Headphones and Audio Quality

[Jennie Ann]

I have always used Sony professional stereo headphones, the kind that fit over your entire ear. I like the way it blocks out room noise when I am transcribing. Some people like the small earbuds or earphones, but I like the Big Kahuna-type headphones.

When transcribing standard audiocassette analog tapes, I had to use a $5 adapter to plug in my Sony transcriber machine, so that I could hear sound in both earpieces of my Sony professional stereo headphones. Sony transcriber machines are mono, I guess.

With the advent of digital technology, I have been using my laptop to download digital audio files, i.e., MP3, WAV, et cetera. I just kept using the adapter on my Sony professional headphones when plugging in the side of my laptop to listen to the digital audio recordings.

Well, by accident, after speaking with a work comrade, at her suggestion I took the adapter off my Sony professional headphones, and it is as of the clouds parted and there was light. The sound quality is as if I'm listening to a $10,000 stereo system. It seems like I'm sitting right there at the proceedings.

Can somebody explain why and/or how this happens for my inquiring mind? I could hear sound in both earpieces with the adapter and without the adapter, but the difference in audio quality is incredible. The adapter is an eighth-inch plug, as depicted below.

[Jennie Ann]

Here is what my Sony professional headphones look like.