Is there any way to use the Apple EarPods with 3.5 mm headphone plug (EarPods with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug - Apple) with the Model Samples? I have tried a couple of different 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapters that I already have but nothing seems to work reliably (sometimes very low sound and sometimes no sound at all). Is there a special adapter on the market that will make this work?
I’m in the same boat…
In general you need a cable that splits the headphone and microphone signal. Something like this:
But you still need a 6,3 > 3,5 adapter and that’s a rather wobbly solution. It works, but it’s not optimal.
I found out, that one of my 2x male 6,3 to female 3,5 is working as well. This one:
It’s 1,8meters plus the headphone cable, but it’s a more solid solution
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That’s because apple want to sell you more of their stuff exclusively - they have a habit of borking standards to make them their own - one of teh mics i have on a powermac from back in teh day is the weirdest 3.5mm multipole config i’ve ever seen - then there was their indented usb extenders that were only working with their peripherals
so your issue comes from apple putting the earth connection in a dumb place - they put in on a ring, so your barrel is no longer connected to the shielding, that’s where the mic is, most would start with using teh extra ring pole to be the mic and that’s probably the issue
i can use my trrs headphones (non apple) with a common or garden 3.5mm trs to 6.35mm adaptor - no earth pickup issues
you might have joy with a different adaptor if the ground is situated favourably - but you’ll probably find that you can get an apple/other converter i.e. TRrS to TRRs where lower case is ground - but in all honesty - if you’re looking for adaptors and whatnot and the price delivered is rising just get comparable headphones at half the price - never tried the most recent apple designs but a xiaomi piston pair i got for 1/3 of that price are the best sounding/fitting in-ears i have used, total bargain - and these work fine with a basic 3.5mm TRS to 6.35mm TRS, so the mic is dropped or grounded just fine
maybe apple have some fancy stuff going on and you’ll need a way to isolate the mic - there are converters between a few configs, probably one that goes apple to 6.35 TRS if you look - that would be neatest/cheapest - but buying into fit that eco-system
i thought there was some convergence towards the apple format, my phones work in a number of devices - the ‘og/outdated’ omtp format of a ‘standard’ position for ground may well be old news, however, i cannot categorically find the manufacturer specs on mine, but i believe it is CTIA and supposedly aligned (and compatible) with the apple layout - so fwiw there may be a cheap solution with a basic trs converter
so some crossed-wires in my reply (no pun intended) but this may boil down to small margins as to where the ground is connecting to the apple TRRS
iirc in a similar situation and just for a shortterm solution i have placed a tiny o-ring on a jack plug to keep the jack fractionally out of the socket and that kept a stable connection
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Thanks for the replies. I’ll give some of these ideas a try but now I am thinking it might just be easier to pick up some standard in-ear headphones from another manufacturer.
Probably best, but no certainty it will be hassle free unless you get simple TRS (non microphone) as your 6.35mm converters might be marginal … Perhaps there’s reasons to stick with in-ears (not so good for your long term hearing if you use them loud) but you’d mostly get 'phones coming with a converter guaranteed to work if you pick up an on/over-ear variety
For future searchers, the text here covers the reasons why whilst apple use the same CTIA pinout on the 3.5mm TRRS as the now majority of manufacturers (they’ve mostly all moved away from the ‘shield’ being ground as per omtp) but apple use a non-conventional signalling method with their control buttons - i.e. extending functionality or ensuring repeat business when these fail/vanish as they’re proprietary non-standard … aka think di$$erent.