[mattcass]

This just occurred to me, somewhat randomly.

My brother is away so I borrowed his monitor to use with my Powerbook. I put my Powerbook to the right of the monitor. I'm using headphones and listening to music.

The most annoying thing about this set up is that the headphone jack on my Powerbook on the left side. The cord that goes into the headphones is on the left ear. So the cord has to run from the Powerbook, between the Keyboard and Mouse, across my chest, and into the headphones. I have to put my arm over the cord to type. The mouse is constantly bumping the cord too. Easy to fix, I just move the Powerbook. But...

I'm seriously thinking about buying an iMac, so I checked out where the jack is. On the right!

Do iMac users find this somewhat annoying? Do you reroute your headphone cord around the back to the left side? I looked briefly at Sennheiser website and all their single cord headphones connect to the left ear. Industry standard perhaps?

Please share your opinion!

[turtle777]

Uhm, yeah, who listens to headphones on their iMac ?

I use speakers, so it's not an issue...

-t

[red rocket]

I think it's a valid point.

Left‑corded headphones appear to be the standard (my beyerdynamic studio headphones also have the cord on the left), and iMacs have traditionally had their headphone jacks in the wrong place. My gumdrop iMac has the headphone jacks in the right (from my perspective) front speaker enclosure, if I want to use headphones (privacy reasons, not annoying other people), I need to route the cord underneath the keyboard or around the computer itself.

I can only assume that it's too complicated to have a cable running along the inside of the case and have the jacks on the proper side, and that there've never been enough complaints for Apple to do something about it.

[Ozzpot]

I use headphones on my iMac all the time. I'm nocturnal, so the only way I can listen to music while I work without waking everyone up is to use headphones.

I use Sennheisers, which do indeed trail the cord from the left side.

I can't say it's ever been an issue though. The cord is plenty long enough for it to make no difference which side of the machine it plugs into.

[naphtali]

Knowing how obsessive Apple gets about the placement of things, I believe this was more of a deliberate compromise than a careless design flaw.

I think they probably wanted to keep all the ports on the same side for usability (users need not hunt left and right to find the port), neatness, or design (placement of ports on the circuit board, drilling holes on the back cover).

Would make sense for the way the other ports - keyboard etc - are used but not too well for headphones I guess.

[miawj]

Heh heh. Another pressing critical issue!

Since more than 90%* of portable headphones have cords that are too short to use with a computer (even when on the 'correct' side) I think it is a bit of a non-issue. Most people who regularly use headphones will be using ones with very long cords.

*Yes, I just picked that number from the top of my head.** I've no idea what the real statistics are. Sue me.

**Pun intended.

[ghporter]

There's a headphone jack on my iMac? Huh. I guess there is. But I'm probably only 24 inches from the machine right now, so with standard headphone cables being something like 2 meters long, I can't see how where the jack is located could be a real problem...

[mattcass]

Well the cord for the headphones I use is 4 feet long, and it isn't long enough to avoid the keyboard. Looks like I'll be buying an extension when I pick up my iMac...

[kill bill]

Personally I'd rather use wireless bluetooth headphones w/ my Imac. To hell with cables.

[0157988944]

Speakers?

[Kadarin]

How bad would it really be if you flipped the headphones around?

[seivad]

time to buy some shure in-ears ME THINKS... if your using ipod headphones i'll personally slap you

[mattcass]

My external monitor is returned to my brother, my headphones are plugged into the left of the Powerbook, aaaaaaaand no more interference from the headphone cord!