Headphone adapter on a CX A350-900 - tiny-pin problem

[Forg]

I’ve got a comfy set of noise-cancelling headphones as hand-me-downs from my wife, but yesterday I encountered a plug on a plane I thought I didn’t have an adapter for … it was on a CX A350-900 in J.

From memory (and I was pretty blurry by the time I boarded that plane) it was a 3-pin plug on the headset, the pins were arranged as vertices of an equilateral triangle, and while I think two of the pins were 3.5mm the 3rd was about 2.5mm.

Now … I’m sure I’ve used an adapter with 2x 3.5mm plugs on it, in a 3-pin plug where both the pins across the top of the plug were 3.5mm. But this plug had a 2.5mm and a 3.5mm across the top, and the lower pin was 3.5mm.

I’m typing this the next day, after I’ve tried Googling for adapters and importantly have had some sleep.
And I’m wondering … was the plug actually just the same as all the other triangle-shaped plugs I’ve ever seen, and the socket was just arranged at a 120 degree angle from what I’m used to?
ie. if I’d tried plugging my adapter into the bottom pin plus one of the top pins, at an angle, instead of straight across the two top pins, it probably would have worked wouldn’t it? And I was already bamboozled from sitting in the dark for 9hrs on the previous flight and it already being about 2am at home where I’d gotten outta bed at 6am …

 

[Daver6]

It's just the same triangle setup at QF has in J, just rotated around as you've surmised.

 

[markis10]

The 3.5mm pins are what you want, the 2.5mm is power

 

[serfty]

I’ve got a comfy set of noise-cancelling headphones as hand-me-downs from my wife, but yesterday I encountered a plug on a plane I thought I didn’t have an adapter for … it was on a CX A350-900 in J.

From memory (and I was pretty blurry by the time I boarded that plane) it was a 3-pin plug on the headset, the pins were arranged as vertices of an equilateral triangle, and while I think two of the pins were 3.5mm the 3rd was about 2.5mm.

Now … I’m sure I’ve used an adapter with 2x 3.5mm plugs on it, in a 3-pin plug where both the pins across the top of the plug were 3.5mm. But this plug had a 2.5mm and a 3.5mm across the top, and the lower pin was 3.5mm.

I’m typing this the next day, after I’ve tried Googling for adapters and importantly have had some sleep.
And I’m wondering … was the plug actually just the same as all the other triangle-shaped plugs I’ve ever seen, and the socket was just arranged at a 120 degree angle from what I’m used to?
ie. if I’d tried plugging my adapter into the bottom pin plus one of the top pins, at an angle, instead of straight across the two top pins, it probably would have worked wouldn’t it? And I was already bamboozled from sitting in the dark for 9hrs on the previous flight and it already being about 2am at home where I’d gotten outta bed at 6am …

My headphones have two pins and fit the CX 3 pin sockets, ignoring the small (power) pin.

 

[doc]

Just plug your standard 3.5mm plug into one of the larger sockets and you'll be good. Historically this would have given you mono sound, but it seems that most modern systems are actually stereo on each socket. I've confirmed this on SQ (A350-900 and 787) and TG (A350-900), although not on CX.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not an A350 specific issue. These are standard airline headphone jacks.

Your NC headphones either has dual or single plug.

If dual plug just plug it into the 2 larger sockets - ignore the small socket as that is for power which is irrelevant for battery operated NC headphones

If single plug you can plug into one of the larger sockets but you only get mono sound

For stereo you will need this "airline headphone adapter" from the usual outlets like Amazon

 

[Forg]

Yep, as I suggested & others have since confirmed, I was bamboozled by the cord coming outta the 3-pin plug in an orientation I’d not seen before, and the two large holes in the socket not aligning horizontally (ie. I’ve only seen it before with the small pin either below or above).

Plus the small pin had 3 electrical contacts instead of the two in the one on that photo.

Add in lack of sleep … and I didn’t even think to use my adapter (which looks like the lower photo) plugged-in at a 120-degree angle from horizontal. It didn’t work plugging-in horizontally, I looked at the plug, I looked at the socket, I got confused, and then I quit in that confusion …

 

[moa999]

As an FYI there are also some really weird looking triangular ones with magnetic pins for special airline supplied headphones.

But they also have two large holes down the bottom for byo.