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Quickie: Monitors and Headphones

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(@cmaracz)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 155
Topic starter  

Does anyone know if there is an inherit difference between 1/8" minijack and standard 1/4" jacks?

Should I be suspicious of the m audio fast track's 1/8" jack rather than the regular 1/4" for monitors and full sized headphones?


   
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 Nils
(@nils)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 2849
 

It's really just kind of a trade off.

The 1/8" is lighter and easier to manage. The 1/4" is more durable but bulkier. I don't think it will make much of a difference with monitors (I am assuming headphone type) as far as sound goes. I think on stage floor monitors you may want to go with durable. If you are talking about just home recording then there would be no problem either way.

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(@gnease)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5038
 

As Nils says, they work just as well electrically. I would rather have a 3.5 mm (1/8 in) audio jack mounted on a printed circuit board, rather than a 1/4 in version, especially if the sleeve of the connector is not chassis mounted for strain relief, as is the case for many of today's consumer and even pro-sumer products. The smaller jack/plug combo puts less strain on the PCB. The smaller jack also takes up so much less area on that PCB.

I also agree with Nils, that if you mean sound reinforcement (performance) monitors, go with the 1/4 -- even that is considered a bit iffy in these days of speakeron connectors and the like. Desktop monitors are okay with the small jack.

-=tension & release=-


   
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(@slothrob)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 472
 

The other half of the argument that Gnease put forth is that if the headphones you want to use have a 1/4" plug (like mine), but the device has a 1/8" jack, then you have to use an adaptor. Now, that's not such a big deal, but the typical 1/4 to 1/8" adaptor is this oversized plug/jack combination that, combined with the 1/4" plug itself, puts a lot of strain on the tiny 1/8" jack. The two acceptable solutions are to use headphones with a 1/8" plug or find an adaptor that connects the 1/4" jack to the 1/8" plug with a short length of cable, reducing the strain on the 1/8" jack.

They're not so easy to find, but here's one.


   
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