tangent
Top Mall-Fi poster. The T in META42.
Formerly with Tangentsoft Parts Store
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2001
- Posts
- 5,969
- Likes
- 58
Best way to test Ivan's theory is to remove the jack from the panel and plug your headphones into the jack as it flops around on the end of its hookup wires.
It doesn't look like you have a wall-powered amp, though. If it's just battery-powered, the only thing connected to the case should be the amp's signal ground. If there is a DC jack in there that I missed from looking at your pics, Ivan's nailed the problem -- the jacks are clearly grounding out on the case.
Oh, jeez, now that I look at your pics I see the dilemma about getting the amp out of the case. He went and attached jacks to the sides of the case. Ugh. If you put everything on the panels, you can get the amp apart to work on it much easier. Double ugh. You're going to have to either lift the amp board up and out of the case while the jacks are still attached, which only works if there's enough slack in the wires, or you're going to have to desolder the jacks from the wires to get it out.
If you don't mind the work, removing the jacks from the wires is a good troubleshooting step anyway. When the amp is freed from the case, use alligator jumpers to tie your headphones and source to the circuit. If it works that way, either one or more jacks are damaged, or there's some kind of case grounding issue going on.
It doesn't look like you have a wall-powered amp, though. If it's just battery-powered, the only thing connected to the case should be the amp's signal ground. If there is a DC jack in there that I missed from looking at your pics, Ivan's nailed the problem -- the jacks are clearly grounding out on the case.
Oh, jeez, now that I look at your pics I see the dilemma about getting the amp out of the case. He went and attached jacks to the sides of the case. Ugh. If you put everything on the panels, you can get the amp apart to work on it much easier. Double ugh. You're going to have to either lift the amp board up and out of the case while the jacks are still attached, which only works if there's enough slack in the wires, or you're going to have to desolder the jacks from the wires to get it out.
If you don't mind the work, removing the jacks from the wires is a good troubleshooting step anyway. When the amp is freed from the case, use alligator jumpers to tie your headphones and source to the circuit. If it works that way, either one or more jacks are damaged, or there's some kind of case grounding issue going on.