I have the same handicap of a deaf right ear but normal hearing with my left ear.
Last week I bought the Sansa Fuze 8GB hoping that I can connect it with my mono earbud (Hama In-Ear Mono Earphones HK-200, impedance 32 Ohm, Sensitivity 96 dB) but I got dropouts while playing music.
Mostly I hear audiobooks which are normally in mono and use one side of a stereo earphones but I need also a solution for hearing music.
Are there any plans for future firmware releases that there will be a system setting like using the Sansa Fuze Radio to hear everything in mono.
I strongly vote for mono. Usually when i’m in traffic i use to listen only other earbud for keep sense of what is going on around. You could add mono to EQ setting menu.
FM radio has this feature already, but it is for reducing stereo decoder hiss in weak radio field. I use that when i’m hiking in the forests.
The stereo outputsocket has 3 contacts: left(tip=3), right(ring=2) and ground(sleeve=1)
Mono jack has 2 contact: audio(tip=3) and ground(sleeve=1)
Conclusion: right channel is connected to the grounding channel and the audio will be lost (and you’re actually short-circuiting the R-channel of your amp).
I think this shouldn’t be a big challenge to achieve for the programmers.