Lightning to 3.5mm jack adapter - is there such a thing?

[MitchT]

When I bought my iPhone 8 it came with an adapter that has a female 3.5mm jack socket and a male Lightning plug. This enables me to use "old" earphones that have a 3.5mm jack plug with the iPhone which has a Lightning socket.

However, what I want to do is use the earphones that came with my iPhone with my laptop instead. The earphones have a male Lightning plug but my laptop has a female 3.5mm jack socket.

What I need is an adapter that has a female Lightning socket and a male 3.5mm jack plug - in other words, the opposite of the adapter that came with my phone. I can't find any such thing on the market. Does such a thing exist?

[The Rotrex Kid]

Get a male-female 3.5mm adapter, then a lightnight adpater and off you go.



But seriously, no it won't work. The analog/digital conversion won't work that way IIRC.

[MitchT]

That's exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

I could just buy a pair of Apple EarPods with a 3.5mm jack to solve the problem, but I wondered if there was an adapter that would let me use the ones that came with a Lightning plug on a device with a 3.5mm jack socket.

[xeny]

Won't work.

Output of the 3.5mm jack is analogue audio. Output of a lightning port is digital audio and critically some power to power a Digital to analogue converter.

There's no such source of power in a 3.5mm jack socket.

You could plausibly make a USB "sound card" that had a lightning socket (so digital all the way as well as USB as a source of power to drive the Lightning interface), but I'm not aware of such a device.

[MitchT]

Another idea...

If I bought a Lightning to USB-C adapter, would that work? Will audio come out through a USB-C port?

[xeny]

MitchT said:

Another idea...

If I bought a Lightning to USB-C adapter, would that work? Will audio come out through a USB-C port?

Male USB C to female lightning? Would conceivably work, culdn't find one with a quick look. Essentially female lightning connectors seem to exist solely on iPhones/iPads.

How "nice" are the headphones that it isn't simpler to buy something similar with a less inconvenient connector?

[MitchT]

xeny said:

Male USB C to female lightning? Would conceivably work, culdn't find one with a quick look. Essentially female lightning connectors seem to exist solely on iPhones/iPads.

This is exactly what I'm talking about...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-USB-C-Lightning-Aud...

xeny said:

How "nice" are the headphones that it isn't simpler to buy something similar with a less inconvenient connector?

The headphones are nothing special at face value - just the Apple EarPods that came with my iPhone 8. I want to be able to plug them into my MacBook Pro. I already have a pair of identical EarPods with a 3.5mm jack, but I want two pairs so I have a set for the office and a set for home.

I know the EarPods are not supposed to be anything special but I bought a pair of Bose in-ear headphones to replace the crap earphones that came with my old iPhone 4S and the EarPods that I've acquired since then sound a lot better than the Bose ones!

I will concede that the adapter I've linked to above actually costs more than a new set of EarPods with a 3.5mm jack!

[xeny]

Congrats on finding the adapter! I must confess I'm surprised any company decided there would be enough demand to justify making one.

[joshleb]

Speak to some friends who have an iPhone, they must have a spare pair lying around somewhere.