What this means is that everyone takes much better care of their headphones than they used to. One of the most important things that you can do is to make sure that your headphones stay clean. Not only does this lead to your earbuds looking better, but it also enhances their longevity by preventing dust from going into the drivers and other parts.

Here, we show you how to clean your headphones and earbuds. We take you through the whole process, including how to clean headphone muffs and how to clean earwax out of earbuds.

What do You Need to Clean?

Thankfully, there are not a lot of things that you need in order to clean your headphones. Most of these items will probably already be in your house. Here is a complete list:

• Microfiber cloth
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Earbud cleaning tool
• Dish Soap (Optional but recommended)
• Toothbrush
• Q-tips

How to Clean Over Ear Headphones

The first thing that you need to do when cleaning over ear headphones is to remove the muffs. Only then will you be able to get to all the areas of the headphones and clean them thoroughly. Put the muffs aside and focus on the headphones for now.

For the headband, you can simply use the microfiber cloth to wipe the dust away. If there is dried sweat, fingerprints, and grime on the headband, it is best to slightly dampen the microfiber cloth with isopropyl alcohol. Just remember that you should not use too much alcohol when cleaning your headphones, as a small amount will be more than enough to do the job and won’t make your headphones smell like alcohol for long.

When it comes to the drivers, it is best to use a dry toothbrush to wipe off all the dirt and hairs. Remember to be extremely careful around the driver area, as you risk damaging them if you apply too much pressure.

The earbud cleaning tool can be used to remove any remaining dirt that is left. If you do not have an earbud cleaning tool, a tweezer is your best bet. You can also use Q-tips, although they are nowhere near as effective as the other two options. Once you have wiped off all the dirt, clean the headphones once more with the microfiber cloth and turn your attention to the earmuffs.

How to Clean Headphones’ Muffs

Cleaning the muffs is actually quite easy. All you need is a dish soap solution and the microfiber cloth. Dip the microfiber cloth in the solution and wipe down the earmuffs. Here, you do not need to be careful about how much dish soap you use. Once you have wiped down the muffs thoroughly, you can use a clean microfiber cloth and remove the dish soap from the muffs.

Remember that when removing the dish soap, it is best to dip the microfiber cloth in water. After that, let the muffs completely dry out before you put them back on your headphones. Even a little bit of water seeping into the drivers may cause irreversible damage to the unit. It is also best to let the muffs air dry.

How to Clean Earbuds

Cleaning earbuds is a bit more nuanced compared to cleaning over ear headphones. However, the process itself is quite simple and all it takes is a few minutes.

How to Clean Wireless Earbuds

The process is mostly the same. Since the earbuds are quite small, all you need is to dip a microfiber cloth in a small amount of isopropyl alcohol and wipe the earbuds. If your earbuds are not waterproof, you need to be extremely careful with the amount of isopropyl alcohol you use.

If you have silicone or foam tips, you can remove them and wash them using the dish soap method outlined above.

Remember that the process for wired earbuds is still the same. The only difference is that you should use the isopropyl alcohol-dipped cloth on the wires as well.

How to Clean Earwax Out of Earbuds

This is where the earbud cleaning tool comes in handy. You can use the cleaning tool to remove earwax and other gunk from both the silicone tips and the earbud itself. Once again, tweezers and Q-tips can be used if you do not have access to a cleaning tool.

This really isn’t rocket science. All you need to do is to use one of the tools and carefully remove all the earwax. Once again, it is imperative that you use a gentle touch and do not end up damaging the earbud in any way.

How to Clean the Charging Case

The last thing you need to do is to clean the case. The exterior can be cleaned using a damp microfiber cloth. The inside of the case should be cleaned with a Q-tip. It is best to use a dry Q tip as you may risk damaging the charging coils otherwise.

So, How Often Should You Clean Your Headphones?

This entirely depends on how often you use them. Generally, you should clean your headphones or earbuds when they begin to appear dirty. Make sure to watch out for dirt, earwax, and fingerprints. Once they look dirty, they almost certainly are. If you rarely use your headphones, this will not happen that often.

However, those who use their earbuds on a daily basis should try to clean them at least once a week. On top of that, those who use their headphones while exercising should probably give them a basic wipe down after every use, and then a proper clean once every few days.

You may wish to convert vinyl to MP3 for various other reasons. Nobody wants to lose their prized possessions due to a natural calamity. Digital formats like MP3 are undeniably easier to duplicate and share.

Additionally, while new platforms like Spotify have made music much more accessible than ever before, they don’t always include all your desired recordings. If you have a unique taste in music and own rare vinyl that has yet to be released on other platforms, converting your vinyl collection will be your sole option for listening to such songs on portable devices.

In this article, we will discuss simple steps that will answer the question of how to convert vinyl to MP3. Read on to find out!

Step 1: Clean your Vinyl Records

When digitizing it to MP3, any defect, whether from scratches or dust, will be captured. Vinyl records can accumulate dust over a period of time, so cleaning them before starting the converting process is essential.

It can be done quickly or in a more complicated manner. Still, due to the sound interference produced by dust and dirt on records, you’ll want to take the time to do it well.

If you’re in a hurry, you can get vinyl in decent shape by following a few simple procedures.

To begin, use a static-removing record brush to remove dust and static from the record. Use a cleaning solution and a clean, dry rag to erase scratches, fingerprints, or other apparent defects from a vinyl record.

Important Note: Before you begin recording, make sure the record’s surface is dry, or it could get corrupted.

Step 2: Download a Compatible Audio Recording Software

Audacity is a free, open-source audio recording, editing, and mixing tool. It is available for download on the Audacity official website.

In addition, you also have to install the LAME Encoder. It is a plug-in library for Audacity to convert your vinyl records to MP3 format.

The Audacity website’s FAQ page for Installation and Plug-Ins has detailed instructions for obtaining and installing both of these libraries on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. The installation of both the Audacity application and the two encoding libraries is quite simple.

Step 3: Connect your Devices

You’ll also need to connect your turntable to the computer. If your turntable has a USB port, just plug it into your computer’s USB port and turn it on. The turntable should be recognized as an audio input by your computer.

If it doesn’t, ensure you go to your turntable’s manufacturer’s website and download the correct drivers. They will be included in the website’s support tab.

If your turntable doesn’t have a USB port, link the player’s output to your computer’s audio input. Check your computer’s handbook to see where you may locate this.

It’s also a good idea to check the volume levels. Right-click on the speaker icon in the taskbar in Windows and choose ‘Sounds.’ Click on ‘Recording’ in the new window that appears, and make sure it’s ‘Set Default’ after selecting the appropriate input as shown below.

Now, attach the turntable and try playing a vinyl record. You can leave things alone if the sound bar remains green or if you can hear the sound levels from your computer speakers.

If your sound bar goes red or your speaker plays a sound on the wrong level, go to ‘Properties’ and then the ‘Levels’ tab. Reduce the volume till the replay is clear. In case the audio from your turntable is very low, then check if the turntable’s pre-amp is turned on or not.

Step 4: Record the Vinyl in Audio Recording Software

Now you may start properly recording your vinyl. Before you begin, double-check that Windows is set to ‘Focus Assist’ in the notifications bar. This will stop the device from making any notification tones, which may or may not be captured based on how the music is recorded.

Begin recording using Audacity, then play your vinyl. You may now leave it to digitize the first side of the vinyl record. Still, it’s essential to keep an eye on the procedure to ensure that everything is running well.

Since a side of vinyl typically lasts 15 to 30 minutes, remember to check when your vinyl finishes playing before continuing to record using Audacity. Also, be cautious while approaching the turntable while it is recording since you don’t want to cause it to jump a certain point from the track.

Press the ‘Stop’ button after the side has been recorded. Save your recording as an Audacity file is now a good idea. This does not convert the recording into an audio file that can be played in a media player. Still, it does allow you to modify it in Audacity.

Step 5: Split Each Track

If you are anything like the majority of people, you would prefer to break up the album into separate tracks. If you’re using the Audacity program, click and drag your mouse over a track’s length to highlight it.

After that, pick Edit from the toolbar, then Labels, then Add Label At Selection from the drop-down menu, and give the track a suitable name.

Step 6: Export All the Tracks

After you have split and labelled each track, go to the toolbar’s File option and pick Export Multiple from the drop-down menu as shown below.

You will be prompted to add a description to your MP3 on the following screen. It will be simpler to arrange your music collection if you include the album and artist name, as well as the song title and record number.

That is how you convert vinyl to MP3. Enjoy your freshly digital music in the media player after the conversion is complete.

You may now do the same thing for each song on that side of the vinyl. After that, you’ll need to record the second side using the same method.

It’ll take some time, but you’ll end up with a digital version of your vinyl in MP3 format that can be played on a variety of devices.

Conclusion

It is that simple to convert vinyl to MP3. You may now listen to your old music whenever and wherever you like without being chained to a turntable and audio system.

You may also free up some storage space by selling or giving away your old vinyl records, as well as the turntable.

To convert CD to FLAC means to have your treasured and favorite music (or audiobooks, lectures, or anything you might have on CD) with you “on the go”, and in the highest portable quality.

To understand the mechanics of this much better and to know the importance of ripping to FLAC and not any other formats, let’s first look at what it means when audio is in lossy quality versus lossless, and which audio file formats are lossy and which are lossless.

What Happens When You Rip a CD

All audio, all sound, is essentially vibration. A series of crests and troughs, any sound is vibration being expressed through matter, and as such, that sound can be almost infinitely complex and, no pun intended, “sound” in its stability and structure.

For this reason, the plucking of a string on a guitar in person and the recording of the same plucking of the same string on the very same guitar will be experienced very differently. It’s all about how unfiltered that vibration is and how directly it’s experienced. This is also why surround sound systems feel better than simply enjoying the same music on your earphones.

The best CD player experience means one where the sound is immersive, rich, and can be equalized to your preference. CDs can achieve this since the sound on a CD isn’t compressed. While a whole music album could be around 150MB in MP3 format and still sound decent on your computer, FLACs can take over four times as much space for the same runtime. This is because the audio and sound quality is much higher, and so is the corresponding file size.

Why Rip CDs to FLAC to Ensure Lossless Quality

When you convert to a lossy format, such as MP3 or the pretty-much-obsolete WMA, the data is compressed. The sound range is diminished, and the quality is “smoothed over”.

It might not be detectable when playing on simple earphones from your laptop or a phone, but if you were to play a lossy MP3 file on a good file system, you might experience the sound as being flat, dull, and not much better even when you apply equalizer presets, or boost the bass. In fact, it might even sound worse when audio effects and amplifiers are applied.

FLAC, on the other hand, is a “technology” that “compresses” the music without any loss in quality. FLAC, in fact, stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, where a codec is a term used to refer to the file format that compresses and decompresses the sound – literally, co(mpress), dec(ompress).

FLAC is just as fast as MP3, almost as universally supported, but lossless, error resistant when streaming, and free for use. It is also open-source and completely patent-free.

Is it Legal to Rip CDs to FLAC?

When you convert a CD to FLAC files, you may wonder if it is legal to do so?

The Recording Industry Association of America specifically states that converting music for personal use is not illegal. Music files are illegal when the person in possession of them is violating copyright laws, meaning that if you download converted FLAC files from a third-party website that is offered it via an unofficial manner (or a manner that could be considered illegal in itself), it would be illegal, but if you convert your CD to FLAC for listening at home, you’ve already paid the royalties and the material is yours – strictly and specifically for personal, non-public broadcast use.

How to Rip CD to FLAC

The actual method of conversion, knowing how to rip CDs to FLAC, is fairly simple.

The first thing you need is a computer or laptop that can actually read a CD, of course. Once you have inserted the Compact Disc, several freeware software can do the trick easily and effortlessly.

FLAC is, in fact, ideal for copying music from CDs (again, for personal use) because it also exports a metadata block known as a cue sheet, which is essentially a “table of contents” for your CD, holding all the track and index points.

In any popular app used to convert CD to FLAC, tick the FLAC option during installation wherever prompted, as these software applications install the codec for you. In Exact Audio Copy, for example, the option comes up in the Choose Components screen, and then again at the encoder selection window.

Once installed, the process is fairly intuitive. One of the easier software to configure, CUERipper, for example, does everything from a single screen, including the ability to use metadata databases (meaning your files will be extracted from the CD complete with cover art, artist name, track information, and so on).

There are also a number of these databases, such as freeDB, which come in handy in that you neither have to manually input all this information nor be left wondering which song “03 Track 3” is.

Other software, such as CDex (only supported on Windows), can rip the CD as a WAV file and then convert that raw audio data through an audio encoder such as, you guessed it, FLAC. The software that isn’t just limited to Windows includes LameXP and Clementine which also support Linux, fre:ac which also supports Mac, and X Lossless Decoder for Mac-only converting.

There are also apps such as AnyBurn that allow you to do several different things, including the ability to convert a CD to FLAC from one single landing page on the software, making the process even easier. The instructions might vary from software to software, but another reason for FLAC’s endurance and popularity is how effortless it is to rip even multiple CDs at a time, as the method is fairly automatic and supported by online tools and databases.

How to Increase Mic Volume in Windows 10

Many users have problems with their microphones. However, if the insufficient volume is the only problem, this can be easily resolved, and you just need to do the following changes:

1. First, you need to right-click the “Sound” icon,

   

   and in the drop-down menu select “Open Sound Settings”.



2. When a new window appears, scroll down to “Input” and select your headset or microphone in the drop-down menu below, “Choose your input device”.



3. After that, enter “Device properties”

   

   and move the toggle bellow “Volume” to the right, to the desired level,

   

   and that is it. You have successfully increased your Windows 10 mic volume.