You got a shiny new iPhone this gift-giving season. You absolutely love everything about it except… the cheapo earbuds. (Don’t ya just wish Steve’s MacWorld keynote ended with “…and one last thing- from now on all iPhone’s will ship with earbuds worthy of the iPhone!”?) Luckily, you have a favorite pair of headphones that sound great and are incredibly comfortable. So you figure you’ll just use them… but, oh, wait a second, you can’t because they don’t work with the iPhone’s recessed plug and even if they did, the lack of an in-line mike would mean you couldn’t use them as a hands-free device.
You could buy a new pair of headphones like the Altec Lansing Upgrader Series reviewed by Aczon yesterday or get a pair of Ultimate Buds UB7 for $149.99 but you already own a good pair of headphones. That’s where the Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter for iPhone comes in. Widely available from numerous in-line retailers, (and priced at $39.99 on Amazon.com) the Shure Music Phone Adapter’s plug is designed to fit into the iPhone’s recessed plug and allows you to use any pair of headphones with a standard plug.
While the sound quality using the adapter is fully dependent on the headphones you use (I continue to enjoy the Etymotic ER6i Isolator Earphones I reviewed previously) the in-line VoicePort microphone sounds great during calls. I used them on a conference call yesterday while driving on a highway and my colleagues could hear me perfectly! According to the company the adapter uses, “the same technology as Shure’s QuietSpot mobile headsets, is tuned to optimize intelligibility, ensuring callers hear you clearly even in noisy environments.” In addition, it includes a control button for answering and ending calls.
There are downsides to the Shure Music Phone Adapter, however. At $39.99 while not expensive, it is not cheap either. More significantly, the adapter is 30 inches long. When used with the ER6i headphones, which have a 60 inch cord, you are talking about having to deal with 7 ½ feet of cable!! Unless you are a 7’9″ Duke Basketball player that is one heck of a lot of cable with which to deal! While using the adapter in the car I found the long cable an advantage as it allowed me a great deal of flexibility in optimally positioning the microphone, but for daily, non-car use it is a bit of a hassle. My experience with them yesterday leads me to the conclusion that both the cost and the challenge of cable-management are well worth it, however.
Pros
- Let you use your own headphones.
- iPhone-compatible adapter makes any headphones usable.
- Turns standard headphones into a complete hands-free device.
- Voice quality of the mike is excellent.
Cons
- Excessive cable can be a challenge
- Somewhat pricey
You can get the Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter at Amazon.com, and if you’d like to help support this site you can grab them at our Amazon Affiliate Store HERE.
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