Headphone conversion

January 15, 2011 2:43 PM

I need to know how to adapt a media headset(koss sb49) to use with a cordless landline phone.I have adapted 2-3.5 male ends down to 1-3.5 male end and the single 3.5 to a male 2.5.When i plug it in to the handset I have plenty of volumn but also a good bit of feedback.Do I need different plug or an amp or what?I am hard of hearing and need the full over the ear headphones to block out as much background noise as I can.
posted by bswartzel to Technology (3 answers total)

Point the microphone away from your head/headset - If the feedback goes away, the feedback is being caused by the sidetone from the handset leaking out of the headset muffs.
You need to either reduce the leakage by the headphone muffs by readjusting them to fit tighter on your head, or reduce the sensitivity of the microphone by putting something in front of it - maybe a second windscreen, or a piece of tape for experimentation purposes.
posted by Orb2069 at 3:52 PM on January 15, 2011

Best answer: More than likely there is a problem with the reduction from 2-3.5 to 1-3.5. The headset has two stereo(i.e 3 conductor) 3.5 male plugs, one for the speakers and another for the mike.

Here's how each of the 3 conductor plugs are used:

...............Speakers................Mic....................Phone
Tip.............L-Audio...............Audio....................Mic
Ring...........R-Audio...............Power..................Audio
Sleeve.......Ground...............Ground.................Ground

So if your 2:1 adapter just hooks up the Mic & Speakers in your headset in parallel, then the Mic will be connected to the L-Audio in the headset. If you then switch the headset to mono(if that's possible) then the audio from the R-Audio will be connected internally in the headset to the L-Audio which is connected to the mic-audio which will give you feedback.

So you need a 2:1 adapter that doesn't connect the tip of the speaker plug to the tip of the Mic plug.

This looks like the product you need.
posted by Long Way To Go at 4:14 PM on January 15, 2011

Response by poster: This sounds like you may be right on the mark.It sure makes a lot of sense.
Thanks a lot i'll give it atry
posted by bswartzel at 3:31 AM on January 16, 2011