S706 Headphone converter...

[Yoni45]

Something I've been thinking about while this puppy's being shipped, is the minor inconvenience of the headphones only working with this particular player...

I mean these are relatively good headphones, even without the noise cancellation, and it's a bit of a waste for a good pair of headphones to be so limited...

I doubt sony's got a "converter cable" that can be used to adapt the jack to a standard jack, but that said, it can't be very hard to make one...

These players actually come with an extension cable, so you don't even have to risk screwing up the headphones themselves... (of course, you're probably better off with an extra extension cable, the headphone cable itself is pretty short...)

I'm thinking if one was to slice the extension cable at the middle, it should be relatively easy to find the leads required just for playback, and to work them into a standard headphone cable... (how you keep them together and sealed is up to your creative mind... )

[kikimimi]

Actually it is very difficult if you are doing it yourself. Sure it will work, but you will lose alot of sound quality if you do this without a degree in Electrical Engineering.

[firbird]

imo its a matter of time before someone comes up with a converter. nokia caved into public demand and made the AD-15 headphone converter

whilst I highly doubt Sony will produce one themselves, someone will... eventually. maybe one already exists....!! let me know, i'd be first to buy it!

Edited March 26, 2007 by firbird

[Shinji Ikeda]

Something I've been thinking about while this puppy's being shipped, is the minor inconvenience of the headphones only working with this particular player...

I mean these are relatively good headphones, even without the noise cancellation, and it's a bit of a waste for a good pair of headphones to be so limited...

I doubt sony's got a "converter cable" that can be used to adapt the jack to a standard jack, but that said, it can't be very hard to make one...

These players actually come with an extension cable, so you don't even have to risk screwing up the headphones themselves... (of course, you're probably better off with an extra extension cable, the headphone cable itself is pretty short...)

I'm thinking if one was to slice the extension cable at the middle, it should be relatively easy to find the leads required just for playback, and to work them into a standard headphone cable... (how you keep them together and sealed is up to your creative mind... )

The major feature of the headphones that come with the NW-S700 series is the microphones on them. They are designed for the sampling of sounds around the listener. It is the NW-S700 that samples the sound, and cancels the noise.

I doubt that Sony would do supply a converter, since they do have separate noise canceling headphones and regular headphones that are similar without the noise canceling microphones.

Actually it is very difficult if you are doing it yourself. Sure it will work, but you will lose alot of sound quality if you do this without a degree in Electrical Engineering.

I would have to agree with kikimimi on this issue.

[Yoni45]

The major feature of the headphones that come with the NW-S700 series is the microphones on them. They are designed for the sampling of sounds around the listener. It is the NW-S700 that samples the sound, and cancels the noise.

I understand that

The "issue" is with the fact that they cannot be used with anything *other* than the mp3 player, just for the sake of using them as normal non-noise canceling headphones. If you have a perfectly good pair of headphones, it's a bit of a pain to have to go buy another pair of headphones for "other" uses, as well as carry 2 pairs of headphones with you all the time...

I would have to agree with kikimimi on this issue.

I don't really see what the major issue would be... Perhaps there would be *some* sound quality loss, but it can't be all that substantial that it would completely make them unusable... As for the process, it's simply matching up the wires... Insulation would be a bit of an issue between the lines, but i'm sure it's doable... insulating it from the outside can probably be done with some polymorph like substance...

[kikimimi]

Trust me, I tried it before. Most earphone will not even work unless you solder on the wires. Even then, after you solder it, insulate it, because the connection is not clean, it will sound like a dollarstore headphone (The music becomes extreamly unclear). I certainly hope you bought this for the sound quality of it. Even then, you could just always keep an extra dollar store earphones around you.

[firbird]

so there's no hope... i was just kinda hoping someone would creat a lil device like the nokia (ok maybe a lil different i.e. a female Sony NC inout to plug the headphones into and a male 'normal' output to plug into other devices)

*here's hopin!*

[deer224]

interesting that this topic has been brought up.

As for slicing the earphone cables and joining them, I have done that already with my old sony earphones that came with the HD3. the wires inside were cut due to long use, I found the approximate place of the damage and cut that portion off and joined them. Yes, you have to solder the wires coz they are film insulated.

As for the sound quality, those earphones were already screwed up (more than 2 years use) so I cant say really, but there didnt seem to be much change.

Also I have an idea regarding the converter thing. the s700 earphones are different in a way that there are two more contacts in the jack probably to power the NC circuitry in the earbuds. so if you find out whats going through those contacts ( i suspect some dc power), we can use those two wires to supply the same externally. So we not only have these earphones working with a ordinary jack but also get them to cancel noise!!

howz the idea, any takers?? we can easily atempt this if we have a spare extension cable for the earphones.

btw, i am an electrical engineer, but i did not use any engineering

Edited May 28, 2007 by deer224

[kikimimi]

interesting that this topic has been brought up.

As for slicing the earphone cables and joining them, I have done that already with my old sony earphones that came with the HD3. the wires inside were cut due to long use, I found the approximate place of the damage and cut that portion off and joined them. Yes, you have to solder the wires coz they are film insulated.

As for the sound quality, those earphones were already screwed up (more than 2 years use) so I cant say really, but there didnt seem to be much change.

Also I have an idea regarding the converter thing. the s700 earphones are different in a way that there are two more contacts in the jack probably to power the NC circuitry in the earbuds. so if you find out whats going through those contacts ( i suspect some dc power), we can use those two wires to supply the same externally. So we not only have these earphones working with a ordinary jack but also get them to cancel noise!!

howz the idea, any takers?? we can easily atempt this if we have a spare extension cable for the earphones.

btw, i am an electrical engineer, but i did not use any engineering

I was exagerating about the engineering thing. However, if you do get another extention cable, but off the little thing in the way. I think it's just a metal piece mounted on the plastic, not that hard.

[drmoze]

Also I have an idea regarding the converter thing. the s700 earphones are different in a way that there are two more contacts in the jack probably to power the NC circuitry in the earbuds. so if you find out whats going through those contacts ( i suspect some dc power), we can use those two wires to supply the same externally. So we not only have these earphones working with a ordinary jack but also get them to cancel noise!!

howz the idea, any takers?? we can easily atempt this if we have a spare extension cable for the earphones.

btw, i am an electrical engineer, but i did not use any engineering

Clearly not. Are you really a EE? :^O DC power through the contacts??? You should know better.

The NW-S7xx nc phones have 5 contacts. A ground, a lead for L and R ear drivers, and a lead for the L and R mics. No "dc power" at all. The mics pick up ambient sound and send it to the NW-S through the 2 "extra" contacts. The NW-S processes the signal in its nc circuitry, and adds a "counter-signal" (aka "anti-noise" or whatever you want to call it) to the headphone output to provide some nc effect.

The headphone plug has a stub at the base to prevent it from being used in normal headphone jacks. Adapting these earphones for use in normal jacks would be simple. (No active nc, though.) Just connect the 2 driver leads and the ground to a regular headphone plug. Ignore the 2 mic leads. Best done on a spare extension cord, though, so the phones themselves can still do nc.

I have engineering degrees, but none electrical. I'm surprised an actual EE wouldn't know this stuff by the end of freshman year.