Headphones all die on one side after being plugged into headphone port

[ryuken3k]

Ok, so I am using an X-fi xtremegamer sound card with logitech X-540 speakers. The speakers comes with a control pod that has a headphone port. The problem is, after I use my headphones for awhile for movies or games one side of the headphone always goes dead! I have used multiple headphones and they have been "damaged" by my setup apparently. I'm afraid all my headphones are permanently dead on either the right or left ear! Is there anyway to fix this?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Have you tried the headphones with something other than the headphone port? If they work with other equipment (e.g. iPod, etc.) then you probably have a bad jack in the control pod. If the headphones are truly dead, then there's probably some bad DC offset in your control pod that's cooking the headphone drivers. If the drivers are cooked, then there's not much you can do. You can try to send them in under warranty if possible. You could also put them up for sale here - several members actively look for dead/damages headphones to experiment with.

 

[les_garten]

Well,

First, stop plugging stuff into that port till you find out if it is blowing drivers!!

Check the phones out on another setup to see if they work or not. Check the impedance of the individual drivers in your phones.

Check the DC offset of the control pad on each channel.

Ir sounds like it has done this to more than one set of phones, ehhh?

.

 

[ryuken3k]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with terms such as impedance

however, the first two earphones I have used were cheap and they also did not work properly with other devices. However, I received my Sennheiser HD 201 yesterday and I encountered the same problem. The difference this time is that when I run the Creative diagnostics problem, both the left and right channel were coming from the right side and when I tried the Sennheiser headphones with my ipod and PSP, they both worked fine on both sides so I don't believe the headphones are broken.

Can the sound card break your headphones? If I plug in my headphones directly into the sound card instead of the speaker control pod, would that make a difference?

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryuken3k /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry, I'm not familiar with terms such as impedance however, the first two earphones I have used were cheap and they also did not work properly with other devices. However, I received my Sennheiser HD 201 yesterday and I encountered the same problem. The difference this time is that when I run the Creative diagnostics problem, both the left and right channel were coming from the right side and when I tried the Sennheiser headphones with my ipod and PSP, they both worked fine on both sides so I don't believe the headphones are broken. Can the sound card break your headphones? If I plug in my headphones directly into the sound card instead of the speaker control pod, would that make a difference?

Give that a try. Also describe everything you are using and how it is connected. What type of cables you are using, also, any adapters between cables. Something is screwey.

Ohh, and QUIT PLUGGING HEADPHONES INTO THAT JACK!!

Unless you are independedntly wealthy.

Find someone with a Digital Multi Meter who can help you with troubleshooting.

.