Re: Dreaming without a Plug

[chrisw@miso.wwa.com (Chris Williams)]

>Yesterday I spent an hour or so converting an old, structurally challenged
>pair of headphones into DreamingPhones(tm) according to the instructions
>previously posted here, with moderate success.  I was listening to TRS,
>switching back and forth between the DreamingPhones and regular headphones,
>when I discovered that all you need to do to achieve the Dreaming Plug(tm)
>effeKT is DON'T PLUG YOUR HEADPHONES IN QUITE ALL THE WAY!
>
>Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on your particular headphones
>and jack, but I found that if I plugged mine in all the way, then pulled
>it back out just a smidge, the ground contact was broken, giving the same
>effect as the Dreaming Plug.  If you pull it out too far, you may get no
>sound at all or just the right (or left, I'm not sure which) channel in
>both sides.  When you find the correct position, the bass will drop out
>completely and the main vocals may be very faint and echoey (I like to
>imagine standing outside a large, empty concert hall inside which Kate
>is singing through the PA -- Ooooh, there's a thought!).  Voila!

   Something was broken, but assuming that your phones were wired
in the standard way, it wasn't the ground.

   The usual wiring is:
      Plug           Jack
    _______  _  _   ______ 
    _______||_||_>  ______ _ _ 
     Shield  R  L   Shield  \ \
                            R L

   Unless you have a very different configuration, it's likely that the
following happened:

   Shield remained connected.
   Right was shorted to shield.
   Left was partially connected.