Customer Reviews

Griffin SmartTalk Headphone Adapter with Control and Mic for iPhone 1G

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought 4 of these. With use, two of them have begun to have an erratic connection. Also, the microphone is not very sensitive, so for most phone calls, I have to hold the microphone in front of my mouth, defeating the purpose of the product.

When I got my iPod Touch 2G I knew I needed a microphone, so I started shopping and ended buying the "Griffin SmartTalk Headphone Adapter". I am very happy with my purchase. The mic is well made, I like the cloth that covers the cord and most importantly, the sound quality is excellent; for such a mall thing. The only downside with the adapter is the extra length of cord I now have. No biggie.

I ordered 2 of these, one for my car and one for my Bose Headphones so I could hook them up to my iPhone and talk on the phone. They do NOT work with the new iPhone 4. They do work with earlier iPhones. The actual "jack" 'is too short for the new iPhone. Also I emailed the company and got no response at all from them.

I've owned three of these in the last 12 months. Two failed and were returned to the store where purchased (a big box electronics store). When they are working, they are great, but it seems like the connection points are poorly soldered. I lost sound in one ear or the other with the previous two. The current one has worked well and consistently for about 7 months. I can recommend these with the warning that they seem prone to failure. However, when it is working, it is a very good voice mic and there is zero loss the quality of music on pass through.

The good news is, when it works this product does exactly what it should. I use the Sony MDR EX71 headphones, and I get great sound from earbuds that don't hurt my ears like the Apple product does.

The bad news is, the woven cable is too stiff to flex repeatedly, and should be better protected where it comes from the plug- more flexible cable or longer heat-shrink tubing would help a lot. I lost the sound in one ear after 45 days. I never manhandled the adapter, but do keep my phone in my front pants pocket.

I bought two of these. One for myself and one for my wife. We both use Shure headphones with these attached. Mine is working and hers will not work. There is a problem wit the plug properly aligning with the connector.

I have bought several solutions to this problem and in every case it seems that that the extra circuit Apple uses to provide the mic and control functions for the iPhone cause problems for every company who tries to creat a solution to this problem.

Please Apple do one of the following.

1. Share the full schematics with 3rd party manufacturers for the electrical circuit and manufacture of the iPhone mic controller.

2. Manufacture a decent headset yourself using Etimotic or Shure like solutions to provide quality sound.

I do think there is a flaw in the circuit Apple designed for the controller head set that is causing a high failure rate across all points of the headsets being manufactured for the iPhone. Even the speakers are failing on iPhone headsets as a result of some kind of feedback loop or something causing the parts to wear and fail. Apple is not admitting anything but I hear from people there are lots of headsets getting returned with buzzing earpieces and failed connector joints and plugs.

In short this is the best of all the mic controllers I have tried.( I have them all) but it still seems to suffer from the same problem. I also wish they had not used the cloth cover as I fully expect it to fail but hey all the rubber ones are failing at the joint as well so maybe the best solution is just a make them cheap enough to make them nearly disposable as even my high quality Shure Mic at $40 failed with in weeks at the connector.

Jeff Stuckey

Well, I saw the reviews that complained about the durability (or lack thereof) of this item. However it has been my experience that many people complaining about durability are really abusing their products. I discovered that this was not the case this time...mine lasted about four months before going intermittant.

What a shame because it had worked very well up to that point. The system for pausing, skipping forward and back worked fairly well (skipping back was tough to master), the cable was the right length, I had no problems with volume and intelligibility with the mic. In all a good performing unit.

But I do treat my things VERY carefully, headphones, etc. last longer in my care than with most people, this died rather eaily. so be careful, I am going to try the monster cable version of this item to see if that lasts longer.

It was great when I first got it. I was so excited by the sound quality and the functionality, I ordered a 2nd pair for my wife. Now after one week, and before my 2nd pair is here (too late to cancel it now...), the mic stopped working. Whatever I say gets chopped up and only half of what I say actually come out. I used it only for 5 long conference calls and never carried it around so it must be the initial build quality issue. I will see if my 2nd pair will also stop working after a week and report back here.

I have gone through both the monster i sonic and now the griffin i-talk.

First let's start with the Monster, outgoing call quality may be better that the Griffin but it has a huge and fatal flaw, and that is the dongle itself. The Monster has a huge connector, which at first may not seem like a big deal, but it acts like a lever when put it into your pants pocket. It will definitely remove your headphone jack from the iphone circuit board, it in fact did so in less than a week after purchase. (Thank you Apple Store SF. for letting me upgrade to 16gb as I returned my broken phone) This is just through normal use, I was even pretty cautious as I just bought the phone, if you put the phone in your shirt pocket that may help, but ultimately even that will lead failure.

Now lets move on to the Griffin. They took a different route. With this you plug your headphones into the top of the cable which makes for a much lower profile at the phone itself, but as noted adds that length to your current headphone cord. I am lucky to have fairly new headphones that allow for replaceable cords ( Bose OnEar if you are interested.) so the Griffin just replaces that which is pretty sweet. Now the bad news. The cord on the Griffin has a vinyl cover which seems to be the rage these days. I am not sure why however as in my exierience they blow. The problem is that the material is relatively stiff and now the cable is failing at the connector (hey at least its not my phone this time). So long story short avoid the Monster at all costs, and if you can manage to not trip over the Griffin's cord maybe buy 2 at a time as the crappy cord materials make it disposable at best.

Can I please get a decent solution? One with full functionality ( I am looking at you Bose). The i-phone is awesome it amazes me that noone can figure out the friggin cord though.

I had 3 of these already, and all 3 of them broke on me.

2 of them stopped giving sound to my left ear.
1 of them made the sound static.

I bought 2 originally for myself and my brother.

Less than a week from purchasing them, mine stopped working... So I returned it, got another one.

All within one month... THEY ALL STOPPED WORKING! This was among the worst products I have ever used.