5 LIFE HACKS BASED ON SCIENCE

Another downside to badly wrapping your headphones (or as musicians call it "bad cable etiquette" ;p) is that it severely decreases the lifespan of the cable because the wires inside of audio cables are (generally) twisted together. Usually when haphazardly storing away your cable by quickly rolling it up you actually end up applying extra tension to the wires inside the cable, decreasing their lifespan. The alternative to the figure 8 is to simply coil your cable in a single loop while respecting the natural state of the wires inside. Hold one end of the cable in one hand, as you make the first coil you can feel how the cable resists twisting one direction (usually resulting in the part of the cable you've coiled already starting to deform/twist), while twisting in the other direction "agrees" with the tensions already present in the cable. Make your coil, respect the natural flow of the cable, and also make sure you coil on alternating sides. So the first coil goes on the outside of the hand holding the end, the next on the inside etc.

Ok maybe just do the figure 8 instead of deciphering my description. Either way, your headphones and other audio cables will last you many more years if you get into this habit :) most of my headphones as well as my guitar cables that got lots of abuse when I still gigged pre-covid survived for multiple years regardless of the price I bought them at, including a pair of £5 headphones I've been using as a reference when mixing the past 5 years :)