Headset TRRS cable

[Entityy]

So I'm looking to buy a specific headset, but it has one known problem. It uses a 4 pole TRRS cable instead of 5 pole which has been causing crosstalk for a lot of people(audio from the headphones coming through the mic) even when the mic is completely detached, which indicates it is indeed the cable's fault. My question is, will that by any chance be fixed if I plug the 3.5mm jack into a splitter?

[gurubuzz]

I think your instinct is right, the crosstalk comes from poor insulation between wires. Unless it's a design fault and the connector has bad connections internally. Replacing the cable is a pain. I have tried many times to solder headphone cables but I've never been able to do it perfectly. The headphone cables are very light gauge and the points they solder to on the headphone end is very tiny.  Headphone wires are weird too they don't have traditional insulation they are more like copper coil wires that have a plastic coating that you need to burn off before soldering.. I also don't get what you mean with 5 pole.

 

[gurubuzz]

Oh, Looked it up and the 5 pole ones seem like a propriety Sony product with a 4.4mm jack. I have been a sound engineer for over 20 years and this is the first Ive heard of it. They are used, it seems for balanced signals for balanced headphones. So Left hot, Left Cold, right hot, right cold and earth. If you also wanted a balanced mic in the mix it would need to be a 7 pole.....Seems like overkill. I have used Ethernet cables to wire up headphones in recording studios and have never had any crosstalk or rf interference even with over 50 foot runs through walls and along side power cables...

[Spuriae]

Audible crosstalk (voltage coupling) through wires only a few feet long at audio frequencies isn't a common problem – and should be more or less physically impossible if the microphone is completely disconnected (there's no return path for the current!). This indicates that the connector is faulty or there is a short circuit in the cable. High ground impedance on the audio interface could cause a similar issue, but seems unlikely.

 

For this issue, plugging into a splitter is unlikely to solve the problem unless the problem was with your computer/phone/interface to begin with. Rewiring the cable completely would likely fix it, but that's a difficult problem unless the cable is detachable; cheap audio wires often have insulation that's a pain to remove when soldering.

 

5 poles is usually a proprietary standard which requires a specific interface supporting that standard, and there are multiple conflicting standards. There is one sometimes used in headsets that involves an additional ground wire for the microphone. It doesn't actually make any difference unless the interface is designed wrong (such as a microphone input with high ground impedance but low input impedance), or the cable is abnormally high resistance (broken). One adds an additional microphone channel, and another is a balanced audio connector, but neither of those sound like what you are describing.