I bought the Griffin adapter as sort of an emergency purchase, and it's awful! The cable is flexible, sure. I feel like most cables are. This one, however, has a terrible "bouncy" quality that is incredibly annoying whenever I take the iPhone out of my pocket.

I used it for about a week before buying an iFitz adapter from iFrogz.com. It's small, flexible, and most importantly, not bouncy. The Griffin adapter is now permanently in my car, hooked up to the tape adapter.

Check out the adapter at monoprice.com. Just do a search for iPhone. It's only $1.33!!!! Even cheaper if you buy it in quantity. I don't have one, or even an iPhone, but monoprice is always my first stop or cables and adapters.

There's one option you forgot. I've had success with taking a box cutter to the plug, and removing about 1mm of plastic from it. It worked great on a Bose noice-cancelling headset, and on a Sony cassette adapter.

The best iPhone headphone adapter continues to be the tiny headphone adapter that shipped in the first generation iPod shuffle sport case. It's 3" long, Apple's traditional super flexible white cabling, branding free and utterly cheap (ebay has them for

Jeremy: The iFrogz model is another we'd like to take a look at.

I think the issue you're describing with the Griffin adapter is due to the rubbery covering on the cable; it does indeed have a bit of a "bouncy" effect.

Hans: We didn't forget that; this was a roundup of adapters, not a how-to on modifying headphone plugs ;-) We've actually covered just such a procedure in the past.

Phil: We've covered that solution before, as well:

http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/07/another_headphonejack_adapter.php

Or you can just take an x-acto knife to your current headphones and trim them for $0.00

So stupid apple made the iphone that you have to use an adapter what were they thinking. Also why has nobody made an adapter that is flush with the device and doesn't dangle around and look stupid. Steve if you are listening next iphone make sure you don't need a stupid dongle so that I can listen to my Grado Headphones thanks

That monoprice.com one looks good.

This Dynex (Best Buy house brand) adapter is similar. I'd recommend it, though it is a bit bigger than the picture makes it look - enough that I don't want to leave it in all the time.

I'd love to see a plug that doesn't use a long cable but just plugs in to the existing port and has a spot to plug in my headphones on the other end, my headphones allready have enough cabling for length.

David: The risk of that approach is that a rigid adapter puts a lot more stress on the iPhone's headphone jack; the "cable in the middle" approach is safer.

I really like the Smartphone Experts iPhone adaptor here ($10): http://store.phonedifferent.com/smartphone-experts-headphone-adapter/12A45A2695.htm

It's like the belkin adaptor in that it's not a cable, yet it's smaller and still flexible.

I bought one at Best Buy not covered in the article that matches the iPhone (silver and black). It works fine. I also have the Shure music phone adapter, which is an even better solution.

No, Brian, I'm afraid Steve Jobs is not listening to you.

Also consider the Monster iPhone adapter. Good look (better, IMO, than any pictured above), good price ($10).

I went through three different kinds (iFrogz, Dynex/Best Buy, and ProCable). None of them really worked.

I tend to wrap the cable around the phone when keeping it in my pocket or when it sits on the counter. The cable bends at the point where it hits the plug and after a while, the sheath comes loose and the whole thing falls apart. The Dynex didn't do this (since it's solid) but then transferred the strain to the headphone connector itself so I had to get a new headphone.

I ended up getting some heat-shrink tubing at Radio Shack (a sampler pack was around $3) and carefully warmed a 3/4" length with a lighter until it fit tightly around the plug. This kept the wire strain away from the end. I haven't had a problem since.

Ultimately, though, the solution is to just bite the bullet and buy a dedicated headphone/mic cable. That way you can be listening to music and when a call comes in, you just click the button to take it. It's also handy if you need to quickly pause the music and talk to someone.

Brian, do you have an iPhone? How do you suggest someone could make an adapter that's flush with the phone? The whole problem is that the space around the jack is SMALLER than normal for a male plug, and by definition, an adapter must have the diameter of a female socket. Also, Apple don't make you use an adapter, the make you use their headphones. ;)

You get what you pay for with the Monoprice adapter. I picked this one up for about $3 after S/H, and it ended up coming apart. I recommend a different one.

To everyone suggesting modifying the plug: not realistic, I should be able to plug any headphones into it. I should modify everyone's headphones, even those I don't own?

I own a pair of Bose Soundcomfort headphones, the noise cancelling ones, and I depend on having them for flights and the odd Pzizz session in the office.

I emailed Bose and they informed that they were preparing an adaptor for their headphones which... and this is why I'm posting... they will ship for free to existing customers this month.

So if you own a set of Bose headphones, you should email them and get in touch.

Thanks for this Dan. I just purchased two adapters from RadTech.

1) Good one, Jim Stewart ;)
2) Do these adapters all pass thru all the signals, i.e. not just the sound but microphone?

I want an adapter similar to this, except supporting 2.5mm headset jacks, rather than the standard 3.5mm heaphone size.

The 2.5mm jacks are used on many cell phones and on cordless home phones. So, there are tons of headsets available (most of us probably have one from an older phone) which use the 2.5mm connection.

An adapter would allow use of those wired headsets with the iPhone.

I find it curious that no one has mentioned pass-through cables with a microphone, which allow you to use any headphones with the iPhone not only for music, but to accept calls as well. Might I suggest the completely ignored Griffin SuperTalk? Retails for about $20, although I got mine new on ebay for about $12. Great quality, works as advertised.

The Monster iPhone adapter ($10) looks and functions well. They claim it's made to bend without stressing your iPhone, which seemed to be the case, but it's now bent so much that it overstressed itself and I have to fudge with it to get stereo sound.

basmati, we did a roundup of those a while back.