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I have been wondering for some time now : I am using (cheap) headphones to listen to music on my smartphone, and they work fine. But when I plug them in any computer, it seems like it cuts off low frequencies. So far I wasn't that much puzzled, until I pressed the play/pause button on the headphone's cable : I get the original audio coming through fully, as long as I keep it pressed...

How is it possible, and how come different female jack connectors can make headphones work differently ?

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2 Answers

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It seems that your headphones were made to work with your type of phone. Therefore, they sound right and the play/pause button works correctly.

The play/pause button or any other controls will not work on a computer because the computer is not looking for any signal on the output jack of it's sound card.

If you are looking for (cheap) headphones to use for your computer I recommend one of the low end Sony headphones. You can pick them up for around $10 and they sound pretty good. They should also work with your smart phone, but they do not have the play/pause button.

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You're most probably right. It didn't occur to me because they were lended to me by a friend (not given with my phone), so I first thought they were just like any earphones. I didn't know there were different kinds of earphones... – krookedking Apr 14 '11 at 15:53
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It's likely that the changes in resistance that the controls on your headphones send are doing messing with the signal sent from your laptop, especially if your laptop's jack is fine with regular headphones.

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Then how come my headphones work perfectly fine on my telephone ? (pressing the play/pause button even does what it is ment to do) Can the problem come from the association of these headphones and this comuter specifically ? – krookedking Apr 14 '11 at 14:39
Yes, that is what I meant. Have you tried those headphones with other laptops? – Zeronyne Apr 14 '11 at 14:42
I feel stupid, I forgot I already tried it with other laptops and it didn't work either... should've mentionned it. The question now is how come they still manage to work on my phone... – krookedking Apr 14 '11 at 14:46

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