StarTech.com Headset Adapter, Microphone and Headphone Splitter - 3.5mm Male Aux to 3.5mm Female Audio & Mic Combo Jack Y Cable for Laptop / PC (MUYHSMFF)

Without bragging too much, I've just recently bought a new Dell laptop. i7 processor, Solid State Drive, lightweight body.BUT: where my previous laptop had double 3.5mm sockets for my headset/Skype phone, the Dell only has one. Having been sold a totally useless splitter by a music shop overseas (which was only designed to allow two people to listen to one output, not the other way round) I was getting a bit desperate but then remembered my usual mantra - 'Try Amazon'. Trust me, there aren't many single 3.5mm (or USB that I could find) headsets around these day (certainly not for a 'reasonable' price) and I could see myself doomed to using my old laptop for teleconferences, webinars etc. And there are even less splitter adapters. Well I did try Amazon, and for £4.63 got this wonderful product that works like a dream. It even has the headphone and mike plugs marked like they were on my old laptop - fair enough, it took me a while to actually find that out: trial-and-error had worked up to then. Truly lovely.ALSO, and I'm going to add this to all the reviews I'm hoping to do for the other 13 things I bought at the same time, I have to really commend Amazon on their Collect + pick up system. Having been overseas working on one job and just passing through London to another one, I had a problem getting the order delivered to home (especially as I have absolutely no faith in the Royal Mail to do the job, no matter how much you pay them) and so tried the Collect + system. Luckily, my local BP garage has both this and the Locker system. Unfortunately, the latter only allows three days before pick-up whereas Collect + gives you ten. This suited my ordering window - especially as the delivery was still mainly being done by the said unreliable Royal Mail. Apart from some plaintive reminders that I hadn't picked up the orders, it worked brilliantly. Top marks to Amazon once again - and up yours to the British Government.

I'm giving this 5 stars just for working. I've spent hours on the internet trying to understand the ins and outs of the different wiring for '4 pole' (3 lines on the jack plug) connection holes and connection plugs. It seems like they aren't all wired up the same way.In case this helps others, I have an HP Pavilion 15-n256sa Touchsmart computer with a combined headphone/mic hole. This adapter succeeded in splitting the 2 functions so that when I plugged in a 'normal' (2 lines on the jack plug) mic jack and headphones jack via the adapter, they both worked. Now when I go to the 'recording devices' information on my computer, if I have a mic plugged in, it recognizes it as 'mic in front panel (black)', although actually the jack hole is in the right hand side. I also tested it by using the Audacity recording program, which also gave the option of selecting 'mic in front panel (black)'. I used both the external mic and headphones plugged into the adapter and they both worked. I can't really comment on quality, because I only used a cheap old pc mic for testing purposes. I can't comment on longevity, but I did choose the black cable version because I thought it looked a bit sturdier with less bits to break.I also tried the adapter in the audio jack hole of my Moto G phone. The headphones worked, but I couldn't really test the mic because I can't seem to find an app that gives me the choice of selecting an external microphone, so I still don't know if it's possible to connect a mic to the Moto G in this way.Having done all this, I've now ordered myself a decent mic because I want to try some home recording, and I think I'm going to go down the route of connecting to the computer via USB, so I now have to try to find an XLR to USB cable that will work with Windows 8.1.

Perfect for if you're an idiot like me and buy a headset that has 2 cables and you need to plug it into 1. Also is useful if you want to disconnect your microphone easily.Durable, cheap, effective.

Excellent quality, make sure you push the 3.5mm mic and speaker connectors in firmly, the last couple of mm’s are reassuringly tight and need a positive ‘click’ to confirm they are fully seated.

Of no use

I bought this splitter cable to connect an older model headset to my laptop, which only had one combined plug for headphones and microphone. The splitter does its job for sure, but I always thought the plug was a bit loose and my headset got disconnected quite easily. After about a year of daily use, the splitter plug has become so loose that it falls out of the laptop socket at the slightest movement, making it very difficult for me to use the laptop in bed for example. Admittedly, I have stumbled on the wires more than a few times over the year, violently yanking the plug out, which of course could account for the current problems. Even so, I always assumed that the damage from this would be to the socket on the computer, but recently tried another headset and didn't have any looseness issues.... So if you buy this adapter cable, it works fine for what it is intended for, but be careful with it as it seems to take damage rather easily.