Headphone works only when pulled out slightly

[[email protected]]

I plug my headphone into computer's sound card. The headphone only
works when it is pulled out slightly. If it is fully inserted, some
sound won't play as loud as it should be (human voice is noticeably
weaker).

My speakers, and other headphone work well on the sound card.

Is this a compatibility problem, or my headphone is broken?

Headphone:
Cosonic Digital Stereo Dynamic Headphones (MDR-CD850) with volume
control
http://www.headphone.com.cn/sort1.asp?sort_id=95&page=2
Impedence: 32 Ohm

Thanks.

 

[Dave D]

I plug my headphone into computer's sound card. The headphone only
works when it is pulled out slightly. If it is fully inserted, some
sound won't play as loud as it should be (human voice is noticeably
weaker).

My speakers, and other headphone work well on the sound card.

Is this a compatibility problem, or my headphone is broken?

Sounds like the ground is open circuit, I'd guess the wire has a break where
it enters the plug. The effect is that the two positives (left and right)
are applied in series across the headphone transducers, causing two out of
phase signals to cancel out certain sounds recorded on both L and R
channels, like voice as you have found.

When you pull the plug out slightly you are causing only one channel to be
applied across both transducers, ie mono in both sides of the headphones, so
the phase cancellation effect vanishes.

The solution is to cut off the plug (with a couple of inches of wire to make
sure only good cable is left) and fit a new plug. The break could also be at
the headphone end or in the middle of the cable, but the plug is the usual
suspect.

Dave

 

[[email protected]]

I plug my headphone into computer's sound card. The headphone only
works when it is pulled out slightly. If it is fully inserted, some
sound won't play as loud as it should be (human voice is noticeably
weaker).

My speakers, and other headphone work well on the sound card.

Is this a compatibility problem, or my headphone is broken?

Headphone:
Cosonic Digital Stereo Dynamic Headphones (MDR-CD850) with volume
control
http://www.headphone.com.cn/sort1.asp?sort_id=95&page=2
Impedence: 32 Ohm

Thanks.

Check the sound card settings in the setup program that came with the
sound card. Many can be setup to give different jack configurations,
including a 5 channel surround mode which will give the symptoms you
described.

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I plug my headphone into computer's sound card. The headphone only
works when it is pulled out slightly. If it is fully inserted, some
sound won't play as loud as it should be (human voice is noticeably
weaker).

My speakers, and other headphone work well on the sound card.

Is this a compatibility problem, or my headphone is broken?

Sure the headphones have a stereo plug fitted - some headsets don't. A
quick compare of it and one that works should be obvious.

 

[Hugh Prescott]

I plug my headphone into computer's sound card. The headphone only
works when it is pulled out slightly. If it is fully inserted, some
sound won't play as loud as it should be (human voice is noticeably
weaker).

My speakers, and other headphone work well on the sound card.

Is this a compatibility problem, or my headphone is broken?

Headphone:
Cosonic Digital Stereo Dynamic Headphones (MDR-CD850) with volume
control
http://www.headphone.com.cn/sort1.asp?sort_id=95&page=2
Impedence: 32 Ohm

Thanks.

You may just have an out of mechanical tolerance plug or / and socket. Find
a small O-Ring to put on the plug to keep it from going all the way in.

Hugh

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for all these helpful replys.

My sound card is already set to "Headphone". I visually compared the
plug with others, they are the same. The ground connection from the
plug up to the volume control is good.
The open circuit theory sounds very promising though. I didn't check
the connection beyond the volum control.

Well, I gave up and will settle with the O ring method.

Thanks again for all the replys.

 

[Mark]

I just had this same problem....I finally noticed that the tip of the
headphone jack was
beveled into a narrower diameter compared to most other headphone plugs
and that when I plugged it in fully inserted, the tip did not make
contact. The tip feeds the left headphone by the way.

You can open the speaker and try to bend the little tabs on the jack or
just get another headphone.

The standards for these mini plugs appear to be very loose and I have
seen these compatability issues.

Mark