The way to take care of those tiny headphone jacks is to use a "pigtail" connector that is light enough that it will not put too much mass on the 1/8" jack.

I like to use the smallest plug I can find and the smallest diameter cable for at least the first foot or two, and I always FASTEN that cable to something solid about a foot or so away from the earphone jack at gigs. I would also recommend sticking some Velcro like hook and loop fastener to the tiny mp3 player so that you can stick it onto your music stand, keyboard, PA table or whatever. Don't expect a static situation at any gig, things can fall, get knocked off or worse, get pulled away such that too much force is exerted on the tiny earphone jack.

Do the same for use with a laptop.

If you use headphones with your laptop a lot, do the same thing, find a way to attach the headphone cord to something solid, leaving a loop of wire between that point and the jack in the laptop. Or consider a wireless headphone rig.

I've used the headphone jack on several laptops in live gigging with BIAB over the years, and with this kind of care have not had a single problem. Occasionally it may become necessary to CLEAN the headphone jack, this can be done with a very small bit of CAIG electronics control cleaner lube spray applied to a suitable earphone plug, then insert the plug into the jack and rotate lightly back and forth before the cleaner evaporates.

One last thing about using the earphone jack output as a Line Output: Always turn the volume of the player ALL THE WAY UP and then adjust volume at the PA input. This is because an Audio line loves to be DRIVEN hard. You will experience less noise when doing this plus a richer sound. Never try to get volume by "sucking" an audio signal out of the opposite end of the line, this is a recipe for amplified noise.

In some certain few cases, turning the device's volume all the way up may result in a bit of distortion. If that occurs, suspect the battery voltage to be low first. If the distortion is still there with fresh batteries or AC power, only then turn the volume down just enough to limit the distortion. From then on do any Volume adjustments at the PA amplifier. This will get the most you can get out of your hookup. The same applies to a Line Output if it is adjustable.


--Mac

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