How Do Headphones/Earphones Work?

In general, headphones work the same as speakers — they require electrical energy into sound by using magnets to vibrate the air, which creates sound. That signal is sent through your headphones' wires, and into the headphones themselves.

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Just Smaller Speakers

A pair of earphones or headphones (we’ll refer to them as earphones for the rest of the article) is simply two speakers that are placed extremely close to your ears, except that they are incredibly small. For this reason, they're also – although quite seldom – mentioned as ear-speakers. A transducer may be a device that converts energy from one form into another. A pair of earphones consists of two transducers that convert the electricity produced by your device into sound energy that our ears perceive as music. Basically, each earphone is simply like all other circuits – a conductor drawing current from A battery (source) and providing it to a load (transducer).

The Jack

The conductor is connected to the source with what's called the jack of the earphone. The stout, shiny needle plunged into your device is actually three metal contacts stacked one on top of the other, each separated by a layer of insulation. The tip of the needle is called, well, the tip, the contact in the middle is called the sleeve and the uppermost contact is called the ring. The tip forms the contact for the wires that power the left earphone, the sleeve forms the contact for the wires that power the proper earphone, and therefore the ring forms the contact for the wires that form the common ground. However, certain jacks are divided into four parts.

The Transducer

If you were to dismantle an earphone, you’d find inside the hemisphere the two wires mentioned above coiled around a plastic cone that is suspended above a circular metallic plate. The plastic cone is called the diaphragm. In the center of the metallic plate, above which the diaphragm hovers, is embedded a permanent magnet. These components collectively form the transducer.

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