iPhone 3GS remote control headphone mod
Posted at 19:57 on August 1st 2009 in Worklogs, iPhone/iPod touch
The iPhone 3GS comes with the same kind of headphones the new shuffle uses, which not only has a mic but playback controls as well. Unfortunately it’s still iBuds. I fixed that.
The concept is simple. Disassamble the iBuds, disassamble a pair of Sennheiser CX300, reassemble to the setup you see below. It’s really that simple. Nothing fancy, if you can get the new IEMs/buds open in one piece that’s 90% of the battle. Does it work? Of course, and it sounds very good. Remote control CX300 FTW.
UPDATE: Video tutorials from when I made my second and third pair of these:
Wow, Cap! Simply amazing, as usual.
Very nice sir. Well done.
[...] new Apple iPhone 3GS but didn’t even put the included earbuds next to his eardrums. Instead, he transplanted the speakers from his Sennheiser CX300 set into the iPhone cord and thus has high-end earphones that support the inline remote controls. Note that the Palm Pre [...]
That is great- is there a trick to getting the buds open?
@Mark
as you see in the first pic there’s someplastic missing. I used pliers to break it apart.
Force
That’s awesome! Good work!
I don’t mond damaginf the Apple iBuds but is the “trick” to opening the CX300’s “force” too? They look a little rough in the close up pic. Also when reassembling the CX300 ends was super glue involved or did they just snap back together?
You can pry it apart with an exacto blade, but it takes some doing to get it apart without breaking it (cutting straight through) You need to get the metal ring off first, then you just pull them apart. It’s glued in there as is from the factory, so I recommend some super glue to seal it back up, however it will snap back together
Thanks to your guide, I managed it with a different headphone. I made a tutorial based on your article:
http://ryukagex.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-mod-iphone-3gs-earphone-with.html
Thanks again!
[...] but sometimes a good visual cue helps trigger the creative process. In the accompanying video Andreas Ødegaård walks through swapping out the inferior Apple drivers for a set of Sennheiser CX300 drivers from a [...]
[...] trigger the creative process. In the accompanying video Andreas Ødegaård walks through swapping out the inferior Apple drivers [...]
Nice job
I have to agree the headset that came with my new iphone 3gs really is horrible. After looking for some headset with the new inline volume for my iphone and not finding any I decided to give your idea a try.
I bought some cheap soldering kit and watched a soldering tutorial online. I also bough “Creative Labs EP-630/A Noise Isolating Earphones (Black)” from amazon for £7.22 Granted they are not the best around they certainly pack some bass and comfort which is what I found lacking in the original set.
I then just followed your tutorial and I am very pleased with the result
[...] but sometimes a good visual cue helps trigger the creative process. In the accompanying video Andreas Ødegaård walks through swapping out the inferior Apple drivers for a set of Sennheiser CX300 drivers from a [...]
Nice Tutorial Andreas – I’m inspired to try it myself now.
Can you tell me if the polarity of the cables onto the drivers matters or can you attach them anyway (I don’t mean left or right ear but the wiring in each driver)?
Yes and no. To make sure you don’t get messed up audio, you need to make sure that you wire it correctly relative to the other earbud. I’ll try to explain. If the ground channel is 1, left channel 2, and right channel 3, and the left IEM is wired 1-2 and the right 3-1 then you’ll either have to wire it 1-2 and 3-1 OR 2-1 and 1-2. In other words, you either have to switch both wires, or none, or the sound will get out of phase. Hope that makes sense.
So I was thinking about doing this with http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Turbine-High-Performance-In-Ear-Speakers/dp/B001LNO722 but I worry that the metal casing the buds come in would make this difficult to do. What do you think?
this is exactly what I’ll be trying to do soon. I have a pair of SkullCandy headphones on the way. they’re over-the-ear phones, though. not buds. I haven’t watched the tutorial yet, and maybe that’s my answer, but do you think a similar way could be done with bigger head phones?
Yes, big headphones is no different
I might have missed something in your videos, but im trying the same thing and have found a 3rd wire on the remote wire. i suspect that the remote needs it to work. does anyone know where it goes?
I noticed the same thing. It’s not in use though, sine it goes from the remote to the earphone it’s not something the remote part needs, as it has absolutely no need to be wired to the earphone other than the sound wires. I’m guessing that the same wire would be found going from the plug to the remote and that it carries a signal there, but that the fact it’s also present the rest of the way is simply that they used cable from the same roll of cable to produce the thing.