Concerning The Clip Sport, and Apple-Compliant Earbuds

[Mahavishnu_Weiding]

I mentioned this in first Clip Sport thread which I started but I think that this deserves its own thread.

I am using a set of TDK eb950 earbuds. I am very impressed with them! I'm a musician, and the tracks I record sound nearly as good on them as they do on either my Ultrasone HFI700's or the Grado SR-80i's. And that's pretty good.

But there is a problem! In order to comply with Apple's standards, the headphone output plug of the eb950's is a TRRS configuration: tip, ring 1, ring 2, and sleeve. The typical configuration is TRS - tip, ring, and sleeve. The extra ring on the Apple-compliant earbuds is to enable the in-line remote-control functional on the earbud cord.

Now all this is very nice, of course, except that the TRRS plug will not function in a TRS input. So TKD kindly includes in the package a TRRS-to-TRS adapter, enabling the earbuds to work properly.

But there is a problem! This adapter is about 2 1/2 inches long, and acts as a lever, multiplying any force applied to it - thereby greatly increasing the strain it puts on the mp3's players input jack. I am sure that that's why my three mp3 players are not listenable now.

However, the new Clip Sport will work properly with Apple-compliant earbuds, although the inline remote will not function and the adapter is not required. Earbuds will work without the adapter too (although the in-line remote will again not be functional.) That, to me, is pretty clever.

But I must add that I have already heard a bit of "garbling" which I attribute to the input jack - both with and without the adapter. This requires investigation. I believe that this is from a short when the one of the rings, or the tip, or the sleeve, makes a very slight contact with a part of the input jack with which it is not supposed to come into contact.