Sometimes you need a pair of Wireless Headphones, may be temporarily. Like you are watching a movie on your Laptop with a friend, but you can only connect one pair of earphones to a laptop.
But, wireless headphones damn expensive. You don’t want to spend so much of money on it.
Wait! Why don’t we use your existing Wired headphones and make them wireless?
Yes! You don’t even need to buy a Bluetooth Audio Receiver. You can just do it using an android app without spending a penny.
NOTE: You can simulate Wireless Headphones and it is useful in some situations. But it cannot be a replacement to the real Wireless Earphones.

Why would you want to use Wired Headphones as Wireless headphones

You may need Wireless earphones in following situations:

1. When you want to connect 2 Headphones to your Laptop/ PC, so that you can watch a movie with your Friend or Sibling
2. When you want to stream music that is stored on your PC, Wirelessly on your earphones.
3. When you want to Use your Smartphone as a Wireless Speaker

Convert Wired Headphones to Wireless Headphones without an Audio Adapter

Generally, to make your Headphones wireless, you need to buy a Bluetooth Audio Receiver/Adapter. You can then plug-in your Wired Headphones in the Adapter and make them Wireless. You can buy a good Bluetooth Audio Adapter from Amazon.

But, if you don’t want to buy an Adapter, there’s a second way to make your Earphones Wireless, which is by using the app called Soundwire.
Soundwire is an app which makes it possible to stream audio from your computer to your Android Phone.
So, we first stream audio to your phone, which makes it a wireless speaker. Then we plug-in your Headphones.

Things you need

1. An Android Smartphone
2. A Laptop / PC
3. Soundwire App & Server software
4. A Wi-Fi network. No need for Internet, just Wi-Fi network is sufficient. You can also create a hotspot on your mobile phone and connect your computer to it.

NOTE: The Laptop/PC and the Smartphone should be connected to Same Wi-Fi network, otherwise it won’t work.

Setup Soundwire

STEP 1: Turn your Smartphone into Wireless Speaker

Initially, we will setup soundwire which will make your smartphone a Wireless Speaker. If you want a Wireless speaker you can use it as it is.

1. First Download & Install Soundwire App on your smartphone / Tablet. Then go to the Soundwire site and install the Soundwire server software on your computer according to your OS. (While installing, if the Firewall asks for permission, click OK.)
2. Make sure both your Smartphone and your computer are connected to same Wi-Fi network.
3. Open Soundwire server that you have installed on your computer. Now under “Input select:”, select the device you want to listen to (If you want to listen to all sounds on your computer select: Default Media device. If you want to listen to a Mic connected, select the Microphone name from the list). Then note the IP address shown near “Server Address”.
   
4. Now open the SoundWire app on your phone and enter the Server address you have noted earlier and tap on the SoundWire button (or tap Enter).
   
5. That’s it! Now the button on the App glows and on Computer, it shows “Connected”

STEP 2: Connect your Headphones to your Phone

After you have turned-on the SoundWire app, you will probably hear all the audio you play on your computer through your Phone’s speakers.

But, what we want are Wireless Headphones, so now we will plug-in your Headphones to your Smartphone. And tada.. you will now hear Audio from your Headphones. Your Headphones are now Wireless!

READ 

• Cool things you can do with your Windows Phone
• Using a TP-link Router? Control it from Phone using this App

With the free version of SoundWire, you can connect only one Phone at a time and there are ads. If you want to connect more Phones, you can buy the Pro version of SoundWire.

Fix Problems: SoundWire not working

It is quite possible that if you have made any mistake, you will end up with errors like “Unable to connect to Soundwire Server”,  “Cannot locate Server” or other errors and connection problems.

So, firstly Recheck the steps I have mentioned above carefully. If still, Soundwire isn’t working, you should check the following solutions:

1. Check if both devices are on SAME WIFI

As I have mentioned earlier, SoundWire works over WLAN. So,  please check if you have connected both your Computer and smartphone to Same Wi-Fi Network. It won’t work otherwise.

If you don’t have Wi-Fi at home, you can simply Turn-on Wi-Fi Hotspot on your phone and connect your Laptop to it.

2. Check Firewall Permission

If the above fix doesn’t work, it means Windows firewall is blocking Soundwire. You have open Windows Firewall settings and Add exception to SoundWire Server Application to give it permission to access network.

Watch the Video to know how:

 

3. Delay in Audio: Audio Lag

There will be a very slight delay in audio, but you won’t notice it. If there is a very High delay:

1. Sit nearer to WiFi router, to get maximum signal.
2. In the SoundWire app, open Settings and Tick the option “Audio Compression”.  Then tap on Compression Bitrate and set it to a lesser value. You can also reduce Audio Buffer size to decrease Audio lag.
   

Final Words

SoundWire is a great application to stream audio from PC to Phone. Obviously, they can’t be a replacement to actual Wireless Headphones, but you can temporarily make your Headphones Wireless.

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