You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Apple wired earphones with 3.5mm pin - Magnet's polarity

I've got two pairs of original Apple wired earphones with 3.5mm jack, with L1, R1 being those sides of pair 1 where letter L or R is written in grey font, similarly L2, R2 are those sides of the pair 2 where letter L or R is written in grey font). Now, try the following:

  1. Bring closer any combination of L or R sides from both pairs, e.g., L1 - L2, R1 - R2, L1 - R2, L2 - R1), they Repel. This seems to indicate that the polarity of L or R side is identical (both are either north poles or both are south poles), and this is true across multiple apple earphone pairs.
  2. Similar to #1 above, but flip one of them and observe Attraction.

The above makes sense, knowing the presence of magnets in each of the earphone speakers.


Recently, a friend gave me a brand new looking open box of earphones (say, gifted pair) that were bought off of ebay, whose wires are slightly thinner than my original pairs, not as soft/flexible as my original pairs, but the quality of sound is as good as my original pairs. Trying #1 above however results into attraction (unlike my original pairs).


Questions:

  1. Are All apple earphone pairs manufactured with identical polarity, i.e., L as well as R sides are either all NORTH or all SOUTH polarity?
  2. Is it possible that apple earphone pairs are manufactured such that some units have L and R sides with NORTH polarity while other apple earphone units have L and R sides with SOUTH polarity? That is, if #1 above is attempted using one pair from each set of such units, result would be an attraction.


Just trying to understand if my new pair of headphones is a high quality replica of apple product.


Thank you

iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 8:08 PM

Reply
5 replies

Apr 27, 2020 6:54 AM in response to erpprof

Adding a picture to assist with illustration. On the left side of the picture, when the two faces of speakers that read L and R are brought together, they repel each other. The two on right side of this picture attract. This is true even if we take multiple apple earphone pairs in any combination. My question is, is this how "ALL" apple earphones (assume a given model say A1472) behave?

Thanks again.

Apple wired earphones with 3.5mm pin - Magnet's polarity

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.