Headphone Jack Pinout

[Gricey]

Hai Guise,

My N900 arrived last week, and oh was it shiny. Similar hardware to my beloved Pandora, but a phone. Before this, I had a bog standard iPhone 3G which I used to listen to music as well as phone-related stuff.

Over the years I've kept decent headphones for that kind of thing, my trusty Shure E2Gs kicked the bucket after 4ish years of loyal service, so while I was in the states I picked up The Bose Mobile in-ear headset, which is basically some good in-ear headphones with an integrated mic/answer button to use with mobile phones. On the box it said it was compatible with iPhone, I thought nothing more of it and bought it.

I plugged it into my N900 and was horrified to find they make a really loud buzzing. If I put them in with the call answer button held down, I get no buzz, but the sound is half volume and spread mono across both earphones.

Turns out that Apple decided to buck the standard and have their own pinout, like this.

Nokia claim to have stuck with a standard, and done this.

Basically, while pin 1 and 2 are the same (left and right audio), pins 3 and 4 are reversed, so the iPhone compatible 'phones end up trying to send the mic down the earth, leading to some horribleness (note the technical term, I'm not an electronics guy!).

I guess for the tl;dr crowd, what I'm trying to say is:

I have some really nice headphones, but because they have a mic integrated, they are compliant to apples "standard" which may not be the industry standard. With the pinouts on the Pandoras headphone jack, will I get the same problem, or is it the same as the iPhone, and if not, anyone know where to get an adapter from? I always intended to listen to my tunes on the Pandora.

Hope someone has good news...!

Gricey

[disclaimer: I got the pinout links from a post in the maemo forums, which I've since lost, and the thread there was stumped, so I'm interested to know what will happen with the Pandora setup and if it is a problem, if it can be mitigated]

 

[Butterman]

tl;dr why you shouldn't buy an Apple product.

 

[yannv]

I haven't confirmed what it's like, but I'd expect the connections Nokia used. It looks like Apple have decided to be contrary and you'll need something like this adapter. Edit: I'm not really certain that adapter does swap the connections, but it does have the mic ring.

 

[gruso]

Goddam Apple. My understanding is that Pandora has a standard TRRS connector, compatible with any headphones / mic headsets. Except the ones designed for iPhones.

yannv's link looks like a lifesaver.

 

[rabidpoobear]

Goddam Apple. My understanding is that Pandora has a standard TRRS connector, compatible with any headphones / mic headsets. Except the ones designed for iPhones.

yannv's link looks like a lifesaver.

The n900 doesn't have software-mappable inputs for the headphone? on my e71 when you plug in a device it asks you what it is and it remaps the inputs for it.

 

[Dead1nside]

Urgh, so Apple becomes the de facto standard again and people wonder why their stuff doesn't work with anything else? I suppose at least they haven't used any stupid 2.5mm headphone jacks, what the hell was the point in those, ever?!

 

[urjaman]

IIRC its 3.5mm TRRS jack, compatible with 3.5mm TRS plug for audio out only, mic in TRRS's tip. (this all IIRC)

 

[rabidpoobear]

urjaman, if it's compatible with TRS then mic would not be tip, it would be the ring closest to sleeve.

Remember, sleeve is ground. So the idea is there's an extra ring where there doesn't need to be, if they insert a regular TRS plug then the first ring (nearest sleeve) will be grounded and thus the mic input will be grounded. That's why when you have a mono signal it's just TS, with the tip carrying the signal, and in stereo they add the second channel on a ring. That way if you plug it to a mono source the second channel will be grounded. Basically all extra signals should go to ground, not to another signal, which is why the sleeve is always ground.

Does that make sense?

 

[rabidpoobear]

@Gricey, the best way to solve this is just to cut the connector and solder a new TRRS and do it the logical way (with sleeve being ground). Obviously this would prevent an iPhone from using it but since you have a n900 I assume you don't mind not being able to use it with iPhone? How are your soldering skills?

Also, you went from e2c's to Bose? sad day. Not an audiophile?

 

[Pleng]

Urgh, so Apple becomes the de facto standard again and people wonder why their stuff doesn't work with anything else? I suppose at least they haven't used any stupid 2.5mm headphone jacks, what the hell was the point in those, ever?!

The be honest, if Apple are breaking the standard then I'd rather they DID use a 2.5mm jack. Then at least there's be something to distinguish the devices apart.

 

[elwing]

is it me or a third of apple work goes into design.
a quarter goes in locking their device, accessories and software.
an other quarter goes in advertising.
and the rest is about using already designed by other hardware?

 

[Creature XL]

Also, you went from e2c's to Bose? sad day. Not an audiophile?

Slightly OT, however the Pandi should have good audio hardware, so I want to "check" my earphones.
What do you think of these:

cx 550


edit: one http:// to much

 

[Bosbeetle]

btw this is the answer provided by mweston

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/45089-audio-connector-pinout/page__view__findpost__p__665938

This page has some good visuals: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/04/zen-vision-m-video-cable-other-4pole-35mm-pinouts.php

Pandora is like the first group (Archos, Gigabeat, etc...) except replace Video with Microphone.

So like the nokia.

 

[Gricey]

@Gricey, the best way to solve this is just to cut the connector and solder a new TRRS and do it the logical way (with sleeve being ground). Obviously this would prevent an iPhone from using it but since you have a n900 I assume you don't mind not being able to use it with iPhone? How are your soldering skills?

Also, you went from e2c's to Bose? sad day. Not an audiophile?

My soldering skills are non-existent

e2c->Bose was mandatory, as the cable started to disintegrate (the plastic in the wires started to split as they go over my ears and probably reacted or something, remember this is 4-5 years of constant use). I didn't rate the ones that Shure put out as replacements, but I quite liked the sound on the Bose ones even though most prefer the Shure (go figure, I must have weird ears).

So: balls. I'll have to look at adapters.

 

[bzar]

is it me or a third of apple work goes into design.
a quarter goes in locking their device, accessories and software.
an other quarter goes in advertising.
and the rest is about using already designed by other hardware?

oh yes