ok i just got in my adapter to use on my tilt and when i plug it in with some headphone, i get nothing.. still sound comes out the speaker of the phone and not through the headphones.. do i need to be doing something to route it over or does it automatically spose to..
Which adapter did you get? It should route all sound straight to earphones just like any earphone plugin would.
kaalgoosy said:
Which adapter did you get? It should route all sound straight to earphones just like any earphone plugin would.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its a regular adapter that i got off ebay, and i just dont get it, its not routing to the headphones
i think you might have acquired a converter that works for MOTOROLA devices...i made the same mistake initially so i guess it must be a common misconception
if you look at the mini usb part of the adapter, you will notice it is shaped like a trapezoid...point it into your eyes so you can see the little contact pins inside.
with the wide side of the trapezoid along the top and the narrow side of the trapezoid along the bottom, the "correct" adapter would have pins along the narrow side while the motorola style adapter would have pins along the wide side of the trapezoid.
PS: i'm sorry the reader may have to use a dictionary and recall their geometry lessons to interpret my post but i didn't feel like making a diagram or searching for a picture...
ASCIIker said:
i think you might have acquired a converter that works for MOTOROLA devices...i made the same mistake initially so i guess it must be a common misconception
if you look at the mini usb part of the adapter, you will notice it is shaped like a trapezoid...point it into your eyes so you can see the little contact pins inside.
with the wide side of the trapezoid along the top and the narrow side of the trapezoid along the bottom, the "correct" adapter would have pins along the narrow side while the motorola style adapter would have pins along the wide side of the trapezoid.
PS: i'm sorry the reader may have to use a dictionary and recall their geometry lessons to interpret my post but i didn't feel like making a diagram or searching for a picture...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya i member it saying for motorola device but i thought since they all mini usbs it would work.. now im out like $4-$5 LOL. o well i ordered a seido one that lists the att tilt as being compatibility for $15 shipped
ezsoulja said:
ya i member it saying for motorola device but i thought since they all mini usbs it would work.. now im out like $4-$5 LOL. o well i ordered a seido one that lists the att tilt as being compatibility for $15 shipped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're planning on keeping the seido adapter, just be sure to Baby your usb prong brother. I was using the seido adapter for around a year and a half with mixed results as most of the time I'd have to fiddle with it to stay connected which was the Good part. Recently upon pulling out the adapter it decided to take my usb prong with it since it's so damn tight which essentially circumcised and killed my kaiser which was a very Happy ****ing day for me. You might be better off getting a set of stereo bluetooth earphones as it'd be a lot safer...
Why in the world would Samsung put the 3.5mm jack and the micro usb port on the top of the phone? This is one thing I kind of hate about the phone. I mean, HTC and Apple have it right by putting them on the bottom. When you're listening to music you can easily slip the phone in and out of your pocket naturally if the 3.5mm jack is on the bottom. With the SGS you have to put it in the other way or whatever. With the micro usb on the top you can't even put the phone in a normal stand...unless they allow the screens to be turned 180 degrees which would end up being pretty silly.
/rant
Cos its a samsung, if you want, get an iped. Im happy with 3.5 on top cos i can put in pocket.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Erm...
Apple have it at the top too
Rawat said:
Erm...
Apple have it at the top too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? For what device? I know some were at the bottom. No?
In any case the bottom is logically the best place. You're holding the phone in your hand and naturally you just want to stick it in. With a jack on the bottom you could but with it on the top you'd probably damage the connector or tear out the wire. Plus, I don't think anyone would even stick it in their pocket that way. To me having all the ports on the bottom is logically the best thing. However, I'm sure Samsung has reasons for their choice and the antenna is probably one of them (and the most important).
it makes perfect sense for the 3.5 to be on the top
but why the USB is also on the top it is beyond me
having the 3.5 on the top will prevent the jack from being damage, and it's more natural for people that likes to use wired headphones vs. bluetooth stereo for audio
when i was using the old phones for audio i always had to put the phone upside down to get the same results, so having the audio jack on the top, now the phone is naturally fine.
I think he's complaining more about the usb port. I'm fine ruth the headphone jack being on top but it's just samsung to throw everything on top.
The 1st gen itouch had the jack on the bottom and I absolutely hated it. However the iphone have it on the top. Maybe apple figured people preffered it on top
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I don't think it really matters where it goes honestly..
I really don't like those earbuds that are shipped with the defy, they just don't fit my ears, but what I didn't want to loose was the headset functionality with the small mic. Thats why I decided to replace the earbuds with a standard 3.5 mm connector.
What you need is:
3.5 mm female connector (about 2 to 5 euros)
soldering gun
heat shrink tube
Mark your cables to the earbuds with "Left" and "Right" and then cut off the earbuds. Remove some of the isolation (about 1 cm) and you will see 2 wires each. Two copper ones (Ground), a green one (Left) and a red one (right).Those wires are slightly isolated. Remove the isolation by holding the wire between your finger and a blade (attention: blades are sharp, so don't cut yourself) and go over the wire. Put the heat shrink tube and the back part of the 3.5 mm connector over the wires.
Now the soldering can start. Your connector has three holes where you have to solder. One for ground where you have to solder the two ground wires to and two for left and right. You will have to play around with it and test with some headphones to get left/right and ground correct.
Solder them on and try not to make it to messy or sound quality will sink heavily. Now put the heat shrink tubes over it and make them shrink with some fire.
And viola, its done. Its a bit of fiddling with the wires, but it works quite well.
I will also get some clamp and put that on the mic so I can clip that part somewhere close to where its needed.
Feel free to contact me on any questions.
Great job my friend!!
because I have a bluetooth headset if not... would have done this.. insurance will be helpful.
Thanks again.
PD: that idea so original
Thx, this is a great hack that reminds me of a headphone mod I once did for my Nokia N95: kikuyumoja.com/2008/09/22/the-perfect-n95-headset/
(whereas the Nokia headphones were even worse that the ones that came shipped with the DEFY, imo)
(my first post here, so I had to disable the link to pass through link check - sorry!)
These are suppose to work with most smartphones
zagg.com/audio/smart-buds.php
Found this for less (equal or just a bit more) money then the jack + less effort.
Sorry guys, this ain't a new trick.
Check this out!
joergherzinger said:
I really don't like those earbuds that are shipped with the defy, they just don't fit my ears, but what I didn't want to loose was the headset functionality with the small mic. Thats why I decided to replace the earbuds with a standard 3.5 mm connector.
What you need is:
3.5 mm female connector (about 2 to 5 euros)
soldering gun
heat shrink tube
Mark your cables to the earbuds with "Left" and "Right" and then cut off the earbuds. Remove some of the isolation (about 1 cm) and you will see 2 wires each. Two copper ones (Ground), a green one (Left) and a red one (right).Those wires are slightly isolated. Remove the isolation by holding the wire between your finger and a blade (attention: blades are sharp, so don't cut yourself) and go over the wire. Put the heat shrink tube and the back part of the 3.5 mm connector over the wires.
Now the soldering can start. Your connector has three holes where you have to solder. One for ground where you have to solder the two ground wires to and two for left and right. You will have to play around with it and test with some headphones to get left/right and ground correct.
Solder them on and try not to make it to messy or sound quality will sink heavily. Now put the heat shrink tubes over it and make them shrink with some fire.
And viola, its done. Its a bit of fiddling with the wires, but it works quite well.
I will also get some clamp and put that on the mic so I can clip that part somewhere close to where its needed.
Feel free to contact me on any questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did something similar... I had EP-630 Creative earbuds broken near the jack(I already repaired it thrice!!) So I removed the earbuds from the point where the wire splits into two, opened the headset near mic and fixed the earbuds to the microphone. With right amount of fine workmanship you can make it pretty good without any evidence that you actually modified it! Will share the pic shortly!
PS: Creative in ear earbuds(EP-630) has real good sound quality!
Nice trick
For those looking for replacement headphone i recommend the Soundmagic E10. They cost 30$ on Amazon. Really nice sound. I red a review in a magazine then some others and bought them. Far better than stock. Far better than anticipated for the price
pranks1989 said:
I did something similar... I had EP-630 Creative earbuds broken near the jack(I already repaired it thrice!!) So I removed the earbuds from the point where the wire splits into two, opened the headset near mic and fixed the earbuds to the microphone. With right amount of fine workmanship you can make it pretty good without any evidence that you actually modified it! Will share the pic shortly!
PS: Creative in ear earbuds(EP-630) has real good sound quality!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I am planning to do as well. I have a worn out creative ep635 broken near the jack too
For someone coming from an iPhone to the Note 2, one of the most distressing things is the lack of earphones with functioning volume buttons. I say this because everyone with an iPhone is used to having a big selection of working headsets that have these controls. Because of the wide variety of android phones and their conficting standards, manufacturers have evidently decided it not worthwhile trying to make android compatible earphones with volume controls since they have assumed they'd have to be device specific, and instead opted for a few single button ones. I found this amazing, incomprehensible and unacceptable. You see, I live with my earphones. Besides listening to music or streaming podcasts, I take all my calls with earphones so that I can keep my hands free, and reaching constantly into my pocket to change the volume won't do.
After a laborious search, I've found earphones that work with my Note 2 (ie 3 button ones with volume controls as well as the pause/play button), but they all have issues or problems from my point of view. Nevertheless, the simple answer starts with looking for ones made by HTC or Samsung. Unfortunately, the ones I found from HTC have really cheap speakers and place the mic/controls near your belly button! They also place the mic at the point where the speaker wires branch rather than the typical spot 6" from the right earpiece on its own wire, so winding up the extra wire is an awkward solution at best (I tried it, ughh!) The Samsung OEM ones that should have come with the phone (I'm on ATT and as everyone knows, they didn't include them in their packaging), are fine with respect to the placement of the mic, but the sound may be iffy for some and I find the volume controls too small and poorly placed - I'm often hitting the wrong button. For me though, there was also another worse problem. I know I'm in a minority here, but I can't stand in-ear sound isolating earbuds. (Note: by in-ear, I mean the type that have flexible plastic tips that snug down into the ear canal a bit.) I find them uncomfortable after a very short time, and when I take calls, I feel like I'm speaking under water, or like I have my fingers in my ears. I actually prefer hearing the environmental sound a bit rather than cutting it off. Stupid me, I just prefer the plain old iPhone earphones (not the new earpods). They're cheap, have ok sound with moderate bass, and do what I want. All you others who don't agree with me, don't despair since what I propose applies equally to you.
My final solution to this nasty impass was to clip off the HTC or Samsung earphones and solder on my old iPhone earpieces. I'm writing all this because I know there are a lot of people more or less in my situation, and I just want to encourage people that it really is not hard at all to do this if you're able to solder at all. And afaik, the same applies to people who prefer in-ear buds, or even hi quality ones. Most earpieces are pretty easy to disassemble - one might have to score/lever the joint a bit, but basically you just give a twist with a pliers to the piece nearest your ear that has the grill or holds the in-ear piece, and the speaker and its wired connections can be pulled out of the housing and have its connections exposed. I was confused at first by the iPhone earphones since when I clipped the wire and examined it, there seemed to be four wires going to each earpiece. I spoke to an audio engineer for advice (who designed circuits, cables etc for the audio industry for 40 years) and his basic take on it was the quality is all in the speakers not in the switch, so you really can just swap them, and the extra wires are just twisted around to support the functioning wires structurally - each speaker really has two wires.
Luckily for me, it cost me nothing extra to try this as I had already bought three different working sets off eBay at $5 - $8 each and I had my old iPhone ones (actually two broken sets - I just used the good speaker from each). Anyway, if anyone's interested below are pics of the three Note 2 compatible types I bought (use them to find ones to buy since links change). Remember, in the end I only needed them for the plug, working switch/mic, and wires - the speakers are thrown away. And also pics of a disassembled iphone earpiece as well as a finished hybrid. The one I did uses the white HTC earphones as a base. I of course shortened the wires going to the earpieces. I don't mind the Samsung one once in a while, so I plan to order another and when it arrives, alter it as a spare hybrid like the other - with iPhone earpieces.
There are several other ones out there that would probably do as well as the ones I bought, but they all have in-ear type earpieces so I didn't order them, and I can't vouch for their volume controls working. I'd guess several will. Sometimes android earphones apparently use the outer buttons to advance or rewind (next track/previous track) so watch out for those. I don't see the point of them since double click/triple click does that for me with all the audio players I've tried (Walkman, PowerAmp, Player Pro) and the volume controls are more important to me anyway. It's also difficult to tell from the eBay pictures if the mic/controls are near the belly button or not, and after buying two that had this design, I didn't feel like trying more at random. If anyone has ordered other ones and found the buttons work (FOR VOLUME CONTROLS!) and especially if they have the better, single wire mic layout, I'd be interested if you'd post the name and pics of what you've tried and found works.
Soldering tips: dip the wire ends in a tiny bit of alcohol and briefly burn off the nylon support strands and coating with a cigarette lighter before tinning the ends and then soldering. If you are timid, cut the wire near the speaker (1") rather than desoldering it. You can then test the whole thing out by twisting wires together rather than straight away soldering your new wires to the speakers. The joint can still be coiled up and hidden in the earpiece housing. It will also keep clear what color wire goes where and if you aren't good with soldering (like me) that also has the advantage of not risking making a total mess of the contacts on the speakers straight away! The "standard" earphone color code is Red pair on Right channel, Blue or Green on Left.
On a related issue on audio on the Note 2, I'd like to mention that I had to use the volume mod (I edited my own default_gain.conf - root required) so that the phone call volume, as well as streaming audio such you get with news apps, was high enough for me - though I also increased the volume for music as well. Also, I recommend using the Equalizer app from the Play store rather than Beats Audio to add some extra bass etc to the earphones since unlike Beats, it is a system wide EQ, so you can improve the sound of podcasts and phone calls as well as your music! Using it necessitates disabling all other EQs.
Love the Note 2 and this forum! Good Luck and I hope this helps someone!
Sorry, I only made it half way to the 2nd paragraph. That's a long post.
Didn't read you long post but from the title I use some MEE i9p's the mic works fine but since they don't have a volume button cant answer that part.
Dumbo53 said:
I say this because everyone with an iPhone is used to having a big selection of working headsets that have these controls. Because of the wide variety of android phones and their conficting standards, manufacturers have evidently decided it not worthwhile trying to make android compatible earphones with volume controls since they have assumed they'd have to be device specific, and instead opted for a few single button ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't Apple the odd one out here? Their inline remotes don't work in other devices, but an inline remote that works for android also works for blackberry devices. The inline remotes made for android devices all work for each android device.. what the buttons actually do is a different story. Oddly, for samsung, the ff and rw buttons control the volume in their devices instead.. but I think this is a more ideal usage of it. Since if you get a rom that has hold volume for ff or rw, you'll have double usage of the buttons. On HTC devices, they work as intended (ff and rw actually ff and rw).
I use these scull candys and they function properly...
Ok. So out of the replies so far most stated they didnt read it all since its rather lengthy. Props for honesty guys. I did read all of the post. The OP has done his or her homework and confirmed a few suspicions and answered a few questions I had about earbud controls. Along with a very educated way of asking us to give feedback on successful full volume controls and what breand or models we found worked.
I have been useing the Samsung buds that came with my wifes S3. So yea full control on every rom I have used thus far. Hybrid and Jedi.
Great post OP. Everyone else read the entire post before replying.
I just got the Motorola S11 Flex HD (Bluetooth headphones). They are sweat proof and designed for running and working out. They have a power button, multi-function button, a volume up and down button. I enjoy the freedom of being wireless, especially when running/working out.
Audio quality is ok, probably no worse than the standard headset the come with most devices. They don't compare to my quality headphones (Shure SE530, Klipsch X10). I'm sure you lose some audio quality when making the device sweat proof.
What I wasn't expecting was the built in mic to work as well as they did. I've made three phone calls and they all said I sounded fine and in fact better than my previous BT headset. Now this wasn't in windy or noisy conditions, but still better than I expected.
iahk said:
Oddly, for samsung, the ff and rw buttons control the volume in their devices instead.. but I think this is a more ideal usage of it. Since if you get a rom that has hold volume for ff or rw, you'll have double usage of the buttons. On HTC devices, they work as intended (ff and rw actually ff and rw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I use a 3-button Samsung headphone set and a music player that uses long-press (or multi-press) of the answer/end button to skip tracks.
iahk said:
Isn't Apple the odd one out here? Their inline remotes don't work in other devices, but an inline remote that works for android also works for blackberry devices. The inline remotes made for android devices all work for each android device.. what the buttons actually do is a different story. Oddly, for samsung, the ff and rw buttons control the volume in their devices instead.. but I think this is a more ideal usage of it. Since if you get a rom that has hold volume for ff or rw, you'll have double usage of the buttons. On HTC devices, they work as intended (ff and rw actually ff and rw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its because Apple made the 3rd pin on the headphone jack just a little lower so you can't use their headphones anywhere else except on an Apple device. It forces all the other OEM's to follow suit hence the "lack" of support for Android. Another silly game of having proprietary devices. Haven't you noticed that with there new "lightning" connector? The world is using microUSB Apple for goodness sake!
Because of that, I decided to drop the inline button management and went back to the old school way of doing things (manually), Klipsch Image X10's baby.
If I ever do decide to manage my music, I'll use a stereo bluetooth device with built-in audio controls.
Guys, I just bought these for $6.99, voila volume controls. Compared to the OEM ones that came with my friend's Sprint Note 2 and they are identical. Wish I could use my Klipsch over-ears but hey, these sound decent for the price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AW0FR3561
Sorry to all if my message got lost by making my post too long. The really short version of it is you can have your cake and eat it too. Afaik, the volume controls/mic on Apple or Samsung or Htc earphones all do the same thing but in slightly different ways and don't influence the sound quality of the speakers. It is pretty easy to clip off the cheap earphones from a Note 2 compatible set and replace them with the higher quality earpieces of your choice. The hybrid earphones I made are identical as far as my ears can tell to the unaltered Apple ones. I am really happy with them. If I found another set with much better quality (not inear ones), I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again.
So, themyst, you could simply cut off the Klipsch earpieces and solder them on to a Samsung set of wires if you wanted to, though I would be cautious and try carefully opening an earpiece assembly first to verify that there are only two wires going to the speaker before cutting anything!
@[-]awkeye, I could be wrong here, but I really don't think the incompatibility of iPhone headphones with Android has anything to do with the 3rd pin of the plug. I attach below a photo of the Samsung earphone jack (left) right next to the Apple one (right) for you to look for yourself. I think they are both standard 4 pin plugs.
My audio engineer friend believed that the problem is a proprietary IC on the tiny circuit board that controls the switch and mic. The two different switches I guess send different amounts or types of current (have a different impedance?) back to the phone. My guess is that it should be possible to interpret the Apple signals within Android via a software fix of some kind, though it might have to be low level, ie part of the OS.
In any case, I have also read that Android earphones themselves don't follow any standard and that causes a further problem for third part manufacturers. The first and fourth pins for example have their wires swapped in some Android models. So the wires that lead to the pins can be different, the switches can be different, but the wires that lead to the speakers should all be the same, or at least that was the case for all the earphones I cut up. It's part of the reason I made this post -- to try to get more definitive answers on this whole subject. If anyone comes across a different speaker wiring design, I would be interested to know.
If you want true 'hands free', then go bluetooth style.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
Yes I agree, a bluetooth headset with volume controls would be great, even ideal, though personally I don't like the wrap around designs. I suppose they are made that way to work with jogging. Perhaps I could get used to it as long as it didn't cut off the outside sound like your typical in-ear buds. Ideal for me would just be unobtrusive speakers that fit in your ears without any wires, but then how would you control the volume etc?
There are bluetooth ear buds with noise cancellation as well as volume control.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
Dumbo53 said:
Sorry to all if my message got lost by making my post too long. The really short version of it is you can have your cake and eat it too. Afaik, the volume controls/mic on Apple or Samsung or Htc earphones all do the same thing but in slightly different ways and don't influence the sound quality of the speakers. It is pretty easy to clip off the cheap earphones from a Note 2 compatible set and replace them with the higher quality earpieces of your choice. The hybrid earphones I made are identical as far as my ears can tell to the unaltered Apple ones. I am really happy with them. If I found another set with much better quality (not inear ones), I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again.
So, themyst, you could simply cut off the Klipsch earpieces and solder them on to a Samsung set of wires if you wanted to, though I would be cautious and try carefully opening an earpiece assembly first to verify that there are only two wires going to the speaker before cutting anything!
@[-]awkeye, I could be wrong here, but I really don't think the incompatibility of iPhone headphones with Android has anything to do with the 3rd pin of the plug. I attach below a photo of the Samsung earphone jack (left) right next to the Apple one (right) for you to look for yourself. I think they are both standard 4 pin plugs.
My audio engineer friend believed that the problem is a proprietary IC on the tiny circuit board that controls the switch and mic. The two different switches I guess send different amounts or types of current (have a different impedance?) back to the phone. My guess is that it should be possible to interpret the Apple signals within Android via a software fix of some kind, though it might have to be low level, ie part of the OS.
In any case, I have also read that Android earphones themselves don't follow any standard and that causes a further problem for third part manufacturers. The first and fourth pins for example have their wires swapped in some Android models. So the wires that lead to the pins can be different, the switches can be different, but the wires that lead to the speakers should all be the same, or at least that was the case for all the earphones I cut up. It's part of the reason I made this post -- to try to get more definitive answers on this whole subject. If anyone comes across a different speaker wiring design, I would be interested to know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, but I don't have any plans cutting up my 100 headphones. I can't believe some manufacturer in China hasn't made Samsung / Android compatible control adapters yet!
I have the zagg buds and they seem to work granted no forward / back but the button will play/pause and mute when in calls.
themyst said:
Guys, I just bought these for $6.99, voila volume controls. Compared to the OEM ones that came with my friend's Sprint Note 2 and they are identical. Wish I could use my Klipsch over-ears but hey, these sound decent for the price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AW0FR3561
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if you like Klipsch, there is an Android-friendly solution, the S4a which even has a companion app for controlling what the buttons do and various other things.
If you want to use your own conventional headphones, there are options that don't require any re-wiring. My N2 works very nicely with my Jabra Clipper, a Bluetooth device that comes with a mike and a 3.5mm socket. It allows you to use any earphones as both a media device and a phone headset. Just the opposite of having to re-wire the headset to your N2, this allows you to go wireless and keep your phone in a pants pocket or bag. Its battery recharges with the same microUSB connector as the N2's.
In fact, the earphones that come with the Clipper aren't too bad themselves. But I use the Clipper with pre-Android Klipsch S4 earphones and I'm very happy with the result.
Both the Clipper and the Klipsch S4a are widely available, including on eBay.
Neither the Jabra nor S4a have volume controls...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Dumbo53 said:
Neither the Jabra nor S4a have volume controls...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Jabra Clipper and I use its volume controls all the time. Yours must be broken.
Actually, they're generic +/- controls (which the S4a has as well, as does the Sony MW600 which I have also owned). You can determine in software whether the buttons are used for volume or for previous/next. I use mine for volume.
el56, no, I don't have either - I was just wrong! Thanks for the clarification. This is the kind of info I was hoping to hear about. If we get some more, I'll add a list to the thread (Volume enabled earphones). I've looked at the Klipsch (S4a) in the stores several times but never saw it out of the package and was under the impression it had no volume controls. It looked like it had one button to me, and actually I wasn't all that interested in them anyway. I'd bought a pair (S4i?) for my iPhone a year or so ago and wasn't impressed with the sound - they sounded tinny to me. I wondered in fact if they were defective but I didn't take it further. But more importantly they were the in-ear type which I can't use for long stretches or for phone calls.
I guess I didn't understand what the Jabra was, and I never even heard of the Sony, so thanks for pointing them out also. If I get it now, they are really a different category device - not earphones, but sending units that they plug into. I particularly like the idea of having an FM radio (which I guess comes with the Sony). How does the mic work though? If it's part of the unit and not on the wires, isn't it awkward to hold that up to your mouth. Nevertheless it looks worth trying out. So far, yours is the best response I've gotten to this post! Thanks again.