Chosen Solution

Firstly, please be advised the help is not for Koss Earbuds but only one I could select. I have a single earpiece PS4 earbud with Mic build in which came with the PS4, and although I have another headset sometimes I like to keep one as a spare just in case the other fails. It has a TRRS jack (Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve) with 4 cables: Solid Red, Red/Copper, Solid Copper and a Solid White, on dissecting the jack plug I noticed that some of the wire weren’t soldered and were literally making some kind of contact from just the black pvc casing holding them in place, therefore I am now unsure which points they should have been soldered too. I am okay with a soldering iron and I understand that the cables are as follows: White = Mic Solid Copper = Positive Solid Red = Negative Red/Copper = Common Ground My question is which pin should I solder to on the jack plug i.e. the Tip (left Audio) or the Ring (right Audio) And would it cause a problem if the Left Audio or Right Audio is left with no cable affixed. I have tried to research via Google/Bing and everything links to a 2 piece (Left and Right) earbud or headphone. Your kind assistance would be kindly appreciated so I can repair these and set them aside in desperate times.

Hi - Not sure specifically about the PS4, but generally, use the tip for mono audio. You could connect the earbud to both tip and the ring next to the tip, to feed both L and R to the earbud, but joining them together might conceivably upset the PS4 (though headphone outputs are usually designed to withstand this kind of thing). The “proper” way to do this is with a small resistor between each and the common line to the earbud, so the L and R channels don’t fight with each other.

So, if the PS4 has an option to select mono sound output, just wire the earbud to the tip. If not, it’s trickier - you can do this in-line, or in the body of the plug with some care and some surface mount type or very small resistors:

Note that there are two standards for these TRRS mic & headphone connectors, the one shown with the sleeve as the mic is the most common (CTIA standard), and I think the sort used by the PS4. The other standard (OMTP) is older and has the mic and ground swapped, so the sleeve is ground.

You list your wires as mic, positive, negative and ground - does your earbud need power for the mic? Usually, a CTIA jack will supply +5v (ish) through a resistor to the mic connection, and, inside the device you’re plugging into, the mic input will be routed via a capacitor to remove the DC 5v. If your mic in your earbud is routed via a capacitor in the earbud, with the “positive” supplying power to the mic, then you’ll need to supply the bias voltage too. You might have mis-assigned the wires though - they might be left/right already mixed in the earpiece with resistors as above, plus mic and ground, or they might be mic+ground on one coax or twisted pair, and earpiece and ground on a second pair, or they might simply be mic, earpiece, ground and not-connected. You’ll probably need to do some checking.

This might represent more questions than answers, sorry!

Hi Carl, Okay so this does seem a little more technical, I can manage a little as am a Noob to Electronics but from what you are saying I think it is best I provide these images for guidance.

Please refer to attached images, apologies if they are not the clearest, however I hope you can see where I am referring.

  • image (TRRS jack) you can just about see the white (MIC) wire is connect the the Sleeve, however the other wire attached I cant work out because it is moulded in with the black plastic.

  • image (Single earbud) you can just work out that the wires used are solid Red, and solid Copper.

  • image (Front of PCB Mic slide switch) you can see the slide switch and the Mic.

  • image (Back of PCB Mic slide switch) you can just work out the wires as I previously mentioned above and the 3 SMD components used. Again apologies for the images and possible lack of information, had a realised this was going to be a mission then I may have just binned in, but since I have it apart (using my ESD wrist strap and mat) I feel I need to complete this repair and give myself a pat on the back hahaha And of course will give my appreciation and approval to you