The plug - more permanent solution

[btd@carina.cray.com (Bryan Dongray)]

Hello,

I see some people have problem with the (gaffa) tape solution,
here is a more destructive, and more permanent solution:

Take your headphone plug, if you can open it up, wonderful, if not
read the next paragraph, unsolder the earth/ground connection, it
will be the one with two wires going to it. You can just cut the
wires too. Remember to keep those wires joined though, but don't let
them touch any other wire or connector. So out with the gaffa tape.

Not being able to open the plug, the solution is to cut the wire with
enough room to strip back both ends, ie give yourself at least 6 inches
on both sides. Then strip back both sides of the cut, so you will have
probably 3 or 4 from the plug, and 3 or 4 from the headphones (3 if the
earths are joined, but generally it'll be 4, two earths). OK, now do
this with the wires that have been exposed from the plug and the
headphone ends. You can tell an earth, since it'll be surrounding the
other wire, it is generally braided.

		Left------------------Left
		Earth----X	  ----Earth
				 /
	<--- Plug		|	headphone --->
				 \
		Earth----X	  ----Earth
		Right-----------------Right

ie keep the left going to left and right to the right (although you can 
swap these since it does not matter - it's a mono signal), and then
just have the earths of the headphones joined to complete the circuit.
You can ignore the earth from the plug, but don't let them touch any
other wires, also don't let any other wire touch any other, ie out
with the old gaffa tape again!

			Bryan Dongray

PS Apparently some people call a headphone plug a "jack", so translate
above as necessary.