Soldering audio cables together

The best solution would be to use an inline plug and socket.

 

It is not hard to do with normal soldering iron. Burn the insulation off and solder.

 

Don't burn the insulation off. It will leave a lot of material stuck to the wire making it difficult to tin and solder. Strip it properly with wire strippers or a craft knife.

 

I have had some luck burning insulation off but only if the wire strands were thick enough to not be deformed by the heat, then I took fine sandpaper and cleaned the charred enamel off.

However given that (at least in the US) you can get a dollar store pair of headphones for $1 with a complete cable of suitable length, I'd be inclined to use that longer cable and solder it to the speakers instead... except that what you'll end up with might be no better than just popping the speaker off the $1 headphone headband and then having about what you're going to end up with.

What is the intended use for this?

 

Personally, I like the flash-burning then scrape-cleaning method.
Once, when I accidentally chopped my (fairly costly) headphone cable with a chair-leg, I used this method which you may also try:
Snap off a length of perforated Vero-board about 50 mm (20 holes) long and 4 tracks wide.
Get heat-shrink tubing to fit (15-16 mm x 70 mm).
Overlap ends of each cable's wires so that they pass each other.
With cables on 'component' top side, weave wires through 3 adjacent holes so that cleaned and tinned wire-tips lay flat on pretinned (solder-sweated) track area.
Zigzag through holes serves as a strain relief.
Using a small screwdriver tip etc hold the wire flat then solder briefly to matching track.
Hot-melt, bind or tape insulated part of cables to board then slide shrink over and heat-shrink.
Silicone open ends with black (car) sealant.
The finished join is fairly lightweight, sturdy, and done correctly, neat.

===========================----------------- \/| cord 1
#################################################### board
|/\-------------------========================================== cord 2

 

First, fix the wires to be close together, twisting not to bend them but to shape them.

Second, place a cylinder of heat shrink tubing over one end and slide it down the line for later.

Now,
tin the wires you want to connect using suitable solder, such as 60/40 or 63/37 with built-in rosin core flux. Appropriate flux assists at spreading solder evenly over wires. Only a pen-type solder gun should be used, and a trigger-type avoided (these destructive-to-electronics types look a little like old-fashioned power drills).

Once tinned, the four wire sets should look near as uniform together as they did inside the insulation.

Since tinned, the wires need only be soldered together, but they won't slide around. Simply clamp their plastic exits using a set of 'helping hands' and overlap the wire ends. You'll probably want a very thin track of solder that will melt quickly under a 30-watt or so soldering pen to join the wire ends together. Once this junction cools, all you have to do would be to slide the shrink tube over the work and hit it with a hairdryer or heat gun, and it will look neat and be functionally solvent.

Advisory: When using solder, be sure your ventilation won't keep you immersed in any of its toxic vapors.

Hope that helps.

 

I don't know how to find it on this site, but I recall at least half a dozen of this exact question from past posts.
Some of the options were pretty informative.
It aggravates me a little sometimes when I see the same question answered in previous posts, and I don't know how to direct somebody to those past post responses that were good.
Anybody know how to direct Bob_Sqarepants to some of those old posts for review?