Why my SOL and SoundMagic headphones work only if they are halfway plugged in

Question

My issue is when I fully plugged the earphones in my laptop I hear only the background voice with awful sound, but when I plugged them a little bit without pushing the headphones to the jack itself I hear the full voice. I have issues with both of my headphones not only on my laptop, but on my phone too, so the issue is not in the laptop. I cleaned the jack on both of the devices and still doesn't work. When I try to move the wire on the headphones they work for a moment.

I don't know where exactly is the issue and if it is the wire, could you please tell me how to fix it.

Answer 1

From what you've described, it seems one of two things: either the jack doesn't fit well or the jack is "special".

By "special" I mean there are some vendors (for instance, Nokia headsets), that, in order to accommodate the microphone signal, they create a new band within the jack, sometimes elongating it slightly.

Some ports that conform to regular jacks make it hard for those kinds of jacks to fit properly, and as such, the connection between the male and female isn't perfect. As such, current doesn't pass correctly and the signal's strength (what you hear) is attenuated and/or distorted.

The solution is what you've tried: just give a little leeway and don't plug the jack completely. It isn't the perfect solution, however.

If the problem is the wire (according to what you described, it isn't)... you can try to "squeeze" the whole of the cable. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. The place most headphones break is the connection between the wires and the jack. In that case, although you can try and solder the wires to a new jack (there are a lot of Youtube videos, search them), as the wires have some sort of fine fabric mesh in order to insulate them (besides being very thin) they won't solder well with the jack.