Qantas a380 Headphone Jack

[vitriolic]

Does anyone know if I'll be able to use my headphones (standard 3.5 mm single pronged jack) in a QF a380? Or will I have to get a double pronged adapter?

 

[ozscot]

You'll need the adaptor unfortunately.

 

[richie9x]

Yes it should work without an adapter. It seems the seats in the A380 have some special magic to allow it.

See this older thread
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-need-headphone-adaptor-32527.html#post499835

 

[milehighclub]

It may appear to work without an adaptor but could short circuit your headset as it is designed for two prongs not one, so use an adaptor.

 

[ButFli]

It may appear to work without an adaptor but could short circuit your headset as it is designed for two prongs not one, so use an adaptor.

That doesn't even make sense. On a two-prong socket, each hole is the equivalent of a mono jack. Plugging stereo headphones into a mono jack will not cause any damage. It won't be the most pleasurable listening experience (you'll miss out on half the sounds and possibly only be listening with one ear), but it will work.

There is the possibility that the jacks on an A380 are working magic with some kind of hybrid jack, but I'll let someone else answer that question.

 

[serfty]

That doesn't even make sense. On a two-prong socket, each hole is the equivalent of a mono jack. Plugging stereo headphones into a mono jack will not cause any damage. It won't be the most pleasurable listening experience (you'll miss out on half the sounds and possibly only be listening with one ear), but it will work.

There is the possibility that the jacks on an A380 are working magic with some kind of hybrid jack, but I'll let someone else answer that question.

Going by this post:

While the headphones distributed freely on board use a two-pronged connection (presumably so that people don't try and take them off the aircraft), the actual pins on the headphones are of the standard 3.5mm headphone size - and thanks to some innovation from either Qantas or Airbus, plugging in a standard pair of headphones (obviously into one plug only) still produces stereo sound without the need of an adaptor ...

... then each 'hole' would need to be a stero socket, but this would not work unless the two prong headsets had 'short' pins/plugs:

 

[NM]

Going by this post:... then each 'hole' would need to be a stero socket, but this would not work unless the two prong headsets had 'short' pins/plugs:

Actually this is very easy to construct. Each socket would be installed as a "stereo" socket, or what we call a TRS socket (Tip/Ring/Sleeve). Socket 1 is would be wired such that Tip=Left, Ring=Right and Sleeve=Ground. Socket 2 would be wired such that Tip=Right, Ring=Left and Sleeve=Ground.

Then you can insert a stereo 3.5mm headphone plug into either socket and hear a stereo program - just that left and right channels will be swapped depending on which socket is used.

The Qantas supplied dual-prong headphones have 2 x mono 3.5mm plugs, also known as TS (Tip/Sleeve). When inserting a mono plug into a stereo socket, the Ring and Sleeve are "shorted" or joined together. So you get Left channel from the tip of one plug "prong" and Right channel from the tip of the second plug "prong". So long as the output impedance of the driving amplifier is reasonably high (as it would be for such a design), there is no problem with shorting the Ring and Sleeve and it will not cause any damage to the amplifier output driver.

Now I have no inside knowledge of how the QF sockets are wired or how the amplifier driver is designed. But I do know enough about audio design (formal qualifications and practical experience) to know that anyone with any audio design experience will do it just as I have described above.

 

[serfty]

Well, having tried each individual socket of 80K on OQJ earlier on the week with a standard Stereo plug, no contact within the socket seemed to be made with the 'ring' of the plug in either case.

As a result only the left ear piece was activated in either socket (via 'tip' I presume) - whether this was the 'left' or 'right' of the soundtrack in each case was not determinable.

 

[NM]

Well, having tried each individual socket of 80K on OQJ earlier on the week with a standard Stereo plug, no contact within the socket seemed to be made with the 'ring' of the plug in either case.

As a result only the left ear piece was activated in either socket (via 'tip' I presume) - whether this was the 'left' or 'right' of the soundtrack in each case was not determinable.

Then that is poor deign in my view. They could easily make it work as described above. Perhaps a consultancy opportunity calls??

 

[userlame]

On the a330s with the 'new' IFE, I have been able to plug my headphones into either jack and get stereo sound. On an older 737/767 I only get one ear's worth of audio. Not sure if this helps.