2 iPhones 4 here (let's call A and B), with 2 Vibe Duo (one Black, one Chrome) and 1 Vibe II. I'm having the exact same problems as reported here: buttons don't always work, click-click-click sound when on a call.
Here's the conclusions of my tests:
Vibe II
- Despite v-moda says Vibe II is not compatible with iPhone 4 as pointed above, it worked perfectly here with both iPhone A and B.
- No clicking sound, buttons stop/start music properly, hang-up calls, etc.
Tests with Vibe Duo Black:
- Worked flawlessly on iPhone A - no clicking, button working as expected.
- Failed miserably on iPhone B. Button randomly changes volume or skips music, phone calls with clicking sound.
- Interestingly, on the same iPhone B the clicking sound stops when I pull the plug a tiny bit. Initially I thought it could be something with the metal on the end of the plug touching the antenna, but upon close inspection I noticed it doesn't seem to be the case. It has no effect over the buttons (ie, pulling a bit doesn't help).
Tests with Vibe Duo Chrome:
- Failed miserably on iPhone A.
- Button didn't work on iPhone B, but at least there was no clicking sound.
- on iPhone A, same as above: pulling off a bit stopped the clicking sound.
My takeaways so far:
1) seems the headphone button circuitry is pushing the limits of tolerance on the iPhone 4, and that's why it works on some combinations of headphone/iPhone but not others.
2) the click-click sound is clearly a problem on the design of the headphone plug on v-moda and/or the socket on the iPhone. That's why pulling off a bit stops the clicking bug. Absolutely nothing to do with noise cancellation mic as some other users pointed out.
Next step would be to do some electrical tests to understand what's the difference between the two headphones to figure out why it works on one but doesn't on the other. Anyone has the hardware specs for a headphone? What exactly is the signal that is sent when someone presses the button?
Any additional info would be highly appreciated. All the 3 headphones are fairly new so I could opt-in for v-moda upgrade program, but shelling out $30 (for each headphone) for what seems to be a design flaw on the iPhone 4 seems ridiculous to me. C'mon, why Apple didn't test the freaking device with different headphone models? How difficult can it be?
** UPDATE: Seems I spoke too soon. Upon further testing I discovered that despite not hearing the click-click when using the Vibe Duo with iPhone A, in fact the other person could still hear the noise and the voice sounded really bad. So, bottom line is: neither Vibe Duo work. The only functional is really the Vibe II, and seems to be pure luck. Impressive.