If you find yourself wondering how to clean your headphones, how to make your wireless headphones last longer, what is the best method of storage, or how to maintain the quality of your listening experience, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to cleaning, preserving, and modifying your over-ear or on-ear headphones to guarantee premium playback for the long haul!
Why It’s Important to Clean Your Headphones
While earwax and the impact it has on your sound quality is typically easier to notice when using earbuds, wax — alongside the sweat, dirt, and grime that naturally accumulate over time — stands to impact your playback performance just as much with over-ear (circumaural) and on-ear (supra-aural) headphones. In the short term, the basic discomfort and obstruction of drivers will negatively influence both your listening experience and the fidelity of your sound. Over time, the buildup can cause corrosion with earpads and headbands as well as potentially seep inside your headphones, disrupting or damaging interior mechanisms and circuitry — it can even be irreversible!
Cleaning Essentials
Before we get into step-by-step instructions, you’ll need the right tools for the job. Fortunately, cleaning your headphones doesn’t require any fancy or specialized equipment. In fact, you likely own a good portion of these cleaning supplies already! Whatever you don’t already have is easily purchased at any grocery store or pharmacy.
- Towel, paper towel, or lint-free cloth
- Cotton balls, cotton swabs, or cotton rounds
- Isopropyl rubbing alcohol (70% alcohol or higher) or hydrogen peroxide
- Hand or dish soap
- Bowl of warm water
- Gloves (recommended)
- Goggles or glasses (recommended but optional)
- Tweezers (recommended but optional)
- Toothbrush (optional)
Please exercise care and caution when cleaning your headphones. The optional goggles, glasses, and gloves are recommended in service of your protection, considering the use of substances such as isopropyl alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. These easily wash off your hands but can be incredibly painful, if not dangerous to your health, were they to get in your eyes!
Step One: Prepare On-ear & Over-ear Headphones for Cleaning
For over-ear and on-ear headphones, the scariest part for users who are cleaning for the first time is getting your headphones ready for maintenance. Knowing which pieces can be removed is essential, as is knowing which parts can be replaced, as needed, whether that’s through the manufacturer’s warranty or by purchasing new parts.
It’s also important to remember that cleaning should be performed in one sitting. So, gathering all the necessary supplies before you start is critical to a job well done!
First, unplug your headphones, and if they’re using any batteries or a connected power-supply unit, then also remove or disconnect those and power off the headphones.
Once everything is deactivated and there’s no power flowing into or through your headphones, the headband should be fully extended to ensure you don’t miss any nooks or crannies — grime and bacteria hide in small places! If applicable, then now is the time to remove the earpads or earcups.
If you’re unsure whether the pads are removable, then a light tug on the bottom edge will answer your question if you can reveal the speaker behind them. If you need to use any more force than a gentle tug, then it means they likely can’t be removed or replaced, but don’t fret, you can still give your headphones a comprehensive cleaning.
Furthermore, any headphones with microphones or peripheral attachments (we’re looking at you, cat ears) should have their removable pieces detached and separated, including any foam windscreen that may cover a mic.
Step Two: Remove Loose Dirt
With all removable components detached and adjustable parts extended, you’re ready to start cleaning! Dampen your towel, paper towel, or lint-free cloth with warm water and wipe down every inch of your headphones. Visible, larger dirt and grime spots should be handily removed.
When cleaning, you don’t want your cloth to be soaking wet! Water can — and likely will — damage interior components. A damp cloth is all you need to handle this initial pass. Once the visible specks are gone, you’re ready for step three. We’ve included a half-step measure for addressing the tougher stuff.
Step Two and a Half: Tackle the Grit That Won’t Give
For those who wear their headphones while working out, doing outdoor activities, or navigating busy public environments, it’s likely that some of the visible grime resists step two. In this case, you’ll repeat the process and add dish or hand soap to your bowl of warm water. A little goes a long way — a few drops is all you need, especially if using dish soap.
You’ll want to exercise the same caution here: a damp cloth avoids getting soapy water into the interior components. Be mindful that this stage of cleaning will require a bit of additional pressure, which may cause more water to be expelled from the cloth.
If you have any doubts about this step, then a toothbrush is a suitable alternative to a damp cloth.
Step Three: Disinfect & Sanitize
With all visible grime out of the way, you’ll begin the process of disinfecting your headphones, getting rid of any bacteria, viruses, and remaining debris. With all parts fully extended and removed (as applicable), you’ll need your isopropyl rubbing alcohol as well as your cotton rounds, cotton balls, or cotton swabs.
This part will take a bit of time, but this is the stage that makes the biggest difference in promoting the longevity of your over-ear or on-ear headphones! Be sure to carefully go over every part, including buttons, dials, and switches, as well as the folds or creases in any fabric components, such as the earpads, headband, or microphone windscreen.
Pro Tip: With the earpads or earcups removed, tilting the headphones to keep the speakers or drivers parallel to the floor ensures you won’t risk spilling liquid in the interior of your headphones.
The shape and style of your headphones will influence when and where cotton swabs, cotton balls, or cotton rounds are most useful. Generally, just one of these three fine-cleaning options should be able to address even the smallest areas, but the diversity of tools will guarantee any hard-to-access areas are cleaned.
Don’t forget to address supplementary components, covers, cables, and anything else that shares a storage space with your headphones.
It is important to note that excessive amounts of rubbing alcohol can damage plastic, leather, and polyurethane materials. Diluting the alcohol in water, or using hydrogen peroxide, can mitigate the risk, but regardless of the cleaning solution you use, a light touch is essential. Like the damp-cloth portion, you don’t want to bathe your headphones and components in cleaning solution.
Step Four: Reassemble & Resume Listening
Once everything has been wiped down and disinfected, it’s imperative that you let the components dry before reassembling them. Fortunately, rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide dry quickly, but prematurely putting the pieces back together risks trapping moisture in areas that can’t easily dry, which risks the formation of mold or other safety hazards.
When everything is thoroughly cleaned, you’re ready to enjoy your favorite tracks! For the long term, however, your journey doesn’t end here.
Additional Cleaning Considerations
Longevity — as the goal of proper headphone cleaning and maintenance — requires us to think beyond the headphones themselves. You could clean them every day, week, or month, and while a regular cadence makes a night-and-day difference in prolonging the lifespan of your headphones, there are two reasons that this shouldn’t be the only protective measure you take.
As mentioned, extensive exposure to cleaning solutions negatively affects plastics and leather. Even an appropriately light touch can damage your headphones over time, after enough exposure.
Then, there are peripheral considerations. Dirt and grime are all but impossible to avoid, though that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to mitigate how quickly dirt or grime accumulate, thus avoiding the pitfalls of excessive contact with cleaning solutions.
Staying Clean Is Your Problem, Too
Cleaning your ears and scalp as well as washing your hair will dramatically boost the longevity of your headphones. Even if you don’t wear on-ear or over-ear headphones to the gym, while working out, or in any outdoor environment, the natural buildup of oils in your hair and on your skin can and will affect your gear.
Similarly, sharing headphones with others is another vector for this same issue. Whether you’re in a studio environment or casually showing tunes to a friend, we can’t be certain of others’ hygiene habits. That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t share headphones, but it will help to be mindful of this so you can stay on top of a consistent, effective cleaning routine.
How to Store Your Headphones: Cleanliness Is a Full-time Need
Saying this may seem obvious, but in the same fashion that any other external factors can affect headphone performance or overall longevity, so too can the circumstances during which your headphones aren’t in use.
Some headphones ship with a hard- or softshell case, in addition to or in lieu of a dust bag. Materials will vary, which means that cleaning your storage requires specific care instructions unique to the textiles or materials used in its construction. This is doubly true if you’re bringing your case or bag with you on any of your headphone-wearing excursions — the same dust, grime, and dirt risks affecting your storage solutions, too!
If you’re only storing headphones wherever there’s space in your home, then the same general rules apply. Additionally, making sure they’re out of the way of any “splash zones” means not just covering for the possibility of water or other liquids coming in direct contact with your headphones — the storage space needs to be kept dry. So, a drawer close to a sink may not be ideal, for example, as the combination of nearby moisture and any moisture elements or grime-born bacteria could make a potent mix for manufacturing mold.
To learn more about how to store your headphones, read the article below!
How to Repair or Upgrade Headphones
Because of the way on-ear and over-ear headphones are built, the earpads or earcups receive most of the wear and tear. Whether it’s the time-worn love of listening to your favorite records, accidental damage, or anything else, many of the industry’s leading headphone brands make replacement pads and cups!
Across Sennheiser, AKG, Beyerdynamic, Focal, Pioneer DJ, Saramonic, AIAIAI, Shure, and many more, replacement earpads are available for select models, including those that have recently ended production. Moreover, companies such as Dekoni Audio are celebrated for their diverse array of replacement options for dozens of hi-fi, consumer-audio, studio-focused, and boutique brands. Plus, Dekoni Audio offers an array of upgrade options with multiple textiles that include varieties of velour, leather, sheepskin, and synthetics.
Sweetwater Is Your Headphone Hub
If you need any extra assistance, want to learn more about upgrading and repairing, or are simply searching for alternative options for your next pair of headphones, then give us a call at (800) 222-4700! Your Sweetwater Sales Engineer is eager to help!