Headphones plugged into speakers ruins sound quality.

[RelentlessMH]

Hi,

I wanted to get a cheap yet decent set of speakers for my PC since 80% of the time I use headphones. I want to be to be able plug my headphones into the jack on the speakers and have the audio switch instantly to my headphones. My ancient Logitech R-10's did this, but the speakers died out and they were discontinued.

Recently, the past two speakers I've bought from Logitech have had an issue with headphones. The latest are the S-220's which I just received today. I plug my headphones into the jack, and it switches over to my headphones instantly as expected. However the sound quality is poor on the headphones as opposed to when the headphones are plugged directly into my computer. It's very hollow sounding.

Does anyone know what's going on? I like to use my speakers during the day, then headphones at night.. and having to get up and fiddle around with the cords back there every time I want to switch is a major pain. Especially when the speakers have a headphone jack that should work.

I'm using SoundMAX HD Audio. I tried switching settings like the multimedia device from destop speakers to headphones, but no luck.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[astrallite]

It's called a cheap pre-amp.

 

[MEgamer]

you cant do anything about it, u just gonna have to plug it into the computer.

this is the very same as with ipods headphone output.

 

[Collie147]

You might also have a sound scheme enabled for the desktop speakers, if you change it to headphones, or ramp up the bass it might help. If there is software provided by logitec, check the options you may have to optimise it for headphones.

 

[Scotteq]

I have a set of Cambridge Soundworks powered speakers at work which do that: Plugging your headphones into the (1/8") jack mutes the speaker output. Might be more than you'd want to spend. But they definitely sound great.

http://store.cambridgesoundworks.com/Cambridge-SoundWorks-MicroWorks-II-Amplified-MultimediaComputer/M/B00345FI14.htm

 

[gamerk316]

When plugging a headphone into a set of speakers, you should not be expecting any quality of note. Most speaker sets do not put a lot of thought into headphone output, mearly passing through the signal without a thought of protecting the signal from interfearence and the like, as well as not using nearly as high quality components for the signal transfer.

 

[thefivetheory]

Are you using a desktop or a laptop? If you have a desktop, do you have a front panel audio connector? If so, maybe you can configure your onboard audio to mute speakers when the front panel is connected... I'm not very familiar with SoundMAX so I can't say for sure, but most physical sound cards support this.

 

[MEgamer]

some speakers have amplified headphone port, like razer mako, and B &W mm-1s

 

[mehak]

Hi,

I wanted to get a cheap yet decent set of speakers for my PC since 80% of the time I use headphones. I want to be to be able plug my headphones into the jack on the speakers and have the audio switch instantly to my headphones. My ancient Logitech R-10's did this, but the speakers died out and they were discontinued.

Recently, the past two speakers I've bought from Logitech have had an issue with headphones. The latest are the S-220's which I just received today. I plug my headphones into the jack, and it switches over to my headphones instantly as expected. However the sound quality is poor on the headphones as opposed to when the headphones are plugged directly into my computer. It's very hollow sounding.

Does anyone know what's going on? I like to use my speakers during the day, then headphones at night.. and having to get up and fiddle around with the cords back there every time I want to switch is a major pain. Especially when the speakers have a headphone jack that should work.

I'm using SoundMAX HD Audio. I tried switching settings like the multimedia device from destop speakers to headphones, but no luck.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[franklu]

Just plug it into the computer,Drop the cheap speak.

 

[gamerk316]

Speakers are meant to play back audio, not pass the signal on to another device. While they may have that funcutionality, its very low quality, especially given how good onboard audio is these days...