low volume in headphones, high in speakers ?

[rahulkothari]

i have winME installed on p3(500),256mb ram, intel810 chipset with onaboard sound card.

whenever i plug my headphones (good quality headphones)the sound which i hear is very low as compared to when i plug it in a CDROM or even a walk-man. and when i plug my Mercury 340watts speakers the sound is excellent.

y is dat so? the same thing happens with my friend who also has intel810 chipset and headphones.

all my volume settings and everything(other O.S. setting related to sound) are correct.

plz hlp me. i posted the same query on other messagebrds but the replies werent helpful (like check out yor sound drivers, quality of headphones - i tried all dat , but to no avail)

thx in advance.

[mjc]

I will go out on a limb and assume that your speakers are powered, and that your output from the computer to the speakers (if you look closely at it) shows a little speaker on it?

It is probably a line-level output and not a driven or amplified output, it is meant only to supply a minimal level signal to the amplifier built into the speakers and not to drive a set of headphones.

Do your speakers have a jack on them to plug a set of headphones into?

If they do plug your headphones in there.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[rahulkothari]

thx 4 the prompt and rather intellectual reply. (spk icon on the sound card)

ok if that is so, then the CDROM has a headphones icon and both headphones and speakers work equally well? y is that so? i mean can u explain me something abt the signals given out by the speaker(& hdphone) socket ?

also, can i reroute the sound from sound card to CDROM (i.e. instead of pluggin the spkrs and hdphones on the soundcard, can i plug them into CDROM instead, coz there is a soundcard built inside the CDROM)

[rahulkothari]

now i m getting to the base of things.
i think the "resistance" of the headphone-pin is higher and hence i cant get the full-volume when plugged into the sound-card.

i can prove the above pt.Read on.
my walkman has a small red light which lights up when the FM radio signals r clear. now when i m listening to the FM radio and i increase the sound beyond a certain level (ex- 90 of 100 on the volume button ) the red-light stops glowing although the sound is steadily increasing. this is bcoz at this pt of time the headphone pin is drawing more current (than required) and hence the red-light aint getting enough current as a condition of "undervoltage" occurs at the two ends of the red-light.

when i plug the earphones dat came with the walkman (not my new headphones) everything works fine even when the volume is at its max (i.e. the red-light doesnt go off even when the volume is full)

am i right ?????? give me a chance to clr myself if u dont get wat i m saying ..... do post a reply as this is gettin interesting. coz my aim is to eventually make the headphone work at its best by hook or crook !

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An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi

[Matt]

I'd check and make sure that your audio card does not have a jumper on it that allows you to activate or deactivate its self amplified function (if it has one).

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The first time I installed Windows it took only one try. When I tried re-installing Windows at a later date it took 30+ tries before I got it right... go figure. =P

[rahulkothari]

mine is an on-board audio card.... no jumpers (intel 810 chipset) http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif so i cant do anything. SOB http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif thx for the reply.

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An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi

[mjc]

Sorry, this one got lost..by me.

Ok, no you can't reroute the sound to the CD...it has no audio inputs. But the do have a small onboard amplifier designed to handle a set of headphones.

Basically you need an amplifier to run the head phones, no amount of playing around with reistors is going to overcome the fact that the signal is not strong enough to drive the headphones...

Do your speakers have a headphone jack on them?

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[rahulkothari]

no my speakers do not have any headphone jack on the back. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif ... and as my sound-card is on-board , i dont think there would be any special jumpers for it on the motherbrd(intel 810).

no way out ! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif



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An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi

[Sylvander]

Hello Rahulkothari

I always assumed that all sound cards [like mine] have both
a "line" output
[this is a low power signal which needs amplification]

and a "speaker" output
[this is a high power signal which has already been amplified and can, therefore, be sent directly to a loudspeaker(or headphone)without need for amplification].

If you have both these output sockets you may, by mistake, have plugged the [amplified] speakers into the already amplified "speaker" output when they should be plugged into the "line" output socket. They will probably still work ok when supplied with this overpowered signal and you, therefore, are misled into the belief that all is well.

You may then, incorrectly, plug the headphones [which are actually tiny speakers with NO INBUILT AMPLIFIER] into the "line output" socket and because the signal is too weak they sound too quiet [your lucky to get any sound at all].

SOLUTION
1. Plug the speakers into the LINE OUTPUT socket.
2. Plug the headphones into the SPEAKER OUTPUT socket.

If you do not have these two separate outputs you would need:
a. A separate amplifier for your headphones which would need to be connected to a power source or:
b. Get someone who knows what he is doing to modify your existing speakers to make use of their inbuilt amplifier by taking a connection to a headphone output socket.