the basics of audio signal flow and headphone transducers.

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