2.5mm jack from Radio Shack...
 

ok, so after reading reply after reply about how the 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapters will cause static or bad sound overall, i decided to do something different...

i was not about to chop up a set of good $45 Sony earbuds, so I went and got a set of $18 Koss KEB/24g earbuds to cut up.

while at radio shack i came across part # 274-298 , it is a right angle 2.5mm stereo jack which requires soldering. this is not an issue for me, as i am decent with a solder iron. however, i do not know which solder points are for the earbud speakers.

obviously i know which one the ground is, but there are 2 other wires, blue and red, and 2 solder locations. so my questions are as follows...

1. do the obvious and solder one to each point?

2. twist the blue and red together and solder to one point, if so, which one (center or middle)? outside is for ground.


here is a crappy cell phone pic (sorry its only 1.3 meg)...


http://www.donkeypunchperformance.co...ge/adapter.jpg

Re: 2.5mm jack from Radio Shack...
 

Hi! Ground goes to ground, Red goes to 1 and Blue goes to 2. In case you've got 2 grounds, solder them together to the ground pin. So it's like this:

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/9653/layoutou5.jpg

Hope this helps.

perfect.


thanks for the info!!!!!

oh, and for anyone else thinking of doing this..

the part was only $2.79 in store and took me a whole 5 mins to do this

Nice jack socket,

I have an adapter which came from a seller in the States which only cost £2.00 including postage to the UK and it works perfectly with no sound loss.

When I saw this adapter for the price it seemed to me logical to not bother hunting for a stand alone plug, because of the time and effort to track one down.

Oh how I wish Tandys which was Radio Shack here, was still tradeing in the UK, as it was a very handy store to pop in and get one off components

In fact we had a lot of small electronic spare parts stores a one time.

Nice diagram Alex

Re: 2.5mm jack from Radio Shack...
 

Thank you :D.

I usually take a different approach on this:

The earbuds on my Nano clone crapped out after about a month of use at full volume, but it was the drivers which broke, not the jack or cable, so i bought a cheap stereo handsfree (a SPV C500 one, cost me $8 ), popped open the earpieces (rubber caps yay, really easy to remove), desoldered the original cable, put in and soldered the cable from my crapped out Chipod earbuds, plugged them in and tada! ;)

I was literally blown away by the quality of the sound. After setting the EQ to Jazz, i actually noticed that this thing actually has bass! Overall, i'm very impressed. :D

So don't spend a lot of money on fancy brand-name earbuds, as your average mobile handsfree kit is about as good. Older Nokia handsfree kits are best, the ones which have a 2.5mm jack, not the ones which connect the same way a data cable does. Once i can get my hands on one i'll post a tutorial on hacking those open to solder a different cable without breaking the drivers inside. 8)

personally, i prefer the earBUDS instead of the earphones. i have yet to find a set of earphones that feel comfortable in my ear. however with the earbuds, the soft silicone pads conform to the inner ear and do not cause discomfort.

plus, feel that making 3 solder points instead of having to unsolder and resolder speakers would be much easier, but thats just me

I can't find 2.5mm adapters around here, plus i have really nasty memories of trying to solder on jacks. :P

This is where I got mine from and I could not find fault with it!!!!!!!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5-to-3-5-mm-...QQcmdZViewItem

mekako,

i know there are adapters to be found on ebay for cheap, however, i have read a number of reviews that state quality issues (buzzing, hissing, and cracking).

the other reason i chose not to go with an adapter is the fact that i do not want to have a "bulky" adapter housing. im a fan of a clean install and any adapter would not provide me with that.

however it is an option for many to buy that adapter and an easy fix