Soldering the mono microphone cable to stereo 3,5mm jack

Artur Kowalewski

Estimable
Apr 18, 2015
2
0
4,510
Hello!
I have a quick newbie question concerning replacing the jack on my headphone mic.

The microphone has a separate cable with 2 wires inside of it. The reddish one (which I'm assuming is the mono audio) and the copper one (which I'm assuming to be ground).
I've bought a new 3,5mm TRS connector, but it appears to be stereo (as I guess it should be). To my understanding [shortest plate=tip=left channel] [middle plate=ring=right channel] [long thingy=sleeve=ground].
If that's the case, should I solder the mono audio cable to both left and right simultaneously? Just one of those two? I want people to hear me speak in both ears, naturally.

Thank you for your time and please don't be too harsh, I have no idea what I'm doing!
 
Solution
Actually I think the proper wiring is mic to left, ground to ground and right. Most audio systems are set up so that if no signal is on the right channel, it assumes the signal is mono and sends the left channel to both speakers. (You've probably seen this in RCA audio inputs, where the left socket is labeled as left/mono).

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-3-5-mm-jack-in-mobiles-and-laptops

Based on those pictures, if you plugged a mono microphone jack into a stereo microphone receiver, that would be what would happen. Left to left, ground to ground and right. And the Internet isn't full of people complaining that their mono microphone is only recording to the left channel when used this way, so it must work...

Artur Kowalewski

Estimable
Apr 18, 2015
2
0
4,510


Nah, it outputs to both equally (or rather it used to before I broke the old connector), I'm just trying to state everything very clearly. I've seen someone on the internet say something about soldering to just one of the channels, for whatever reason, hence my question here.
 
Actually I think the proper wiring is mic to left, ground to ground and right. Most audio systems are set up so that if no signal is on the right channel, it assumes the signal is mono and sends the left channel to both speakers. (You've probably seen this in RCA audio inputs, where the left socket is labeled as left/mono).

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-3-5-mm-jack-in-mobiles-and-laptops

Based on those pictures, if you plugged a mono microphone jack into a stereo microphone receiver, that would be what would happen. Left to left, ground to ground and right. And the Internet isn't full of people complaining that their mono microphone is only recording to the left channel when used this way, so it must work.

Wiring the mic to both left and right probably won't hurt from an audio standpoint. But it could make your software think it's getting a stereo microphone signal, causing it to waste space saving the same mic signal twice (as separate left and right channels).
 
Solution