Monobuds - clever or stupid?

May 18, 2008 2:43 AM

I mostly listen to audiobooks on my mp3 player using only one earbud. I thought of just snipping off the second earbud to keep it from being in the way. Is there any reason this is a bad idea? I can't imagine there would be enough power flowing through them to make any danger of shock, but would the leftover earbud still work?
posted by happyturtle to Technology (12 answers total)

Best answer: I had one earbud get caught in a sliding window and come off when I was traveling and just used the one that still worked - so yours should still work. There's no danger of shock or anything like that.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 3:09 AM on May 18, 2008

Best answer: Go right ahead. No danger of shock or damage.
posted by rhys at 4:59 AM on May 18, 2008

There is no risk of shock, but some devices expect to see the low impedance of headphones. For example, my iPod (4G) will pause when you unplug the headphones, meaning it looks at the impedance. It would PROBABLY work fine with a single earbud, but because it does check the impedance, you should probably try this with a cheap pair of throw-away headphones first.
posted by JMOZ at 6:53 AM on May 18, 2008

I should mention that there is essentially no chance of damaging the device itself; the worst that might possibly be required would be a reset, and I'd be shocked at that.
posted by JMOZ at 6:54 AM on May 18, 2008

my iPod (4G) will pause when you unplug the headphones, meaning it looks at the impedance.

I would assume that it would pause because there is a switch in the jack, or because the circuit is open. Looking for the specific impedance of headphones would be a weird way to detect something plugged in there (that may be headphones, or may be a line-level input).
posted by mendel at 7:27 AM on May 18, 2008

If your heaphones are stereo (== not wired in series), then it won't stop working when you snip off one side.

It's also not likely that your player is too fragile to break at the change in impedence. If you can take the headphones out at all, then the engineer wasn't that much of an idiot.

The amperage isn't enough to hurt you, either, if you touch the wires. It would be pretty hard to even tell that there's electricity at all, using meat.
posted by cmiller at 7:52 AM on May 18, 2008

I actually only have one ear, so I usually make some elaborate braid with the extra bud or cut it off.

I am dying for someone to make a really good monobud that will put all the audio through one channel and fake mono.
posted by wingless_angel at 7:57 AM on May 18, 2008

wingless_angel: not a perfect solution -- and not as cool as a dedicated monobud --, but you could always buy a stereo to mono jack from radio shack. Then, in theory, whatever's coming out should be converted to mono and thus the same signal should be going to both earpieces. but maybe you've already tried that.
posted by fishfucker at 8:50 AM on May 18, 2008

Yeah, happyturtle i cut the second earbud off my iPod and it worked fine i second what Jmoz was saying, there is no chance that it'll damage your mp3 player in any way.
posted by sumobob at 9:51 AM on May 18, 2008

If your audiobooks make use of both stereo channels (uncommon, but possible) then you'll miss a portion of the audio. Ditto, and more common for music. The stereo-to-mono jack which the unfortunately named fishfucker mentions is one solution. Using such an adapter insures that each earbud is outputting the same audio.
posted by wfrgms at 10:43 AM on May 18, 2008

You could also listen to music using an audio converter to compress the files to mono..

I've had headphones where the wires have broken completely inside the cable, effectively severing the earbud, and it's had no effect on the player. And no, you won't get a shock, but I would avoid shorting out the wires.
posted by tomble at 6:42 PM on May 18, 2008

Response by poster: Cheers, everyone. My new monobud is a raging success. :)
posted by happyturtle at 2:36 AM on May 24, 2008