What's the deal with the headphone jack?

[bobgorila]

It seems the world and his dog are conspiring to prevent me enjoying music from my M500, to say nothing of the AD2P ferrago.

OK, so my M500 didn't come with any sort of handsfree kit, mono or otherwise. The goons at the local Orange shop tell me it only comes with a mono earpiece anyway, so no real loss there. I grabbed a cheap adaptor from a local shop, and it works, so long as you don't mind taking the phone out your pocket and whipping out the cable when a call comes in.

Turns out I do mind, so I set about looking for an adaptor with a mic... and find one! Only... it only pipes sound to the left ear! Indeed, all the adaptors I have tried, bring-your-own-headphones or otherwise, will only give me sound in the left ear. What the hell? I was in The Link today and the manager there said he had the same trouble with his Universal (only he has an official headset that works).

At first I thought maybe I'd damaged it somehow, and since there was some other stuff wrong with it I arranged for a replacement from Orange. No joy, this fresh unit behaves just the same. It really seems the only way to get stereo out of it is with a 3-core adaptor. Say it ain't so?

3 cores good:
http://moralindifference.com/images/3c.jpg

4 cores bad:
http://moralindifference.com/images/4c.jpg

I mean, are HTC wiring the 2.5mm jack differently to everybody else? Or did Orange mess up the case such that the 4-core plug doesn't sit quite in line?

I did get one off expansys (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=121962), now that I think about it, that I think worked in both ears, but it had horrible speakers and was pretty uncomfortable. Besides, I took it apart to try and attach the plug to my old HPM-70 (http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/graphics/misc/hpm7035mm.jpg), which sort of worked but, you guessed it, I couldn't get it to play sound in the right ear!



[edit] Whoops, wrong forum! I guess this belongs in accessories rather than upgrading. Perhaps a friendly mod could move it?

[oltp]

Hi Bobgorila,

I received a stereo headset with my TMO device & it works perfectly for all phine functions including adjusting the volume. Downside is the audio quality is horrible. So I switched to a mono BT earpiece for the phone & a decent stereo headphone with conversion jack for music.

Guess ther must be something wrong with your wiring.

M

[hanmin]

My HTC Charmer gives me stereo sound with on `4 core` adapter, with mic, which I got from eBay, picture attached.

My unit came with a handfree headset, which is `4 core` and gives stereo sound as well, which is why I'm reluctant to get a `3 core` adapter.

[davehutch]

had a look around but they don't look as "substantial"

[davehutch]

thanks

[Moblin88]

My phone came with a 3 core stereo headset which I lost. I bought another 3 core sterio headset designed to work with the Palm Treo 650 which worked fine. I didn't need to hunt online, I just bought it at a cell phone accessory shop at my local mall. The Treo 650 is a very popular handset where I am in Canada and heasets are readily available.

[Ultimate Chicken]

I brought a ghetto 2.5-3.5 jack for $3.50 at a common hardware store.
Works with full sound on both channels on my O2 Mini, with a 3rd party 3.5" earphones that came from an el-cheapo Gemini Card Reader/MP3 player.

Looks rather oversized and gaudy, tho.

Remember that HTC sells only the spec and blueprints. OEMs are free to do whatever they want to the original design (called 'rebranding'). Orange may very well have rewired the thing....

[compactrom]

I had problems with this. I noticed that on the 3-pole 2.5 to 3.5mm stereo adapter I got from Maplins the poles don't line up exactly with poles on my original headset. The HTC connector doesn't just have an extra pole for the microphone but each pole is a slightly different width. Using this adapter one channel was shorted unless I pulled the connector out slightly.

Sorry if that doesn't make sense, I will try and post a picture.

I did manage to find a source for 4-pole 2.5mm jack plugs in the UK, I bought a set of Koss earplugs and replace the original connector.

Mark

[stealth82]

Just get a sonyericsson P900 stereo earpiece, it works wonder. sound quality is very good.