Earbuds: which is which?

I’m using the earbuds that came with the Clip+.  Maybe my eyesight just isn’t acute enough, but I can’t find anything to distinguish the left earbud from the right one.  How can I tell which is which?

My Sansa buds (which may have come with a different model) have an “L” and “R” just above the rubber boot where the cord connects to the earbud.

My earbuds have a small (1/8", perhaps) square depression on the inside, just above the boot.  But the only legend I can make out – barely – is a tiny raised dot on one of the depressions.  I’m surprised that there isn’t a more obvious marking.  Every pair of earphones I’ve seen had some kind of L/R marking, and it never was difficult to find it.

Are they like these?

If so, get out your magnifying glass; I think the R or L is inside that little circle to the left of the word Sansa near the cord.

A trick I’ve learned over the years is to tie a small knot in the wire going to one of the earbuds, for me, always the left side.  That way it’s real easy to determine which is right and which is left, even at night with no light.  I have found this to be an easy solution for determining right and left earbuds

Alas, there’s no “Sansa” on these earbuds.  I guess I’ll just experiment with muting the left channel and then tying a knot in the channel that did not go silent Ithe right one),

@champandy wrote:

A trick I’ve learned over the years is to tie a small knot in the wire going to one of the earbuds, for me, always the left side.  That way it’s real easy to determine which is right and which is left, even at night with no light.  I have found this to be an easy solution for determining right and left earbuds

Clever!   :slight_smile:

@tapeworm, the model in your picture isn’t a Clip+.  A Fuze, perhaps?  That might account for the difference.

@pwabrahams wrote:

@tapeworm, the model in your picture isn’t a Clip+.  A Fuze, perhaps?  That might account for the difference.

 

Doubt it. The cheapie little earbuds are shipped with all models. I don’t think Sansa buys different buds to go with different players. But depending on the present inventory and whatever deal they’ve made with the various earbud manufacturers there are different ones out there. Some are all right, some are purely junk. Most people replace them with better and/or more comfortable ones eventually anyway.

@champandy wrote:

A trick I’ve learned over the years is to tie a small knot in the wire going to one of the earbuds, for me, always the left side.  That way it’s real easy to determine which is right and which is left, even at night with no light.  I have found this to be an easy solution for determining right and left earbuds

What I prefer to do is to wrap a small narrow piece of pink duct tape on one wire below the right earbud so I can easily feel  or see which is the left and which is the right earphone.

A great idea as well!   :slight_smile: