Xbox One Headset Adapter DIY

The headset that comes the with Xbox One is a solid ‘OK’ on the headset-scale of terrible to excellent. That said, the adapter that actually attaches the headset to the controller is pretty fantastic; it has mute (with an indicator led), volume up and down – what else could you ask for?

This post will detail the steps I took to remove the stock speaker/microphone and add two 3.5mm sockets so that any headphone/microphone can be used instead.

What I used:

  • Small screwdriver/tool to leverage plastics.
  • Torx screwdriver (don’t remember the size – quite small).
  • Soldering station/Heat gun.
  • Wire/heat shrink/sleeving etc.

Using a small screwdriver (or similar tool) leverage the plastic shell that houses the adapter/control buttons – this isn’t very difficult but might require some uncomfortable force.

Remove the five torx screws (all the same size; three black, two silver). The two plastic prongs and casing should come apart easily now. At this stage you should have a situation similar to the following:

Xbox One headset tear down.

Xbox One headset tear down.

You are interested in the following part (I hope this was obvious):

Xbox One headset internal board.

Xbox One headset internal board and wiring.

You want to de-solder the blue, black, white and bare wire from the board. One set of two is for the headphone, the other is for the microphone.

Xbox One headset internal board minus wiring.

Xbox One headset internal board minus wiring.

From left the right:

  • Microphone Ground (originally the bare wire).
  • Microphone Positive (originally the white wire)*.
  • Speaker Ground (originally the black wire).
  • Speaker Positive (originally the blue wire).

* Considering there is only mono sound for the speaker, you might want to consider bridging the left and right channel on the 3.5mm socket side.

Attach new wiring, hook it up to a couple of 3.5mm sockets (Unfortunately I don’t think there is enough space inside to house internal 3.5mm sockets – I’d love to see if someone could make it possible though), heat shrink it, sleeve it and put it all back together and you’ll end up with something like the following:

Modified Xbox One headset adapter.

Modified Xbox One headset adapter.

Here it is attached to the (fantastic!) controller and my normal gaming headset:

Modified Xbox One headset adapter and controller.

Modified Xbox One headset adapter and controller.

Job done. Back to Forza 5!

9 thoughts on “Xbox One Headset Adapter DIY

    1. Damon Pollard Post author

      Yes, absolutely.

      Looking at the Straight Talkback Cable, you could remove the 2.5mm jack that connects to the Xbox 360 controller and solder it directly to the Xbox One adapter, or you could do something similar to what I did and attach a 2.5mm socket to the adapter instead and plug you Straight Talkback Cable into that.

      I only chose to do 3.5mm sockets because that is what my head gear uses – if you used a 4 way 2.5mm socket, it would be completely compatible with any Xbox 360 headset.

      Reply
      1. Mark Jones

        Thanks! Might give it a shot!

        How would you tell which wire is which e.g. for mic/chat audio? Trial and error I guess?

        Do you think you could add some pictures showing how to open up the connector? I understand it part of it pops off, but now sure where exactly to start.

        Reply
        1. Damon Pollard Post author

          When I took the the adapter apart, I also took the original headphone/mic apart. I just used a multimeter to test connectivity between the adapter points and what they connected to on the other end. The wires being colour coded helped too, but I wanted to double check.

          If I get a chance tonight, I’ll post a picture tonight of how to open it. If you have a small enough screwdriver and come in from the sides you should have any trouble popping it off.
          In this image (http://blog.damonpollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/WP_20131124_001.jpg) the top left piece is the piece that comes off.

          Good luck!

          Reply
  1. Martin

    Hi!
    I made an adapter like yours, but i only get the chat. Is there a way to get the gamesound on the Headset too?
    Regards

    Reply
  2. Warlord

    There IS stereo sound through the board. The actual layout is as follows from left the right:

    ~Ground *for both the speaker and microphone* (originally the bare wire).
    ~Microphone Positive (originally the white wire).
    ~Headphone Right Positive (originally the black wire).
    ~Headphone Left Positive (originally the blue wire).

    Reply
  3. ruben

    hi, i would like to connect my ps4 official stereo headset to my xbox one

    according to this

    https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/1q1h8g/headphone_and_ds4_compatibility_explanation/

    i’ve connected the wire of the tip and wire of the first ring of the jack, together to the “HPL” pad

    than i’ve connected the wire of the second ring to the mic pad

    than the wire of the sleeve to the gnd.

    but it doesn’t work!

    i can only heat a beep from the head set, when i push the “volume +” from the adaptor

    Reply

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