Two is better than one, right?
Stereo is considered the gold standard of audio sound. A stereo emits two distinct audio tracks through the speakers. While at home and for individual music pleasure, this makes perfect sense, but what if you want to share your music with a friend? There is a good case to be made for listening to your music in mono from time to time – here’s why!
The Case For Listening In Mono
Normally, an audio file consists of two separate sound tracks that complement each other to a comprehensive piece of music. When listening to only one headphone you hear one of those two tracks, making the song or dialogue unintelligible. It can make sharing your favorite track with a friend an unpleasant experience.
Listening in mono solves this issue! In mono, both headphones play identical audio so sharing is no problem. Newer headphones like the Apple Airpods or the TaoTronics TT-BH053 can switch between mono and stereo sound depending on your needs.
Not only does enabling the mono option give you the chance to share the latest tunes, but it also comes in handy in other situations….
- Cycling to work. On one hand you might not want to go without your favorite song to wake you up, on the other your safety is paramount and you need to be aware of the surrounding traffic. When using the mono mode you can do both.
- Travelling. At airports and train stations, you need to follow announcements that concern your travel connections. With a mono ear bud, you will never an announcement ever again.
How To Enable Mono
Now that we have clarified why it makes sense to use the mono mode, let us have a look at how to activate it.
There is plenty of explanations and tutorials on the web, but we have a quick recap to make things easier for you:
Apple Airpods
If you are using an iPhone or iPad as a source, you actually can switch any pair of Bluetooth headphones into mono mode. All you need to do is follow these four simple steps:
- Go to Settings on your iOS
- In the menu, tap General
- Then choose Accessibility
- Scroll down until you reach Hearing and then enable Mono Audio
Et voila!
TaoTronics TT-BH053
If you don’t have iOS device or do not want to splurge on a pair of airpods, TaoTronics has you covered with an affordable alternative. Here is how to activate the mono mode:
- Follow the steps above to put your phone into mono mode
- Take the left ear bud (the master bud) out of the case
- It will enter pairing mode automatically and try to connect to the last device
- If you are connecting to a new device, wait until the light alternates white and blue
- Search for “TT-BH053” in your Bluetooth connections and click it, done!
To wrap things up, mono sound can be super useful to know about. You can easily switch your Bluetooth ear buds from stereo into mono to use on the go or share the latest music with friends.
Want more info on the TaoTronics headphones range, including the new BH053 set? Check out our site here!