Bill

My point was - the headphone jack on my laptop started feeling sloppy, like yours, and within a few weeks, it quit completely. Mine was the result of an accident of someone trying to help me and moving the laptop with it still connected to the amp and hitting the end of the cable (pulled it sideways). If it had not been for that, maybe it would have lasted forever, but accidents do happen. Soldering is no problem for me. I made my living at it for over 30 years. The problem was getting the motherboard out of the laptop without inadvertently tearing something else up. Apparently the geeks at Best Buy felt the same way, as they wanted a small fortune to replace the jack, so I went for the Behringer unit for $25 and problem resolved.

In your case, I would be dubious about the torque that adapter can apply to the jack, especially if you bump it sideways, accidentally. I have a 1/4 inch female to 1/8 male adapter with a 12 inch cable between the plugs that I made up many years ago. It takes the strain off of the jack. Radio Shack sells one, but it uses a 20 foot cable.

Ted