[Bhasi]

Sorry if this has been addressed before but:

My 'better half' has hearing in only one ear as a result of having an acoustic neuroma (a benign tumour) a few years back. She's recently acquired a Sony mp3 player as a freebie and is happy listening to it with just one ear-bud in. Of course, as a recovering audio-obsessive, I'm concerned she's only getting half the picture. Does anyone have any (ideally, solder-free!) ideas about how to sum a stereo mini-jack output so that there's mono in both earphones and she can get the full picture when wearing just one?

 

[MusicallySilent]

Make a short adapter

3.5mm plug and a 3.5mm jack from some store, on the plug bend the left and right pins together and use a drop of solder to hold them there, then solder both left and right wires to the joined left and right pins, solder the jack normally

Look in the DIY section how to make a cable and basically make a 6" extension cable but bend the left and right pins together

That is my guess and $0.02

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicallySilent /img/forum/go_quote.gif Make a short adapter 3.5mm plug and a 3.5mm jack from some store, on the plug bend the left and right pins together and use a drop of solder to hold them there, then solder both left and right wires to the joined left and right pins, solder the jack normally Look in the DIY section how to make a cable and basically make a 6" extension cable but bend the left and right pins together That is my guess and $0.02

That's not exactly solder free .......
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bhasi (ideally, solder-free!)

You can easily create mono files utilizing free software on your computer and transfer them to the DAP.
Foobar2000 for instance (diskwriter for older versions/converter for newer versions in combination with the "downmix channels to mono" DSP) would do the trick.

 

[Bhasi]

Thanks for both of these suggestions.

I'm in the middle of a career change that sees me suturing wounds once in a while, so I SHOULD be able to conquer my fear of soldering, I guess, but I'll more likely try to talk a technician colleague into doing it for me for a few beers!

Doing it digitally appeals a lot, too. Will definitely look into this as well.

(Great place, Head-fi!)

 

[eruditass]

digitally works, as well as stereo to mono plug adapters. you can find them at radioshack

 

[ericj]

You can get stereo-to-mono adapters at any bookstore that sells audiobooks.

Some audiobooks are recorded in stereo, and since it's just a bunch of people sitting around a table, it drives some people completely batty to listen to them in stereo. So much so that stereo-to-mono adapters are often labeled "audiobook adapters".

 

[eruditass]

hm, i picked up one from radioshack and was pretty excited to use it in class with one earbud but looking at the plug, it just looked like it copied one channel to both, instead of mono-izing it.

i verified it.. left channel becomes both channels. this sucks, i lose the whole right channel! also interestingly enough when i turn the volume above 75% on my clip it gets all distorted / muted. doesn't happen when i take out the adapter.. does this mean the connections in it suck and cant handle that much current/voltage?

lastly and most importantly.. do the bookstore audiobook adapters actually combine both channels or copy one channel to the other?

 

[appophylite]

3 years ago I picked up a pair of street-styles at Radio Shack that had an inline controller that switched the audio from stereo to True Mono. I'm reasonable sure that my Radio Shack doesn't carry them anymore but they may still be around in your local store or online.

As others have recommended before, making the conversion digitally or using a stereo-mono adapter are the only other way's to go sans-solder.

 

[eruditass]

well i dont know of many players that have this option anymore. What can i use to put together a mono plug adapter? I know RS has mini plugs, and probably mini jacks, do i just solder the L and R channels together ?

 

[AudioNoob]

exactement

 

[koike]

bhasi, i believe many here can make you one for a small price.
Quite a number of DIYers in the UK. You can try the DIY forum.
If things dont work out i can make one for you, but i reside in Singapore. I wonder if i can put it inside a normal letter.

 

[joeshambro]

sensaphonics makes a special earphone just for this type of situation. they recently introduced the prophonic 221, designed to sum both sides of a stereo signal into one ear with full fidelity.

Sensaphonics / Products / 221 Stereo Earphone

i'm not sure what it costs, but it's supposedly fantastic for this purpose.

 

[espire]

An advantage of re-encoding your music for mono is that you get the same perceived quality at half the file size.

 

[eruditass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by espire /img/forum/go_quote.gif An advantage of re-encoding your music for mono is that you get the same perceived quality at half the file size.

yeah, in one ear, or with absolutely no soundstage.

i'm not going to be listening with one ear all the time!

edit: although technically for MP3's, it's not entirely encoded in stereo, but joint stereo, where it doesn't duplicate shared information.

 

[eruditass]

could I just take a headphone extension and connect the two sections on the plug electrically? instead of chopping it up or creating my own.