Every time I go on a plane it is about a 50/50 chance between headphones with 1 jack or 2.
Why do some have 2 jacks? What is the function of it?
In: 21
I believe it converts two mono lines into a stereo output.
If you look at the end of a jack, you’ll see an oddly shaped tip, sometimes a few rings, and then the shaft. Mono lines (where the audio doesn’t differentiate between left and right) have just a tip, and a shaft. One sends the audio, and one is the neutral return to complete the circuit. Airplanes have two of these mono tip shaft setups. (Sometimes)
A stereo jack has tip, ring, and shaft, the ring allowing for another channel of audio
Airplane adaptors combine two mono tip shaft outputs, into one tip, ring, shaft stereo, which is what most headphones nowadays are.
Modern day phones, have tip, ring ring, shaft.
This means they can send left and right ear audio separately, and power a microphone.
This is why your headphone mic works on phones but not pcs, because pcs generally have a separate mic input.
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