# Stereo headphones **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733 "2004-02-05T21:48:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ShepherdWong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@ShepherdWong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShepherdWong)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/1 "2004-02-05T21:48:50Z")
How do stereo headphones take an output that appears to have two contacts and split it into two channels? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/2 "2004-02-05T21:53:49Z")
They have three conductors, connected to either a 1/4" phone or 1/8" mini-phone connector. Shell is the common ground, ring is right-channel audio and tip is left-channel audio. ---
**Author:** ![ShepherdWong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@ShepherdWong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShepherdWong)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/3 "2004-02-05T22:29:43Z")
Huh! I’m a moron, I guess I shoulda looked a little closer. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![dw817](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@dw817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dw817)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/4 "2004-02-05T22:58:54Z")
> [@ShepherdWong](#): > > Huh! > I’m a moron, I guess I shoulda looked a little closer. > Thanks. Hi Shepherd Wong: If you want to convert MONO to true stereo on your computer, you can use a good program like Sound Forge 5 which delays the right speaker just a bit for perfect stereo. You can find that on Shareaza. Hope This Helps ! David ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/5 "2004-02-05T23:44:18Z")
> [@dw817](#): > > If you want to convert MONO to true stereo on your computer, you can use a good program like Sound Forge 5 which delays the right speaker just a bit for perfect stereo. This is not anything like true stereo. Filling out a mono soundtrack by delaying one side (it’s actually much more complicated than that. For more information read [this](http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/august03/digitaldomain_dd2.shtml), which contains a description of the process.) might give you some decent depth, but it will never approach the quality of a true stereo recording. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/6 "2004-02-06T00:10:45Z")
I recall reading someplace that GB used that technique in/around WWII on… spy recordings? I forget. By using two tape heads, the slight delay & fake stereo effect apparently helped word recognition. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereo-headphones/227733/7 "2004-02-06T00:38:56Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > This is not anything like true stereo. Filling out a mono soundtrack by delaying one side (it’s actually much more complicated than that. For more information read [this](http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/august03/digitaldomain_dd2.shtml), which contains a description of the process.) might give you some decent depth, but it will never approach the quality of a true stereo recording. Plus, if there’s a full orchestra and it’s recorded with (for example) strings on the right and brass on the left, you won’t get that in a mono recording. And a simple delay can’t separate the two.