I went to radio shack and picked up a few headphone adapters for the 8830 and none seem to work. When I get the standard jack that has the 3 contacts on it, I only get audio from one side. When I get the jack that has the 4 contacts on it, i get nothing. Am I missing something here? When the jack is connected, I try "activate handset" from the menu, but still nothing.

Since my iPod was ripped off, i was going to use this as a media player, but it seems like it is not going to work. Any ideas?

Get the adapters from this site. They work.

Seidioonline.com

This adapter looks exactly like the one I have from radio shack.
Seidionline

But the ones from Seidio work with the Pearl. The ones from Radio Shack don't.

I just got my BB two days ago, so this thread got me to check my adapter. It only gives me one side through the headphones. The adapter worked fine with my Treo, but not the BB. Interesting.

Jake

I also tried the 2.5mm to 3.5mm 4 pin adapter from RS and it did not work. I got the one from Seidio and it works great. It's either wired differently or the alignmnet of the rings is off on the RS because it doesn't seat far enough into the BB. An ohm meter will verify the wiring. If it's the same start carving the base of the RS adapter.
Another remote possibility is there are components buried in the adapter....
Jim

THX for all the info. I guess I will just order one. Cheaper than an iPod...

BTW - if you live in a larger city that has a Palm store, some of them sell a complete line of Seidio as well - thus you can possibly buy local.

If you travel Northwest Airlines - the Palm store in Detroit Metro Concourse "A" sells this adapter, plus all the Seidio cases for the Blackberry. Pretty nice to be able to try before you buy especially with those hard plastic cases.

fwiw.....

Wait- so does that mean that the jack on my 8830 cannot work a mobile stereo head set? In other words I'm stuck listening to just one side of the head set (with no adapters just those you can listen with both ears and then answer the phone and hang up... YOU'VE SEEN THE HEADSET!).


cali

You need an adapter in order to use any 3.5 standard headphones. If you received a headset with the BB that has two ear buds, then those will be in stereo, too.

I'm a previous Treo 650/700 p user, and the same adapter I bought for the Treo works with my 8830. I'm pretty sure it was the Palm branded one.I get full stereo out, but have only used it to listen to movies and mp3's, haven't tried calls yet.

You say that this will work with the Blackberry Pearl, I have the 8830, are you sure it will work? I have bought two of these things, one at Radio Shack and the other at the Palm company store in Sunnyvale, CA and neither of those work. Everytime I plug in the Palm one, it turns on voice dialing (ie. "Say a command"). I just want to make sure before I throw more money away. These things are non-returnable I was told by Radio Shack. Not sure about the Palm one. Thanx

I have the seidio one and it works fine. The jack in the 8830 is the same. It'll work.

I am in the UK.

I used a company called Expansys and purchased these

Buy a RIM® BlackBerry 8100/8800 Stereo Headset (Black), #HDW-13019-001 - eXpansys UK

Hopefully they have a branch in the country where you are. If you wish just search the site for blackberry earphones.

They work brilliantly by the way.

Thank you very much, it works perfectly with my 8830. I appreciate your help.

W

I picked this one up from amazon. The price is right and it works on the 8800 and 8100. Amazon.com: 2.5mm Cell Phone Hands Free Stereo Adapter with Microphone: Electronics

As an alternative to anybody who might run across this thread, the headphones sold by blackberry for the pearl work fantastically and don't cost a lot of money.

Has anyone had an issue with their Seidio adapter (no microphone built in) activating the voice command? I have to have my phone and adapter completely stationary on my work desk to get everything to work properly. As soon as I move the cord on the adapter / headphone (but keep the adapter connector stationary in the phone), the audio will either cut out, or the voice command will activate. This is completely useless in any situation where the phone will be moving (while walking /working out... etc).

I'm wondering if people are just dealing with this, or if I'm an anomaly.

Edit: When viewing the headphone connector connection from the back of the phone, is this how far it is plugged into the phone? Seems like I had to push pretty hard to get it to that position:

I have the adaptor from Seidio with the integrated microphone.

It works, but now that I can listen to mp3's on my BB, I have discovered something I wish I had known before paying for the adaptor:

THE SOUND QUALITY OF MP3s ON THE BLACKBERRY IS TERRIBLE !!!

If you like sound that is totally flat, with a tinny/hollow sound which contains little to no Bass, then maybe you'd be happy with it.
Not me.

RIM should do an update to the 8800 to add an equalizer function to the media player. Without one, the sound is so bad that it is actually not enjoyable to listen to music.

If you want a device to actually "enjoy" listening to MP3s, then go buy an actual MP3 player - which is what I am going to do.....perhaps the new 16MB Creative Zen.....