Jendrix
New Head-Fier
Hey all, first post here. Have used the forums/reviews/articles/etc. on this site for many years. Thank you to all the contributors for some solid advice along the way!
I'll start with my question and then give more details. Please feel free to laugh at my stupidity as needed.
Question: How much damage did I do by plugging the "headphone out" of my Behringer GM110 30W guitar amp into the "line in" of my brand new Soundblaster X AE5?
The backstory: The reason I have an AE5 is I fried my Soundblaster Zx by plugging the "speaker" out of said amp into the line in of that sound card...apparently I don't learn lessons well.
Details: When I first plugged in the amp, everything worked fine. Got a clear signal, could hear my guitar in my headphones (Fidelio X1). My idea was then to boost at the guitar amp level, rather than with the soundcard input levels, thinking I'd get a cleaner signal that way. When I turned the amp up to about 4, the only way I can describe it is that the soundcard "froze". The green bars in the windows mixer stayed at two bars, as though there were sound coming in, however nothing played through the headphones. No pops, cracks, smoke, etc., just "froze."
I restarted the computer and everything SEEMS fine. Gaming, music, video - all work as before over headphones. I had not yet tried the beamforming mic that came with the Zx with the AE5 prior to the guitar mistake. I tried that this morning and, though volume seems low on the mic, it seems usable when boosted. Looking around, I chalked that up to a poor quality packaged mic plus the fact it is now being used with something other than the card it was originally packaged with.
So, does anyone think I've done permanent damage to the AE5? Is it a situation where it's going to work fine for two weeks and then suddenly die? Is it possible that the AE5 has some kind of overload protection that kicked in to save me?!
Thank you in advance for your help...and the joking I deserve!
I'll start with my question and then give more details. Please feel free to laugh at my stupidity as needed.
Question: How much damage did I do by plugging the "headphone out" of my Behringer GM110 30W guitar amp into the "line in" of my brand new Soundblaster X AE5?
The backstory: The reason I have an AE5 is I fried my Soundblaster Zx by plugging the "speaker" out of said amp into the line in of that sound card...apparently I don't learn lessons well.
Details: When I first plugged in the amp, everything worked fine. Got a clear signal, could hear my guitar in my headphones (Fidelio X1). My idea was then to boost at the guitar amp level, rather than with the soundcard input levels, thinking I'd get a cleaner signal that way. When I turned the amp up to about 4, the only way I can describe it is that the soundcard "froze". The green bars in the windows mixer stayed at two bars, as though there were sound coming in, however nothing played through the headphones. No pops, cracks, smoke, etc., just "froze."
I restarted the computer and everything SEEMS fine. Gaming, music, video - all work as before over headphones. I had not yet tried the beamforming mic that came with the Zx with the AE5 prior to the guitar mistake. I tried that this morning and, though volume seems low on the mic, it seems usable when boosted. Looking around, I chalked that up to a poor quality packaged mic plus the fact it is now being used with something other than the card it was originally packaged with.
So, does anyone think I've done permanent damage to the AE5? Is it a situation where it's going to work fine for two weeks and then suddenly die? Is it possible that the AE5 has some kind of overload protection that kicked in to save me?!
Thank you in advance for your help...and the joking I deserve!
