Installing a stereo jack

[mrredsun]

I've been getting pretty crappy sound from my Advent wireless headphones, and the audio quality gets better/worse when I move the line-in wire. So, I thought I could replace the line-in wire with a stereo jack. I've seen two variants of these: 5 leads and 3 leads. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to either of these? I have a 5 lead stereo jack that I removed from a cheap AM/FM player, but it was rigged for monaural use, so I couldn't tell how to solder the connections for stereo input.

Can anyone help me on this? I'm just not sure what the extra solder leads are for. If they're not necessary, could I just ignore them? No amount of Googling would come up with any decent answers.

Thanks for any help provided!

 

[Udimet720]

One suggestion would be to go over to Radio Shack or similar electronics store where you can buy a headphone jack. This is probably better than reusing an old one, as the contacts can become dirty over time. I can't say I've ever seen a 5-lead jack. The main thing is just matching the leads on your headphone (male) plug. Any additional contacts will just be redundant.

If I'm not mistaken, the left ear should be the tip of hte plug. Right should be the middle section. the base is the ground. But you should be able to test this before soldering to confirm.

Hope this helps.

 

[mrredsun]

Thanks! I did figure out where the leads from the audio jack go, but there are two pins each for both the left and right channel contacts. Maybe that extra contact is to pass on the current to another device? If so, I guess I can ignore it.