Mailing List Archive: OT: Red jack and white jack on a pair of headphones

OT: Red jack and white jack on a pair of headphones

Oct 18, 2020, 10:35 AM

Post #1 of 4 (408 views)

Hello, Gentoo.

I've recently found a pair of headphones with a microphone. I've no idea
where it came from, but I'd like to try it out. I've got no manual for
it. I'm not even sure it's functional.

It has a red (stereo) 3.5mm jack plug and a white (stereo) 3.5mm jack
plug. I'm assuming that one of these is for the headphones and the other
for the microphone, and that they plug into the pale green and pink jack
sockets on my PC.

But which is which? I don't want to destoy anything by connecting them
the wrong way around.

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: OT: Red jack and white jack on a pair of headphones [ In reply to ]

poisonbl at gmail

Oct 18, 2020, 10:44 AM

Post #2 of 4 (408 views)

Permalink

On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 1:35 PM Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
>
> Hello, Gentoo.
>
> I've recently found a pair of headphones with a microphone. I've no idea
> where it came from, but I'd like to try it out. I've got no manual for
> it. I'm not even sure it's functional.
>
> It has a red (stereo) 3.5mm jack plug and a white (stereo) 3.5mm jack
> plug. I'm assuming that one of these is for the headphones and the other
> for the microphone, and that they plug into the pale green and pink jack
> sockets on my PC.
>
> But which is which? I don't want to destoy anything by connecting them
> the wrong way around.
>
> Help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
>

It shouldn't damage anything to get it backwards. It's *very* likely
that one of those is mono, not stereo, on the plug, which is the quick
way to find the microphone at a glance, though (unless they were just
too cheap to manage 2 styles of plug in manufacturing)

--
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

Re: OT: Red jack and white jack on a pair of headphones [ In reply to ]

acm at muc

Oct 21, 2020, 8:43 AM

Post #3 of 4 (408 views)

Permalink

Hello, Joshua.

On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 13:44:40 -0400, Poison BL. wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 1:35 PM Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

> > Hello, Gentoo.

> > I've recently found a pair of headphones with a microphone. I've no idea
> > where it came from, but I'd like to try it out. I've got no manual for
> > it. I'm not even sure it's functional.

> > It has a red (stereo) 3.5mm jack plug and a white (stereo) 3.5mm jack
> > plug. I'm assuming that one of these is for the headphones and the other
> > for the microphone, and that they plug into the pale green and pink jack
> > sockets on my PC.

> > But which is which? I don't want to destoy anything by connecting them
> > the wrong way around.

> > Help would be appreciated.

> > Thanks!

> > --
> > Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

> It shouldn't damage anything to get it backwards. It's *very* likely
> that one of those is mono, not stereo, on the plug, which is the quick
> way to find the microphone at a glance, though (unless they were just
> too cheap to manage 2 styles of plug in manufacturing)

Thanks for the tip! It turns out the white plug is for the earphones,
and the red one for the microphone. And yes, they were too cheap to use
two styles of plugs.

The tone quality is not all that high. Still, better to try it out
before throwing it away.

> --
> Poison [BLX]
> Joshua M. Murphy

--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: OT: Red jack and white jack on a pair of headphones [ In reply to ]

antlists at youngman

Oct 21, 2020, 9:23 AM

Post #4 of 4 (408 views)

Permalink

On 21/10/2020 16:43, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Thanks for the tip! It turns out the white plug is for the earphones,
> and the red one for the microphone. And yes, they were too cheap to use
> two styles of plugs.

Actually, it's so that they can use multi-purpose sockets. I can't
remember quite what they call it, but if you have a 5-speaker or
7-speaker sound card, you plug your extra speakers into the mic socket
and so on.

Cheers,
Wol