Bottlehead Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: aragorn723 on July 21, 2017, 05:10:17 AM

Title: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 21, 2017, 05:10:17 AM

At work we can listen to music, but only with one headphone in.  I listen to a lot of older recordings like Pink Floyd, and am missing the whole sound.  Playback is thru an older Ipod Nano.  Is there a way to mix the sound of both channels into one headphone to hear everything?  Thanks,

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: fullheadofnothing on July 21, 2017, 06:45:00 AM

1) Wherever possible, get the mono mixes of the music. They're frequently quite different, and usually better sounding. The monomix of Piper, for instance, is worlds better. If you're listening to 60s music, this is the best option by far, even when listening to "both" channels.

2) iOS has the option to force mono. Rather than put it in the Sound menu, it's in the Accessibility menu. Dunno if they ever put it into the iPod software or not. It is definitely an option in the Rockbox (https://www.rockbox.org/) software. Personally, I have not had an iPod not running Rockbox in years; I have trouble understanding why anyone would even want a player that can't handle .ogg, or especially .flac files.

3) You can get an 1/8" stereo to 1/8" mono converter at Radio Hut or any similar supplier of audio dongles.

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 22, 2017, 12:38:06 PM

Thanks.  I looked into the ipod option, and apparently there is a way to get mono sound, but you have to rip all of your music, and set a setting to mono to do it.  Sounds like the adapter is the easiest option. 

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: Paul Birkeland on July 23, 2017, 07:43:43 AM

You could also add a SPST switch to a Crack or SEX amp to act as a mono switch.

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 23, 2017, 01:27:00 PM

I have an integrated amp with a mono switch.  The ipod could connect to one of the inputs, then plug the headphones into the headphone out.  Would that work?

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 24, 2017, 02:57:14 AM

Did a test run with this unit.  Playing with the mono switch on brought back some of the sounds but not all.  Definitely an improvement though!

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 24, 2017, 10:13:47 AM

I spoke too soon.  The unit quit on me halfway thru the day.  All sound stopped, and now there is a crackling sound whether there is a signal going thru or not.  What could be wrong?

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 24, 2017, 01:29:05 PM

Found a suspect resistor inside, looks like it might be burnt?  It's R142.  There is also a large burn mark under a resistor in the second picture, but i'm guessing that isn't an issue.  Is it possible that R142 just needs to be replaced, and that's what's causing the crackling?  What would have caused that resistor to burn?  Based on the schematic, it looks like that is right after the driver stage.

Dave

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: Paul Birkeland on July 24, 2017, 02:32:25 PM

Old amps are full of old caps.

Title: Re: Headphone sound
Post by: aragorn723 on July 24, 2017, 02:47:15 PM

Very true.  I took a good look at all of the caps too.  A lot of them are the light blue Nichion's like the picture above.  Didn't see any cracks or anything unusual on them.  They all look newish, including the 2 big power supply caps.  Although electrically they could be no good.

Dave