Oh yes, works just fine. It's one of those "cobbler's shoes" things. I used to be an AV repair tech, and would have considered this completely unacceptable. But there was never a connection problem -- I had walked away from the laptop while still wearing the headphones once too often so they got pulled off my head by the cord. The insulation sheath came loose from the plug, exposing the bare copper shield. I was afraid of it coming apart completely, and happened to have a short end of a wire tie lying around. Waste not, want not.