Ultimate Ears "airplane" adaptor - whats it do?

[suicidal_orange]

I just re-opened my ultimate ears box to get out the 1/8"-1/4" adaptor and noticed there is a short extension with an airplane on it. Anyone know what this is for? It seems to be an impedance adaptor (ups the resistance from 32 to 108 ohms!) but whats the airplane got to do with that?

Increasing impedance has been suggested to improve bass response on some IEM's so I'm tempted to use it tomorrow at work for hours on end - is there any other function of this cable that means I shouldn't?

Thanks for any thoughts

 

[TheMarchingMule]

It's called an airplane adapter because you may not know what the volume level will be when you plug in your earphones in the airplane seat. Couple that with sensitive earphones, and you may have yourself blown eardrums in a millisecond.

Thus, indeed the impedance factor is significantly hiked up with it, for the sake of your hearing.

 

[suicidal_orange]

Thanks for confirming that - guess I'll have to see if it improves anything tomorrow. Seems strange I've never seen the cable mentioned elsewhere, but there are lots of mentions of the Shure one!

 

[Possum]

The adapter also significantly reduces the noise you would otherwise hear with some outputs. For example, without the adapter and with other low sensitivity headphones, I would hear a lot of electrical noise that gets through my computer's SPDIF output, DAC, and headphone amp.

 

[cristox]

Does anyone know the the electrical resistance of this adapters?

Edit:

Sorry for not reading the first post properly...
The electrical resistance is around 75 ohms.

 

[Bonthouse]

If i'm not wrong, 124 ohm, or something close to it.

 

[wellhiddenmark]

I just re-opened my ultimate ears box to get out the 1/8"-1/4" adaptor and noticed there is a short extension with an airplane on it. Anyone know what this is for? It seems to be an impedance adaptor (ups the resistance from 32 to 108 ohms!) but whats the airplane got to do with that?

Increasing impedance has been suggested to improve bass response on some IEM's so I'm tempted to use it tomorrow at work for hours on end - is there any other function of this cable that means I shouldn't?

Thanks for any thoughts

The IEMs have long since gone. Only the tin remained (or so I thought). Rummaging through a drawer I recently came across the long lost and never used UE airplane adaptor.

I can now use all my IEMs with my iFi DSD
Diablo, and they sound great.

Never throw this stuff away people - you just never know when you might need that accessory.