corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk gaoc and welcome to the BA Forum. I hope that we will see more of you here in the future.

I don't know the specific cause of your issue but I did once have a headphone set (not Bose, of which I'm not that fond) which did occasionally give problems. In one case I noticed I'd get the second channel only if I pushed the plug in really hard and held it there, it was as if the contact socket and plug were slightly misaligned. On another flight it was almost the reverse, I had to slightly pull the plug out of the socket slightly, and after a bit the aircraft's vibrations would lose the connection. I then found an adapter, which was actually intended to allow two headphones to use the same socket, which seemed to fix that one, acting as a intermediate plug. But yes, normally speaking you should have got your QC20 to work for you.

gaoc

Yes, I tried waggling it about but had no joy at all. I thought it was an issue with my earphones but they work fine on my ipad, and also with the guy next to me saying he has had the same problem on a few flights it made me think that something is different in the sockets now.

keepclimbing

Not sure if it's the case here or not, but I've had similar problems trying to use headphones that have a 3.5mm TRRS plug - I assume because the socket is plain TRS and doesn't completely align.

I ended up buying a small right-angle TRS adapter, which does the job nicely.

gaoc

Thanks for that, I'll see if that helps.

Stormbel

On two recent flights, to and from KUL, the QC 20 worked well using the single socket except that it always reverses the channels! Is really only evident if you are watching something where the sound effects are side specific.
With over rear headphones one simply reverses them but it's far too fiddly to alter the 20.

geerat

xPositor

In my experience, its a complete gamble as to which way the wiring in the socket has been done for stereo on BA. I've gone to in-ear NC headphones now, which are ear-specific in their design, which means I can't easily swap them over - makes for some very odd effects (e.g. as a car passes left to right on screen, the audio for it goes right to left).

keepclimbing

If "the adapter" is this: https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/...e-adapter.html , then with the second plug collapsed, the remaining fixed plug is just TRS, whose conductive surfaces align properly with what's presumably a TRS socket.

Many TRS sockets have contacts that align correctly with TRRS plugs, especially those manufactured more recently, but with older sockets it can be a bit hit & miss.

gaoc

Would I need a TRRS to TRS adaptor, or the other way round? Thanks.

corporate-wage-slave

You would need TRS male, TRRS female, if your headphones have a 3 bands on the main shaft of the pin (indicating TRRS). If you have 2 bands on the main shaft - look at cheap headphones in any store - that's TRS.