Inflight movie headsets question

[dacflyer]

i used to have a set of inflight headphones ( for movie watching, etc.)
does anyone know the impeadience of them headphones,
i have a set of regular headphones and was wondering if they were remotely compatable,, i seen adapters you can buy at radio shack, or "SKYMALL" its basically a 2 mono 1/8" connector to a stereo 1/8" adaptor..or is it adapter..Uhhhhhhh.... but anyway i do not see any sort of transformer in it for matching purposes..
so just currious of the headphone impeadence, i know its not the same as aircraft headsets..
the ones i have now are 32 ohms.

[jwax]

The last headsets I used on a commercial plane were acoustic! Plastic tubing from the armrest to your ear, so I guess it's been a while since I flew!

[dacflyer]

oh wow.. i remember theose when i was a kid..lol
i kept sticking my ear to the armrest ans asking how the sound was coming out of that...i think i was bout 5 yrs old.. i drove everyone nuts on the plane.. whats thaaaaat,,,, what thaaaat,,,, why... why... why...lol...
Ohhhhh lookie !

DON'T PUSH THAT BUTON !!! oops.

[philba]

The last headsets I used on a commercial plane were acoustic! Plastic tubing from the armrest to your ear, so I guess it's been a while since I flew!

Yes, it's HAS been quite a while. I think the tube ones went out about 10 years ago. Now you can usually use your own headphones. I have a set of Sony noise canceling ones that work quite well. I can't find anything on them that says their impedance but they work well with computer line level output.

[Craig]

You should be able to use your own headphones now. I just got back from a two week trip. I was on four different airplanes and they all had standard headphone jacks. They sold cheap headphones on the plane for $3, or they said you could use your own.

I saw a lot of people were using their iPod headphones.

[haklesup]

That's right, the airlines have found new ways to nickle and dime us than to staunchly hold on to their non standard headphones and insist we pay for the movie even if we have our own (or maybe it was the movie industry that relented).

I fly frequently and headphones generally all work, the volume controls have a wide range allowing for some variability of impedance to still work. You may find some headphones loud or quiet on a given airplane. I have not seen a double plug required for quite a while.

I used to use the acoustic headphones to talk to my traveling companion. Just hold the plug on your fist and talk to it like a microphone. Way better than two cans and a string.

[dacflyer]

back from europe now.. my head set worked fine, i used the dual mono to sterep adapter that radio shack sells, the only problem i had was there was almost no volume control on the headsets themselves. the headset had its own volume control..
i found out that the headset jacks on the plane are not for stereo connections,, both outlets are mono... so i am guessing there was some sort of a impeadience mismatch.. on my walkman. the volume control works great..

[Bigglez]

i used the dual mono to sterep(sic) adapter that radio shack sells.

I expect this is a "pass-through" connector. You can
trace the connections with a DMM.

i found out that the headset jacks on the plane are not for stereo connections,, both outlets are mono...

Probably to use "stereo" headsets without having to source
odd ball "dual mono" types.

so i am guessing there was some sort of a impeadience(sic) mismatch.. on my walkman. the volume control works great..

In general the concept of impedance matching is bogus.
Any modern amplifier has a very low output impedance
(probably less than one ohm over the entire audio
bandwidth). The connectors and wiring add to this of course.
The amplifier needs to have enough voltage level to drive
higher impedance loads. This is hard to do on a single AA
battery or single Li_Ion cell found in iPods and similar kit.

Earbuds are typically 20 to 30 ohms, the ones I use daily are
21 ohms measured at the plug.

Impedance matching was an issue in the days of tube
amps, and many audiophiles still obsess about it.

A mismatch is actually beneficial, as the ratio of amplifier
output to load impedance is the dampling factor, which in
turn reduces ringing for inductive loads (such as voice coils).