Gen3 Headphone Jack

[bbusybookworm]

Well, Here I was, About to test out the Mp3 player on the Gen3, as I haven't had time to do so yet, and I reach in to Plug in my Headphones, and they don't fit!

I hadn't even looked at the headphone jack, figuring that it would be a standard 3.5mm jack.

So the question I have is, is its standard 2.5mm? If I get a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor, will my normal headphones work. I've got a nice pair of Shure E2c's that I would like to use with it.

Also What was Bookeen or Netronix who makes them thinking? Couldn't they have used a standard 3.5mm Jack.

[mjdb]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

Well, Here I was, About to test out the Mp3 player on the Gen3, as I haven't had time to do so yet, and I reach in to Plug in my Headphones, and they don't fit!

I hadn't even looked at the headphone jack, figuring that it would be a standard 3.5mm jack.

So the question I have is, is its standard 2.5mm? If I get a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor, will my normal headphones work. I've got a nice pair of Shure E2c's that I would like to use with it.

Also What was Bookeen or Netronix who makes them thinking? Couldn't they have used a standard 3.5mm Jack.

It is 2.5mm and I believe that it is a standard socket of that size.

You should probably try the adaptor before buying if possible to check that it is narrow enough to clear the lip on the edge of the reader.


At a guess it was due to the thickness of the internal part of the socket, and/or the silly lip at the bottom of the reader that also causes issues with USB cords.


I note that with regard to mp3's, if you haven't updated your firmware, not all sampling rates play correctly.

But the MP3 player is fairly usless anyway, lacking displays of time duration, and IIRC a pause facility.


Martin.

[HarryT]

2.5mm is a standard, albeit not as common a standard as 3.5mm. It's pretty easy to get 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapters.

[Crisby]

My Nokia mobile phone headset is 2.5mm and it works with my CyBook. Its only for 1 ear at a time, but that's fine by me.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

So the question I have is, is its standard 2.5mm? If I get a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor, will my normal headphones work.

I found an adapter at the first try. I have two issues, though:

1.- The adapter is too thick, fortunately it was mainly due to the plastic casing, so I could cut a chip to make it fit.

2.- If I insert it completely, one of the channels (left or right) stops working, so I have to pull the jack just a bit out of the Cybook. This could be due to my cutting the adapter, or to the adapter being lousy...

[DDHarriman]

It's 2.5 mm and one option is just getting normal 2.5 headphones from any main phone who as them standard.

I myself do not use my Cybook to ear audio, but I have tested it with headphones with a 2.5 connection and the sound is quite good.

[pieter]

I use it quite a lot. I bought an adapter cable 3.5-2.5mm and had to remove some of the plastic casing around the plug to make it fit into the cybook.
The sound quality is quite good, though some of the mp3's have a nasty "crack" at the beginning, which they don't have on my computer or my ipod, so I can only assume it's the player on the cybook that makes it "crack" when it starts a new mp3.

All in all, it's really usable and quite good imo.

[Prospect]

instead of buying an adapter use your money on the cheapest mp3 player you can find and it will be much better than the cybook. its a wonderful reader but a crappy player. the 2.5mm plug is the manufacturers way of letting you know this through the specs

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by HarryT

2.5mm is a standard, albeit not as common a standard as 3.5mm. It's pretty easy to get 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapters.

True, but it is still a uncommon standard, outside the mobile phone industry.
Most If not all good quality headphones use the 3.5mm standard, and I've learnt to my misfortune to minimise the number of extra dongles, as I tend to be a bit clumsy.

Originally Posted by Prospect

instead of buying an adapter use your money on the cheapest mp3 player you can find and it will be much better than the cybook. its a wonderful reader but a crappy player. the 2.5mm plug is the manufacturers way of letting you know this through the specs

I do have a nice MP3 player. I was interested in testing out all the different features, and figured it would be nice to be able to use the mp3 player on the Gen3 in a pinch sometimes.

I will be buying the adaptor, even if just to round off my collection of sound adaptors ( I used to have one but, lent it to a friend, and as such haven't seen in since ).

I just haven't had the time to go to the local electronics market (can't nip down to the local maplin's, which was just outside my apartment back in the UK) as I want to a get a decent quality one, and need to pick up a few more cables to properly set up my parents home entertainment system. So will probably go this weekend, or sometime next week.

[rheostaticsfan]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I found an adapter at the first try. I have two issues, though:

1.- The adapter is too thick, fortunately it was mainly due to the plastic casing, so I could cut a chip to make it fit.

2.- If I insert it completely, one of the channels (left or right) stops working, so I have to pull the jack just a bit out of the Cybook. This could be due to my cutting the adapter, or to the adapter being lousy...

I have this problem with 2 sets of 2.5mm headphones (no adapter). I think it's the jack built into the unit. As well as needing to slightly pull back the headphone plug the volume drops when only both earbuds are being driven. Drops to the point of being barely audible in a quiet room (at full volume)

Treos (such as my own) are notorious for this problem as well. (as a result most people advocate using bluetooth on the treo and just not using the jack at all). 2.5mm jacks tend to be pretty crappy.

Fortunately my use for mp3s on my Cybook is very very occasional. Unfortunately that occasional use is likely going to be in a noisy environment where I'll have to settle for mono in order to get any volume at all.

Bookeen got a lot of things right. But there are definitely some things "not right" with the Cybook...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rheostaticsfan

Bookeen got a lot of things right. But there are definitely some things "not right" with the Cybook...

You can blame Netronix for that one - they did the hardware design. The CyBook is standard Netronix hardware; Bookeen just did the application software for it.