Geekria 4.4mm Male to 3.5mm Balanced Female Headphones Adapter for 3.5mm 4-Pole Cable Connected to Balanced 4.4mm Player Device, Aluminum Alloy Conversion Audio Plug, Gold Plated Adapter

Very good product. It does its work!

It's to allow you to plug a plain old single-ended aka. unbalanced aka TRS stereo 1/8" / 3.5mm headphone cable (think stereo earbuds) into a device like the Sony NW ZX-300 that has a BALANCED pentaconn output. It's not supposed to pass a balanced/differential signal. It's supposed to short out the common connection. Why would you plug single ended headphones into a balanced output? Loudness/efficiency, really. That's the only difference, regardless of the myths on the web. The particular Sony DAP I have plays DSD natively only through the balanced output. So that's why I bought and tested this.Works fine for me. You can plug an older set of TRS headphones into the single-ended output of the Sony, sounds great, or using this into the 4.4mm pentaconn balanced output, sounds equally great, and louder of course. Apart from the loudness, no difference. You're plugging a single-ended device into a balanced output. No smoke. No disaster.

Works great! Very sturdy!

I use Sennheiser HD 558 and 598 Headphones at both my gaming computers. But between my 5 year old and 10 year old they are extremely hard on cables. After paying too much for special Sennheiser replacement cables, I decided I would take both sets apart, remove the locking mechanism and use a 2.5mm Male to 3.5mm female adapter so i could use standard headphone cables. Initially I bought some cheap china adapters. Was like $7 for a 2 pack, and while they were basically a drop in option they just didn't hold up over time, when i move my head audio cuts out on one side. So I was back to square 1 looking for a solution. I bought a couple different adapters including one of these, it seems much higher quality and is a much tighter fit. Unfortunately it's not a drop in option. Its slightly larger diameter. I had to remove the chrome bezel and used my soldering iron to melt the hole out a bit larger. It looks fine, and I'm hopeful that this will be a final solution. I really think it will be, the quality is much better than the previous adapter, and it fits both the headphones and cable much tighter. I went ahead and ordered a second adapter for the other HD558 headphones. I do not use the balance feature of the adapter, so i cannot comment on that. However I can say it doesn't hinder anything either. It works fine, I have stereo sound, and maybe it's placebo but i'm 90% sure this adapter made them sound better and louder.

It's important to understand this adapter simply allows you to connect a 3.5mm plug into a 4.4mm balanced socket, it doesn't convert any signals.I used this to connect headphones with a 3.5mm plug into a dongle with a 4.4mm balanced socket. All it does in this case is draw a little more power, because it makes the sound louder. There's no change to the sound quality.In order to receive a balanced signal from a socket, the headphones and cable itself have to be wired in a balanced configuration, otherwise the signal stays the same (unbalanced). Keep this stuff in mind to determine if you only need an adapter or you need to change the entire cable.

I got this to enhance the quality of music coming out my headphones whilst connected to a headphone amp / DAC.Problem is the adapter does not make good contact with the mini audio headphone connector. Music would only plsy through one channel. Also it is long and rigid. This might potentiallt damage the DAC / Amp if left plugged in and something pushes on it perpendicularly.

I needed to pick up a 4.4 to 2.5 adapter for a pair of IEMs that I didn't have a custom cable for. I also didn't want to break the bank with a ddHiFi adapter or anything else pricey. The adapter comes packaged in a nice fabric pouch. I did test, and can confirm this IS balanced at both ends, so it does its job. The adapter is a little large all things considered, but the metal feels quality. No problems with fitment on either end. For the price, this is EXACTLY what you should expect, and is easily worth the sub-$10 price. I bought another just in case. You never know when you might need it.

Bought the male 4.4mm to female 2.5mm to connect to a portable dac/amp and the adapter works perfectly! Nice construction, solid connection, with no static or audio disruption. Great value!