Modders make DIY third-party headset adapters for Xbox One

Determined gamers have already begun modding headset adapters to allow third-party headset compatibility with the Xbox One — after the console launched in North America, Australia and some European territories last week without support for outside brand headsets, reports Kotaku.

Official third-party headset compatibility will be available once Microsoft releases an adapter next year, but until then players can use their own Trittons, Turtle Beach and other third-party headsets with a little soldering work and elbow grease. Kotaku poster "alsybub" said it took him 15 minutes to open his Tritton headset connector, solder in a 3.5 mm jack cable and get his headset up and working with the Xbox One.

"It looks like a product you might buy in a store, and it should work with any headset," he told Kotaku. "It took around 15 minutes to complete."

"Alsybub" said pulling off the back of the connector and unscrewing its guts is easy. From there, modders should focus on the four wires at the top right of the connector.

"With standard 3.5mm stereo wiring you solder, from left to right, Red, Ground, Green, Ground," he said. "The ground is shared by both connections (i.e. 3.5mm uses three wires 1x Red, 1x Green, 1x Ground) so I split it and covered them with heat shrink."

The modder noted there is no loss in quality or volume when modifying the connector, and players can even add in a 2.5 mm socket for use with Xbox 360 headsets.

User David N. over at Instructables has also posted a step-by-step guide on how to solder you own Xbox One support into your third-party headset connector.

In October, Microsoft reported that a third-party and Xbox 360 headset adapter will be released for the Xbox One in early 2014.