Splice Your iPhone's Bundled Earphones for Superior Sound

Anyone who remotely cares about the quality of their audio knows that Apple's standard iPhone or iPod earphones simply aren't that great. And while you could go out and buy a decent third party pair, you lose out on the handy functionality of Apple's built-in microphone and remote. For hands-free junkies and audiophiles alike, the choice is difficult one.

Unless, that is, you don't have to make that choice at all. Flickr user Yutaka Tsutano was faced with the exact same situation, and did what any other enterprising geek would do — he combined his two options into one. By simply splicing the wires of Apple's microphone and remote with a superior style of earphone, Tsutano was able to get the best of both worlds — and we'll show you how to do the same.

A word to the wise, this this hack is inherently destructive; in other words, you'll be combining two pairs of headphones together to make one working — albeit superior — pair.
Luckily, the actual process takes little explaining. Snip the earbuds from your Apple headset, ensuring the cut is made above the microphone hardware and not below. Meanwhile, remove the 3.5mm minijack from your new and improved earbuds. In both cases, be sure to leave as much extra wiring as you can for stripping purposes, should you make any mistakes along the way.

Now you'll have two separate cables, with left and right channels for each.  Not all earphones use the same sort of color-coded wiring inside, so it might be worthwhile to mark the left and right on both pairs before making any cuts. Also, it's important to note that any coloring or insulation left on the terminating points can interfere with your final product, so it may be necessary to lightly scrape some of this back for a strong connection.

Once this is done, connect the two wires together, either with a small amount of solder or electrical tape. If all goes well, secure the whole cable together, and you should have a fully functional remote and microphone — but without the crappy Apple earbuds.

This process is, perhaps, a no-brainer, but it's a clever way to combine the functionality of Apple's own accessories with the superior sound of some good quality headphones. That being said, you could even modify the process to make things more modular. Instead of splicing a good pair of headphones to your Apple cable, you could use a female 3.5mm plug instead. This would allow you leave your superior headphones untouched, and car audio or speaker systems could even take advantage of the in-line volume control too.

Do you have any old uses for old or retired headphones? Are the stock Apple headphones and remote good enough for you? Let us know what you use.