Using your Own 'Phones on an Airliner...

Sometimes I want to use it for watching movies. I use my QC2 w/ an airline adapter ($5?), and a volume attenuator is a good idea. My QC2 is relatively insensitive to buzzes when set on low volume mode, but it still picks up the occasional one.

Oddly enough I've never had a problem plugging my standard 1/8" jack into the airline's sound systems. I saw those adapters from Sennheiser and I thought, huh? My Sony MDR-V6 headphones have always worked.

On airlines, I've experienced utterly terrible sound quality. I always hear this variable high pitched whine no matter which channel I am on. Even so, I do have to admit it is rather cool listening to the pilots as they generally broadcast their radio conversations to the entire plane.

On international flights, I have been told you have a lot more amenities than the super saver flights across the states that I'm used to flying on. Hopefully you can get direct TV or something nifty.

Have a good trip!

Newer planes have normal 1/8" jacks. I used my E2C's on my trip back from the UK and never had a problem. Still, I've had flights that use the crazy, proprietary jacks that you have to buy an adapter for, so I'd be on the safe side and take an adapter. Though, they usually will offer to sell them to you during the flight.

A lot of the flights within the US still use that proprietary jack with 2 1/8" plugs. I've found it very handy to keep one of those 2-pin adapters lying around for use on such flights. I have also purchased an airline impedance adapter, after I almost blew out a pair of PortaPro's on one flight.

I, too, carry those 2-pin adapters!
But I find that most planes' sound quality is horrible, with audible electrical interference from the plane's many electronic systems.

Oh, and the movies are invariably heavily censored, for the benefit of kids on the flight. So for my upcoming flight to Europe this Nov, I'm going to be watching movies on my D2 the whole flight instead. :P Better sound, better movies.

Agreed. If there is one thing I sincerely wish they would put in in airplanes, it would be a power connection where I could plug in my Archos. Then I'd just watch the movies I have archived on that and be happy.

A recent Air Canada flight I was on had some really nice amenities, even in coach class. A 'laptop' AC power jack at every seat, a USB jack that I assume was for charging a PMP, plus personalized movie playback where you can select from ~5 films in each of 5 or 6 genres and start at any time during the flight, for your personal enjoyment only.

This was a brand new plane though, so probably not the norm. I've definitely never got that sort of service on the United flights I usually end up with...though I do like that all United flights tend to broadcast the tower frequency on CH9.

For long flights you're going to want something you can run from replaceable batteries. On a recent flight to Australia I used my iPod Nano and had it plugged into a mintyBoost 2AA->USB charger - handy and easy kit to build, similar commercial products are around too. With a few extra AAs, I was able to use the Nano for most of the 18 hour flight. Same principle could apply to something a little more power hungry like an Archos if you want video...

The biggest additional amenity on international flights is free alcohol. Other than that I find service tends to be worse than on domestic flights. There are less flight attendants per passenger and they seem less attentive than on smaller domestic planes. And not much can make sitting in the same chair with cramped legroom for 18 hours very comfortable. The destination usually makes it worthwhile though

Enjoy your trip.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I have an APC USB power-pack that, at full charge gives me about 40 hours of additional battery power with music and maybe about 15 for movies. I'm just nit-picking because very often, I forget to charge it beforehand and usually don't have enough charge left to do anything until I get off.

That Air Canada flight sounds ridiculously nice. The majority of planes I've flown in the Lower 48 are definitely older ones that have absolutely nothing. The one nice thing coming soon (in a few months) is that Alaska Air, which is the company I fly with most is actually going to start providing free cabin-wide wi-fi. That's something I'm looking forward to.

Wow... cabin free WiFi? That's amazing...

On my recent Continental flight to Hong Kong (16 hours), the amentities were okay... I had a laptop power socket so I was able to use my laptop for the whole flight. Too bad they didn't have WiFi though...

They used the proprietary 2 1/8'' jacks too... actually on all of my flights, they've all used 2 1/8'' jacks...