How to wire a headphone jack to a speaker

I was trying to figure out how to do this for a very long time when I finally figured it out by piecing together different pieces of information I found in many different instructions. This helped me a lot and I hope it helps you with all of your speaker projects!

You Will Need:
A speaker (I got mine by taking apart an old computer speaker)
A pair of iPod earbud thingies you don't want back
A soldering iron or a bunch of electrical tape (I used the electrical tape but soldering would probably be preferable)
Scissors
A wire stripper (you can use scissors for this if you don't have one).

Step 1 The Earbuds

Take your earbuds and cut the wire right below where they split, so you have a plain cord with a jack on the end and a split cord with the earbuds on it. Take the plain cord with the jack and strip about an inch of the insulation off the end without the jack. There will be four separate wires, a copper, a red, a green, and a red and green striped one. Burn off the colored insulation on these wires by setting them on fire individually using a small lighter or match. The flame should catch, burn off the insulation, and burn out quickly. Do this to each of the wires, making sure you can identify their original colors still (leave a bit of the color at the base so you can tell). Set this aside and grab your speaker.

Comments

[2l4zy4an4m3]

hey for the speakers, do they need to have batteries? or can just a simple speaker without batteries work when soldered with a headphone jack?

[kyismaster]

depends on the ohms and power needed by your speakers, results varies, mines is running on a 9v battery.

[mmajor1]

can u tell me how i would hook the 9V?

[Vijster1]

Hey, it's me again. I'm connecting another speaker set to install in my backpack. Could you explain how you connected the speakers to the battery, and to the headphone wires? I have looked all over instructables. The only battery powered speakers are hooked into amps or pcbs. My speakers are not connected to anything - all I have are just the actual speakers. I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[kyismaster]

your talking to me? if you are , its easier to email me at kyismaster{AT}gmail.com

[Vijster1]

You may need to use diodes.

[M!dn!8ht_Sun]

you don't need to have batteries, just keep in mind that that means it will be using the power from your iPod.

[kyismaster]

i would like to object, my Ipod can't power my 300 watt subwoofer can it now. My 500w Amp can barely keep up. the speakers vary, and ultimately rule over this.

[mmajor1]

i need to add a power source as well as my speaker does anyone else know how i would do so?

[weavernater]

My headphones are two cables stuck together. Imagine them like this = and it one of them there is Copper and Red wire and the other Copper and Green. Any ideas? Im not to sure about step 3 thats why i asked. And i am trying to connect it to a little sub type thing that roughly 2 inches across with positive and a negative wires running off it but there are silver wires in each cable. Thanks

[vabalos]

ITS FOR SUPER NOOB!

[Stereonovice]

I'm doing something similar using a set of headphones that are inside of a military CVC tanker helmet taking the helmet and turning the entire thing into noise canceling headphones thank you so much for this

[flizio]

THANK YOU!!! I FINALLY FOUND A WAY TO DO THIS BECAUSE OF YOU! I just finished this on my sub! it works perfectly and now i can plug it into whatever i want! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

[ashwinlit]

Can you use ducttape instead of electrical tape?

[flizio]

yes you can. i just did it with my sub!

[drabinowitz]

nooooo

[spijk860]

i have 2 speakers that are connected wiht eachother

[spijk860]

please help i only have a green,red,blue and an white wire

[xjaani]

HELP ME HELP ME I HAVE AN AMPLIFIER 30" WOOFER BUT CANT CONNECT TO MY IPHONE BECAUSE MY HEADPHONES HAVE 4 WIRES 2 COPPER 1 BLUE ,1 RED BUT IT DIDNT WORK SPEAKERS ARE WORKING AMPLIFIER IS NEW AND THEY ARE INSTALLED IN TOYOTA LANDCRUISER V8 HOW TO JOIN THEM AND JOIN WHAT TO WHAT

[Will Wilding-Taylor]

If you are using non-apple headphones then the wire colours may be different but it isn't too hard to work out which is which, especially with the earlier post on a rough guide to what the wires are all for>

[Vijster1]

I connected two speakers (some tiny ones from RadioShack) to my headphones. They work perfectly. First twined speaker wires together, then added headphone wires to each bunch of twined speaker ones.

[Vijster1]

you probably already knew that...

[Vijster1]

oh by the way, the "volume" often varies based on the amount of electricity given to the speakers by the source. Ex: My phone - low/moderate Old ipod classic - high You get sound based on power

[Will Wilding-Taylor]

do you think an ipod touch(3rd gen) will play some 8 watt speakers loud enough?

[Vijster1]

Sorry for the delay - I really do not know... You would have to know how much electricity your ipod puts through the headphone jack.

[Hitman Actual]

Great instructable! I'm currently working on volume control.

[t23d23]

What if you wanted to use a home stereo speaker (I was gonna use a Bose speaker, Bose 114 I believe I keep forgetting the number) what if you used that and just connected the wires on the back of the box (red and black) speaker wires to the headphone jack wires...and then plugged it into your computer? Would that be easier since it's already in the box?

[kyismaster]

depends. how much watts/ ohms is that speaker? if your talking about the little ones, possibly. the big subwoofer, definately not.

[TheRealTobobias]

I cutted the ear buds, and I have 4 cables, on one side: white and coper and on other side blue and coper. HELP please?

[kyismaster]

copper = ground, colors = sound. white is either left sound or right sound, blue is either right sound or left sound, i cant tell, its not my headset. good luck, remember you need to get rid of the enamel on the color and copper wires to get a proper contact with the copper headphone wires.

[tees123]

Would it be possible to do this with a 10" bass speaker from a bass guitar amp?

[kyismaster]

yes, and no, a headphone jack does not have the right Ohms, or power to power the speaker, sadly and have a chance of shorting out the board of the unit you are using to power these speakers, such as the instance i used 1 inch drivers powered by my PC line out, guess what, my pc's dedicated sound is no longer intact. anyways, you need a speaker that matches the ohms of a headphone jack which is roughly probably 16 ohms, a bass guitar speaker, probably 8 ohms. the lower the number, the less resistance. meaning more power through it. what you can do, is run it through a car amplifier, powered by a common PC DC 12 volt rail, from a PC power supply. and the audio will be directly fed into the amplifier, and you will be in business, however a bass guitar speaker, may have well, more bass, i believe it might be a mid range speaker, or woofer. anyways. No, it can't be ran on a headphone jack unless powered by another source to compensate.

[King Julien]

I have a speaker with one red wire and one black wire (labeled positive and negative). I have a headphone jack with one wire copper and one wire green. I have tried connecting the wires either way and it doesn't work. I got the speaker from an old pc and I think it might be broken. Any help?

[kyismaster]

if im correct, copper and black are ground, red and green are sound, you must first melt, cut, or burn, the enamel platting on each copper strand under the colored wiring so to speak. in other words its copper wires covered in resin, to stop shorts. just remove it, and you will regain contact. works like a charm, just try not to take more of the wire than the enamel lol. its hard to explain.

[00Donut]

Will this process work for a speaker that is bigger? Lets say, a ten inch speaker for a car, or maybe something bigger.

[Rali929]

You have to remember that the power to power the speaker is coming from an iPod and wiring a bigger speaker would just be useless unless you have another power source other than the iPod. That is why you need amplifiers when installing car speaker systems.

[berky93]

it would really help to have a picture of the wiring in step 3

[AronWanderer]

Awsome instructable! It was just what I needed. Next you might do one on connecting multiple speakers to a headphone jack.

[pancho del rancho]

can u add a pic for step 3 i really need it plz