MDA and Shure E3c earphones

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I just ordered an MDA and want to use my excellent Shure E3c earbuds with it, but the connectors don't match. The MDA is 2.5mm and the earbuds 3mm. I tried a Radio Shack adapter with the earbuds and one of their phones, but it would produce only one channel when fully seated. Pull it out a bit and it worked okay, but this is not acceptable. The sales guy said he's seen this before.

Has anyone found a solution short of hacking the earbuds with a 2.5mm connector? I will do this as a last resort.

I'm looking for the same info.
I've read posts that Extensys carries them. I've heard a few complaints about the radio shack ones (poor quality and stick out too much). Perhaps some phone stores carry them as well.

However, I'm getting the GlobalSat BTH-820 Bluetooth Headset. This will allow me to use my E3c earbuds as headphones and a headset. The 820 has a mic. in it and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Seems like you are willing to have a wire to your MDA so you might be okay with a wire to the 820.

You will have to have A2DP flashed rom though to get stereo. True you will have a wire from the 820 to your ear but you get to use your favorite ear buds instead of larger bluetooth headphones. As another benefit, you can also just use one earbud while driving (some states forbid headphones) as a hands free phone. Battery life seems decent. I'm hoping the mic quality is not too horrible.

I have tried Radio Shack adapters, and they work, in stereo. You have to press it in all the way. Of course, you cannot use it as a phone with that type of adapter, no microphone.

There are adapters you can get that have a retractable cable with an inline microphone. With these, you can use normal 2.5 headphones in the same way as with the stereo headphones that come with the Wizard--for both music and phone. When there is a phone connection, the music is muted.

I have one for example, from Seidio.

Originally Posted by IdeaDirect

I'm looking for the same info.
I've read posts that Extensys carries them. I've heard a few complaints about the radio shack ones (poor quality and stick out too much). Perhaps some phone stores carry them as well.

However, I'm getting the GlobalSat BTH-820 Bluetooth Headset. This will allow me to use my E3c earbuds as headphones and a headset. The 820 has a mic. in it and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Seems like you are willing to have a wire to your MDA so you might be okay with a wire to the 820.

You will have to have A2DP flashed rom though to get stereo. True you will have a wire from the 820 to your ear but you get to use your favorite ear buds instead of larger bluetooth headphones. As another benefit, you can also just use one earbud while driving (some states forbid headphones) as a hands free phone. Battery life seems decent. I'm hoping the mic quality is not too horrible.

Thanks for the reply. Someone on another thread mentioned that some adapters sold on Ebay worked, and Seidioonline carries one. I saw the same adapter elsewhere last night for $9 ($4 less), but I have yet to find the URL again.

The Globalstat system looks good, but I don't think I need to get that involved with it. I just need to plug into the MDA.

some 2.5 have 3 pins or 4, etc so if they don't line up, sound won't work out well on both ears
anyways, the treo adapter works if you are wondering

The expansys adapter lead works ok. it's specially wired as the sockets on these devices are wired so as to use the hands free kit, hence only 1 channel on a normal 3.5 to 2.5 adapter.

Originally Posted by JwY

some 2.5 have 3 pins or 4, etc so if they don't line up, sound won't work out well on both ears
anyways, the treo adapter works if you are wondering

Just today I noticed the 2.5's have 4 pins, while the Radio Shack adapter has only three, which is obviously the problem. I suppose they consist of the two audio channels, one mic channel, and ground.

I should point out that the stereo earphones that come with the phone are also quite decent. Certainly not high-end like your Shures, but most people wouldn't notice the difference. And of course they can switch between music and phone use, without having to bother with an adapter. (To use them for the phone though, one has to turn off bt, at least if a bt headset is within range. Same with any wired headset.)

Being the normal earbud type, they (if used as they are) don't fit well in my ears, easily fall out, etc. I found a good soution for that--Griffin Ear Jams. You put these on normal type earbuds, and it transforms them to the in-the-ear earbuds (like the Shures and others), which stay in better, and sound better.

I got this 2.5mm 3.5mm adapter at my local Staples for $10 and it works with my HTC Tornado (Cingular 2125). Only thing is I think it swaps left and right! I think it's maybe the same adapter as the palm one but i do get stereo sound, and I didn't have to pay shipping.

Originally Posted by sti3

I got this 2.5mm 3.5mm adapter at my local Staples for $10....

This link points to a CompUSA set of earbuds with an adapter included, and I couldn't find such an adapter at Staples. However, I did find a number of adapaters on Ebay, including this one that apparently works like the standard headset with a mic: http://tinyurl.com/jllub

There are also some adapters available on Ebay without the mic.