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Hisense Headphone Mystery

G

Grindalo

Lurker
Some headphones and earphones won't work with the Hisense. I recently bought a pair of cheap headphones at the local Dollar Store (brand name Sentry, cost about $3.00) which work fine with my laptop, but don't work with the Hisense. Apparently, the Hisense has a non-standard jack.
I saw a review at engadget that also mentions this.
Anyone else here notice this problem?
Is there any way to determine, in advance, which headphones/earphones will or won't work?
I'm thinking about getting some cheap earphones and headphones from Monoprice, but I'm worried that they might not work.
Could we start a list showing which ones will and won't work?

Won't Work=====================
Sentry brand headphones, from Dollar Store (my experience)
Sony, Apple and Jabra earbuds (info from engadget review)

Will Work========================
over-the-ear Panasonic headphones and Tylt Tunz earbuds (info from engadget review)
 
I'm willing to bet that the problem isn't that the jack itself is non-standard.

The switching (from speakers to headphones) is done by detecting the impedance of the headphones, then actuating a software controlled switch. If the impedance is too high, then the switch won't be activated, as the tablet won't "see" the headset. If the impedance is too low, the tablet might be set to reject those also.

It would be nice to measure (an ohmmeter would work just fine) the impedance of the headset/earphones to see what's going on...

I have several headsets, that go from 20 ohms to 30 ohms impedance. All of which work just fine. What is the impedance of the Sentry brand headphones that don't work?
 
Impedance of the Sentry headphones is listed as 32 ohms on the package. I don't have access to an ohmmeter. On the package is what I think is a part number: 784CD. I'm new to this forum and not allowed to post URLs. If you search for "sentry headphones 784cd", without the quotes, you'll see the headphones listed at Amazon and Walmart. It's a 3-pack with headphones and earphones.
On page 11 of the Sero 7 Pro user's manual, Sero7 Pro_us_M_en_man.pdf, there is a diagram showing the male plug that Hisense expects to be used. The plug of the Sentry 784CD headphones (no microphone included) that I have which don't work looks slightly different from the diagram.
The review at engadget I mentioned previously did not say anything about non-standard plugs. It only mentioned that some headphones/earphones tested did not work.
 
On a somewhat related subject, I recently ran across an article at head-fi dot org that said the Hisense supports "USB digital audio out". The author seemed happy about that. Since I don't know much about digital audio, I don't understand the significance of this feature, but apparently there is a way to get better audio quality from the USB port compared to the output of the headphone port. Title of the article is "$150 Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet supports USB digital audio out".
 
Interesting... The 32 ohm impedance should work fine. The diagram you are referring to on page 11 is the standard 4 connector plug. That configuration is used when a microphone is included. When all you have is the stereo audio, the ground and mic portions are solid one piece. (That should be what you are looking at on your Sentry headphones.) Then there are only 3 connectors on the plug. That's all standard stuff. It doesn't make any sense to me that it wouldn't work.

I have some nice headphones that have only 3 connectors that works great.
 
I'm embarrassed. The Sentry headphones work OK with the Hisense. I apologize for the error. Plugged them in again just recently and they worked. Not sure why I thought they didn't work the first time. Might have been because of somewhat high background noise or somewhat low volume of the audio source file, or might even have been that I had the volume turned down too far.
 
I would submit to you that possibly 'Possibly' you were not inserting the plug completely into the jack for that final but minute 'click'. When brand new I noticed this right off with my Hisense not to mention, several other devices over recent years. You'd swear it was properly plugged in, when in accuality... it wasn't but only by nths of say a millimeter, just enough not to complete the connect. Most often though, you'll noticed this by getting a mono output when you expect stereo...

My Thinkpad laptop is two years old now and I still have to always remember to make certain my phones are plugged all the way in.

YMMV
-Dave
 
I have his sense pure phone. New. The headphone jack seems to be faulty in which sense I can hear the music but its not clear or loud enough. Unusually the singing of the song is quite low. Can anyone shed some light on this? Or possible solutions?
 
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