The connector tip is connected to a wire that connects to the left headphone driver coil lead. Meanwhile, the ring is connected to the wire that connects to the right headphone coil lead. The connector sleeve is connected to a wire which connects to the two negative poles of the driver coil. The wire comes with a soldered joint along the Y or on the earpiece as this is where the ground wire coming from the plug divides into two wires to connect to the two negative terminals of the coils. TRRS Whirlwind Line Balancer/Splitters do not use the sleeve as a conductor on their unbalanced 6.35mm/ 1⁄ 4in TRS phone input. Tip and ring are wired to the transformer's two terminals; the sleeve is not connected. [81]

The ring which serves as a conductor introduces the possibilities of balanced or unbalanced mono and stereo signals. Loosely defined, audio is the representation of sound – typically using either a level of electrical voltage for analog signals, or a series of binary numbers for digital signals. Gibson, Bill. (2007) The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook, p. 202. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-4234-1971-5To achieve balanced audio, there must be 2 signal wires with one wire transmitting positive polarity and the other one having a negative polarity. In unbalanced audio, there is one ground wire and another signal wire. The TRRRS connector is used to achieve balanced audio while the TRS connector is used for unbalanced audio. International Library of Technology: ...Principles of Telephony... International Textbook Company, Scranton, PA. 1907. p. 36. tip ring sleeve 0-1922.

Balanced and unbalanced audio is also utilized by headphones and most are designed for unbalanced audio. Phone connectors with three conductors are also commonly used as unbalanced audio patch points (or insert points, or simply inserts), with the output on many mixers found on the tip (left channel) and the input on the ring (right channel). This is often expressed as tip send, ring return. [c] Other mixers have unbalanced insert points with ring send, tip return. [d]High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) - for transmitting digital audio and video signals, a very common connector type found on most modern electrical devices. Ranjan Parekh; Ranjan (2006). Principles of Multimedia. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. pp.225–. ISBN 978-0-07-058833-2. PDAs and mobile phones [ edit ] All iPhone models from the first generation to the 6S and SE (first generation) use a four-conductor (TRRS) phone connector (center) for a wired headset. For a balanced mono output, the sleeve works as a return wire as the ring becomes the negative signal while the tip is the positive signal. To achieve an unbalanced stereo signal, the sleeve is the return wire or ground wire as the ring is the right channel and the tip is the left channel.

The TRRRS connector has three rings and is used in the 4.4 mm pentaconn connector which is scarce. Pentaconn is a combination of two words, Penta meaning 5 and Conn meaning connector. They carry balanced stereo audio to compatible headphones. There are three rings in a TRRRS conductor plug. It is a plug commonly used in rare 4.4mm pentaconn connectors. A pentaconn is short for 5 connectors. Despite its scarcity, TRRRS connectors offer balanced stereo audio signals through any compatible headphones or earphones.

Attempting to fully insert the longer (17mm) plug into a receptacle designed for the shorter (15mm) plug may damage the receptacle, and may damage any electronics located immediately behind the receptacle. However, partially inserting the plug will work as the tip/ring/ring distances are the same for both variants.