Reddit reviews Aux Cable, Tsumbay Audio Cable with Microphone and in-line Control, 3.5mm Male to Male Cable Headphone Cable Premium Nylon Auxiliary Cord for Headphones, PS4, Home/Car Stereos (1m)

If you're constantly breaking cords, get something with an easily replaceable cord.

Fidelio X1, X2, L1, L2 from Philips. The SHP9500 also.

They use standard 3.5mm cords. All of them are over-ear, with good sound quality, low impedance.

If you want a Mic, you can easily hook up a VModa BoomPro to the SHP9500, X1, X2, and L2. The L1 is a bit weirder, as it has a length of cord terminating in a male 3.5mm a few inches from the cup.... so it can use something like a ModMic but not a BoomPro. - Or just get a cheap desk mic, like a Snowball, Samson Meteor or Go. There's also some pretty decent lapel mics out there in the $10-15 range.

For most of those, you can also get a 3.5mm cords with line-in-mics. I know the L1 includes one, and I'm pretty sure the L2 does as well. Example: https://www.amazon.com/Tsumbay-Microphone-Auxiliary-Headphone-Computer/dp/B06XXD5SKN/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1525144948&sr=1-3&keywords=in-line+mic+3.5mm


There are other headphones with detachable cables, if that seems to be your biggest issue.

Because Apple are fucking weird and have to make everything needlessly complicated.

The reason is because the "poles" (areas between the black lines) on the plugs are wired differently for Apple products. On most products, it's Left > Right > Mic > Ground. For Apple products, they reverse the mic and ground. This is why most earbuds on Amazon will have you pick between two versions, one for Android, one for Apple, or have separate listings for each.

Apple always has to make their products nice and "special." Your best bet is to just buy a replacement cable for another brand of headphones with the in-line mic. The headphones will work perfectly fine because the plug that goes into the ear cup is still Left > Right > Ground.

Here's a decent cheapo for $7.

https://www.amazon.com/Tsumbay-Microphone-Headphone-Auxiliary-Headphones/dp/B06XXD5SKN/

Interesting. If they aren't working while plugged in via the cord my guess is because it appears the cord is only a TRS cable which does not pass along any mic signal, just ground + left + right. This leads me to believe that while in passive mode the mic is inactive. You could of course test it with a trrs cable but I don't see why they wouldn't ship with one if it worked.

Edit: a word.

Edit 2: if I'm right then something like this should get you talking

Since the cost is so low, it might be worthwhile to see if you can use Windows 10's dictation capability and just direct the audio out of computer to the microphone jack using an aux cord or something. There may be some sort of software solution to redirecting the audio as well. Failing either of those, you could just play the audio to a microphone using speakers or headphones.

Disclaimer: I have not used Microsoft's speech to text functionality for quite a while, so I can't speak to its accuracy (but, Microsoft is currently one of a handful of companies at the forefront of speech recognition research, so I imagine it wouldn't be too awful).

For the best audio experience per dollar I think it's best to go with proper headphones and a mic attachment. This is my set-up: Philips SHP9500S HiFi Precision Stereo Over-ear Headphones (Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ENMK1DW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CVw-Bb0YE7XTY and for the mic Aux Cable, Tsumbay Audio Cable with Microphone and in-line Control, 3.5mm Male to Male Cable Headphone Cable Premium Nylon Auxiliary Cord for Headphones, PS4, Home/Car Stereos (1m) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XXD5SKN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LWw-BbMK5EC8V. I see that the headphones have been discontinued so they're super expensive now but the idea is that any pair of good headphones (with detachable 3.5mm cable) will do.

Yes if you get a different cord they should work. I bought https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XXD5SKN?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf and they worked but there’s probably better cables out there.

https://www.amazon.com/Tsumbay-Microphone-Headphone-Auxiliary-Headphones/dp/B06XXD5SKN/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=inline+mic&qid=1556550469&s=gateway&sr=8-5

https://www.amazon.com/Tsumbay-Microphone-Headphone-Auxiliary-Headphones/dp/B06XXD5SKN/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1540311332&sr=8-4&keywords=aux+cable+with+microphone

I believe this is what you are looking for. Can't comment on how well it works (you may get mic feedback from the speaker) I have one for my phone to hook up to my car stereo. it basically is an aux cable with a microphone build in. so you will get audio out of your speaker and the mic in the cable will pick up sounds for chat

I use the Superlux 681 EVO with this . One of the main complaints against these headphones is they break easy, but Ive had no problem with mine. They are also semi open back, so no isolation and a bit of noise leakage. As a result they have a stellar soudstage (good for footsteps) and they also have good sound.

Edit: suck at formating but I also use this.

So my work won’t let me spend $30 on an aux cable. I found this on amazon. Would you recommend the beats replacement over these?

Aux Cable, Tsumbay Audio Cable with In-line Remote, Microphone 3.5mm Male to Male Cable Premium Nylon Auxiliary Cord for Car, Headphone, iPhone, Computer, PS4, Home Stereo Gaming Devices (1m) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XXD5SKN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pL2KAbCV62EQ2