Storing your headphones might be the last thing on your mind, but keeping them out of harm’s way is more important than you might think. Here’s what you should know about storing your headphones.
Why You Should Store Your Headphones Properly
Storing your headphones properly is a key factor in ensuring their longevity. Throwing your headphones wherever and exposing them to various conditions and elements can damage them, whether you notice it immediately or not. Not only do you want to have the best possible listening and wearing experience with a pair of headphones, you also don’t want to have to buy a new pair too soon. It’s a strain on your wallet, and it isn’t great for the environment either.
While it may feel like a relatively unimportant thing to care about, especially if you don’t notice any damage on your headphones thus far, damage can accumulate over time. Humid environments can slowly corrode the metal in your headphones, dust can slowly build up, and falling into bad habits can prevent you from actively avoiding damage.
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Avoid Heat, Dust, and Moisture
Your headphones, as well as any other electronics, need to be protected from anything like heat, dust, and moisture that can wear away at or otherwise damage internal components. Heat can cause parts of your headphones to warp or melt, dust can accumulate in ports, causing obstruction or damage, and moisture can corrode or short internal electronic components. All of these things can happen slowly and go unnoticed for a while, so it’s best to be proactive and prevent this kind of damage before it’s too late.
Avoid heat by keeping your headphones out of the sun and away from heat sources like heaters or ovens. Having a dedicated place where you store your headphones that keeps them away from all of these harmful elements will ensure you keep them safe. To avoid dust, storing your headphones in a case of some kind will do just fine. Cases also keep moisture out, and you should always make sure not to take your headphones out in the rain unless they’re IP-rated and at least water-resistant.
Don’t Wrap Your Cables Too Tight
If you like to wrap up your cables to keep them neat when your headphones are stored away, make sure not to wrap them too tightly, especially in order to keep the ends from being at too much of an angle. Otherwise, you risk breaking the cable and exposing and fraying the wires inside.
To responsibly wrap your cables, wrap them in a loose coil so that you don’t have any part of the cable at a severe angle. Ideally, you want to wrap the cable around itself, and not around the headphones. Wrapping a cable around your headphones is a lot more likely to end up with the part attached to your headphones being at a dangerous angle.
Using Carrying Cases
When you’re transporting your headphones, using a carrying case is a smart idea. If you throw your headphones in your bag, you risk having other items in your bag brushing up against and potentially damaging your headphones. Sharp objects, dust and debris, and moisture can all be potential risks in a bag. Making sure there’s some barrier of protection around your headphones will keep them a lot safer.
In general, hard-shell cases will protect your headphones the best, but they can be bulky if you don’t have a lot of real estate available in your bag. A soft fabric case is absolutely better than no case at all, so use one of those at the very least. Many consumer headphones come with a soft fabric case, so it’s likely you won’t even have to buy anything to add a layer of protection when you’re on the go.
Should You Use a Headphone Stand?
Headphone stands are a great choice for both organizing your equipment and your space, and they’re quite nice to look at as a display. But whether you truly need one or not comes down to your own habits and preferences. If you don’t want to spend any money, forego getting a stand and just store your headphones in any safe place you already have available. But if you find it helpful to have a dedicated, visible place for your headphones to live, a stand could be a helpful option.
Just make sure that you don’t place the stand in a place with direct sunlight, to avoid excessive heat. You’ll also want to make sure your headphones are dust-free if you don’t use them a ton, since keeping them on a stand does run you the risk of exposing them to dust.
Satechi 2-in-1 Headphone Stand with Wireless Charger
Putting a bit of effort into storing your headphones properly and protecting them from damage will go a long way in ensuring the longevity of your headphones. With just a bit of effort, you can save yourself a lot of money and time.
