Is there an adapter to connect my wired headphones (lightning) to my audio port (jack) in my Mac?

Jcolmen wrote:

I'm trying to connect these to my Mac: EarPods with Lightning Connector - Apple.

Slice off the Lightning adapter, and solder or crimp on a 3.5mm plug? (This assumes Apple didn’t do something with EarPods wiring and power levels.)

Otherwise, no.

You’ll pay nearly as much or more in adapters than would replacing the EarPods, and whether it’ll even all then work?

Alternative (which will work): EarPods with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug - Apple

MrHoffman wrote:

Jcolmen wrote:

I'm trying to connect these to my Mac: EarPods with Lightning Connector - Apple.

Slice off the Lightning adapter, and solder or crimp on a 3.5mm plug? (This assumes Apple didn’t do something with EarPods wiring and power levels.)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say: that's not going to work. I'm pretty sure the digital Lighting signal, and the Analog signal from a 3.5mm jack will not have the same information or power levels for the EarPods to work off off.

😉

There is no such adapter. To convert analog audio to digital audio requires computer processing a simple adapter cannot perform. You need an Analog to Digital converter which is a small box that does this conversion. However, Lighting is an Apple proprietary digital connection and no 3rd party converters exist for it.

It would be much easier to use a USB to Lighting converter for that purpose, or more simply by a set of regular 3.5mm headphones.

If your Mac has a USB-C port, you can use one of these:

click here ➜ https://www.amazon.com/Anker-USB-C-Lightning-Audio-Adapter/dp/B07R6MKJZH

Phil0124 wrote:

MrHoffman wrote:

Slice off the Lightning adapter, and solder or crimp on a 3.5mm plug? (This assumes Apple didn’t do something with EarPods wiring and power levels.)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say: that's not going to work. I'm pretty sure the digital Lighting signal, and the Analog signal from a 3.5mm jack will not have the same information or power levels for the EarPods to work off off.

😉

That's certainly possible.

But a second and separate set of EarBuds electronics seems a more expensive approach.

This as compared with (theoretically) keeping the active digital-to-analog electronics entirely inside the Lightning connector, and pushing typical analog voltages and signals from there. Same cable, same EarPods, only with a different connector.

Requiring fewer different parts to stock—increased commonality—is always popular when manufacturing at scale. We were offered all sorts of incentives for the removal of even a single mechanical fastener from an appliance design, for instance. One less fastener per appliance was a whole lot of money.

I don't have a "spare" set of Lightning EarBuds handy to test my theory here, or yours, though.

If this is the AirPods Max or Beats Studio Pro headphones, Apple has a cable to convert 3.5mm to Lightning.

Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable (1.2m) - White - Apple