Extending headphones using wall plates?

chipperhead

chipperhead

chipperhead

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7 Feb 2004
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I'm just redecorating my bedroom and working out the best way to use headphones whilst watching TV.
I'm thinking of purchasing a twin 3.5mm wall plate socket such as this one to go behind the TV.


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Then using a single 3.5mm wall plate either side of the bed to plug Headphones into.
Does this sound feasible and what would be the best cable to run between them both I was thinking Speaker Cable or 75 Ohm WF100?

I've realised doing it this way would mean having to put a 3.5mm male into the TV headphone socket and the other into the correct socket in the twin wall plate depending on what side of the bed I wanted to send the signal to.

Could I simply use a single 3.5mm plate behind the TV and connect this to 2 plates (1 at either side of the bed) by making a Y Lead?

Sorry if this sounds confusing I could draw a diagram if that helps.
 
What you're proposing is feasible, but you can't use WF100 or speaker cable for it.

What you need is some twin core + shield microphone cable. It has to be shielded to prevent picking up noise (speaker cable isn't), and it needs two connectors so that you get left and right (WF100 is mono)

Splitting the signal - Yes, that's possible. But bear in mind that the unused leg could pick up noise when it hasn't got headphones plugged in.

It might be better to have a single extension and then buy some TV headphones which always come with a much longer cable than MP3 player headphones. That way your headphone cable will easily reach either side of the bed.
 
jellybeard999 said:
If you do want to channel it in the walls, I'd go with coax and RCA connections as they should be less fragile
Click to expand...
What! Less fragile than mic cable? The stuff that's designed to be dragged round stage, trod on, trapped, kicked and tripped over, then wrapped badly... night after night... You're saying solid core coax is less fragile that that. Really??
 
lucid said:
What! Less fragile than mic cable? The stuff that's designed to be dragged round stage, trod on, trapped, kicked and tripped over, then wrapped badly... night after night... You're saying solid core coax is less fragile that that. Really??
Click to expand...

Well I got the impression the OP planned to use the cable supplied with cheap headphones :o
 
Sorry for the confusion, it's my fault because of my unclear OP.

I want to be able to watch tv in bed or the misses watch tv in bed using headphones without trailing a lead across the room or buying wireless headphones.

I'm currently decorating the bedroom and chasing in wiring so it's an ideal time to do it.

I'm wondering on the best solution?
 
The best solution is a 1-in:2-out headphone amp to drive the two lines to the two headphone sockets. But since you gave no budget and were considering using speaker cable I really didn't see the point of a "doing it right" solution when it didn't seem that was a direction you'd consider.

FWIW, a headphone amp will help you avoid any interference from an unconnected leg since each output will be individually screened from the other.

The source will have to be the headphone socket on your TV. That's the only practical way of controlling volume without getting involved in a secondary audio system to drive the headphone channel.
 
Thanks Lucid, I want to do it the correct way.
I suggested speaker cable because I wanted the best cable for the job.

I'm looking at purchasing a modular 3.5mm stereo jack socket and then another at the other end of the room.
The instructions on for this state. The long terminal is a common audio Ground, small Gold terminal is right channel and other small terminal is left Channel.

It says to use it's own twin core audio cable
http://www.nexxia.co.uk/products.asp?section=Audio Video Cables&category=Cut Audio Cables
 
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