Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter for iPhone
by Shure
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter for iPhone
Customer Review: Great product with couple significant flaws
Summary: 3 Stars
I really like the product & use it daily. Sound quality great, iPod control is fantastic & microphone function seems to function fine (I've never heard myself talk with it!)
That said, my unit has 3 serious flaws:
1. The wire to the left headphone has intermittent contact, and the problem point is right down by the plug, as others have noted. Structural failure after 3 months of us is just not acceptable. Please use sturdier materials!
2. Sometimes the pause function for the iPod gets messed up & the iPod doesn't play when it should be. Pressing the button again causes a brief burst of music, then it pauses again. Sometimes just waiting a while then trying again works, sometimes it doesn't. In that case I have to unplug the cable, enter the iPod software, quit, restart, then plug in the cable & go again. In spite of the long description, this has been an infrequent and minor annoyance, usually when I've been pausing, then playing a lot in rapid succession.
3. The cable really is too long. I've got the end near the plug looped twice with the loop roughly the size of my iPhone, and held in place with 4 trimmed mini zip ties. That part of the cable fits behind my iPhone in my belt case. Then the headphones reach my head with spare room for movement. Really, it's about 2 feet too long.
The above issues are real problems, but I did just order a replacement for the damaged cable. It is a technology product that I use everyday, so you get the idea how I really feel about it.
Customer Review: Alternatives, and what I would -really- like...
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't own this one but I own two less-expensive alternatives which both have the advantage of a shorter cord, and one which is sinfully inexpensive! I love Shure products but they're missing a mark here.
The alternatives are the:
- Griffin Smart Talk Adapter, about $15 from Amazon Griffin SmartTalk Headphone Adapter with Control and Mic for iPhone 1G and elsewhere. Its cord is 2-1/2 feet.
- A similar no-name item from DealExtreme which is under $5 as I recall. Its cord is 1-1/2 feet which is about perfect when used with the Shure SE110 'phones, which have short (1-1/2 foot) cords.
Both work just fine, but I can't compare them to the Shure model for microphone audio quality. No complaints from callers for either of these, though.
Now, what I would -really- like is for someone to combine the functionality of this with the Shure Push to Talk accessory, which allows you to hear people through the phones. My ideal device would have an additional button, which when pressed, feeds the microphone to an internal amplifier and then to the headphones. When the flight attendant speaks to you, you press the button and can hear without removing the phones.
It would probably be a bit larger and needs a tiny battery, of course.
Customer Review: Works as advertised.....but WAY too long
Summary: 3 Stars
this thing does what it says it does. it's an adapter. not sure why that should cost [a jackson + hamilton] (edit that, amazon). it seems high-quality. but it's [a jackson + hamilton.] anyway, it does also have the song pause/skip button, and the mic, both of which are hard to come by. and it does work. but my main beef: couple it with shure earphones, and the chimeric beast you've created is approximately 43 feet long. you could weave a few of these together and drag the ocean for fish. or treasure.
with the exception of the opportunistically evil pricing of the adapter, it's not exactly shure's fault. stupid apple made the 2G iphone incompatible with pretty much every set of phones in existence but their own. the adapter needs to be that long to get the mic to the right distance - about chest/neck level. problem is, you can't make your shure headphones any shorter, so you end up with a lot of extra wire between the mic and your ears. i mean a LOT. walking around, wires dangling around my feet, i look like some radio shack reject, and if i pull the combo out of my jacket, it takes about 20 minutes to untangle. i think the only remedy is to snip the shure headphones short, and re-wire them to the adapter. i'm a little leery about doing that, given the cost of the phones. sad to say, but apple OEM phones seem to be the only answer.
Customer Review: It does the job, but isn't great.
Summary: 3 Stars
It is hard to get a connector between earphones and the iPhone wrong. At it's most basic level the cord allows you to connect the Shure E3C-N headphones to your iPhone and it does the competently. Since the E3C-Ns has a removable extension cord using the iPhone adapter just requires swapping one for the other. It seems like it would work with other headphones, but I didn't try it.
The adapter has a small plug allowing it to fit, unmodified, into the recessed jack on first gen iPhones. This is only a minor offering since 5 minutes with an X-Acto knife gets you the same result using the standard cord. Other iPhone specific features include a microphone and a button to pause/unpause music and answer calls. I didn't find any difference in sound quality between this and the standard cable.
Why only 3 stars? The microphone hangs pretty far away from your mouth and that makes picking up your voice a bit harder. It comes with a clip that helps, but people say they can hear me better on the standard iPhone earbuds. This is forgivable except for the fact that for what it is, I find the cable to be very expensive. 30-40 USD felt a bit steep. At half that price you're looking at a 4-star review.
Customer Review: Exactly what I needed (almost)
Summary: 4 Stars
I hate, hate, HATE Apple's earbuds that come with iPods and iPhones. Having just purchased an iPhone 3Gs, I was not looking forward to making do with the stock earbuds. As I investigated my options, I found a Shure product that fit the bill...then found that it was actually two pieces, available separately. Since I already have, and love, a mid-price pair of Shure earbuds, this adapter was perfect. Almost.
Personally, I'd have preferred a shorter cable, less than 3 inches. Mabye even no cable at all, just the microphone sticking out of the plug. As I keep my iPhone in my shirt breast pocket*, and my existing earbuds have quite a long cable of their own, I've taken to tying the combined cables in a loop, leaving the microphone facing out. Not terribly attractive, but it works.
Apart from that, it's brilliant. In the morning, on my commute days, I plug it in, put in the earbuds, push the button, and the music starts. If the phone rings, push the button, and it switches to the phone call. No volume control, but that's a minor problem, as the iPhone has buttons for that purpose that are easy to reach in my shirt pocket.
*Don't get me started on the clothing salesman who, when I asked if his store carried polo shirts with pockets, replied "they're not very popular".