# ZTE Skate phone is possibly trashing headphones.



## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

The right hand earphone on my Koss KS75s is starting to distort and is less sensitive by a noticeable amount when I try it in my PC.
This is the second pair in under a year to do this - same channel - previous RH earphone conked out altogether.

So I stuck my multimeter on the output and there is a DC offset of 80mV - but it's on the *LEFT* channel and vanishes when music is actually playing ...

I even checked the test cable and earphones.

Perhaps I should invest in one of those dinky headphone amps ... yet one more thing to carry around with me.


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## joustmaster (Jan 18, 2013)

The phone socket won't just be left and right though. There will be a mic channel and maybe a remote control channel in there. So maybe you are picking up a voltage for that?


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

joustmaster said:


> The phone socket won't just be left and right though. There will be a mic channel and maybe a remote control channel in there. So maybe you are picking up a voltage for that?


Not with a stereo jack. It basically shorts out the mic channel.
But as I say, the DC is on the channel that *isn't* blowing ...


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

Thinking about it though, that could explain the click when I plug the phones in - there will be DC supplied to power the electret mic .. 

EDIT :-

confirmed by using the extension cable I recently made - no click.
But the click is on both channels more or less equally ..


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

Bloody hell.
With the jack plug not quite home, there's nearly 2 volts on the middle ring (right hand channel), but can't achieve that on the tip. It'll be limited to maybe 2mA though and with the phones' impedance being 32 ohms, that should minimise the power involved.(I've made up electret mics with a 1k resistor on 1.5 volts)
So the first thing I will do is make up an extension that will be permanently plugged in.
I unplug the phones every day because I use it on the speaker at night ...
Was worried about wearing out the socket in any case.
I'll see if I can find a right angle 3 ring plug so I can use an external mic too.


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## mrs quoad (Jan 18, 2013)

gentlegreen said:


> Perhaps I should invest in one of those dinky headphone amps ... yet one more thing to carry around with me.


Appreciate this might be off-topic for the thread, but I got one of those two days ago.

It is *dirty*  With the addition of a DJing app, I can now play tracks as hard and as loud as I want.


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

mrs quoad said:


> Appreciate this might be off-topic for the thread, but I got one of those two days ago.
> 
> It is *dirty*  With the addition of a DJing app, I can now play tracks as hard and as loud as I want.


Wasn't it loud enough before ?


Which one did you get ?


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## joustmaster (Jan 18, 2013)

gentlegreen said:


> Bloody hell.
> With the jack plug not quite home, there's nearly 2 volts on the middle ring (right hand channel), but can't achieve that on the tip. It'll be limited to maybe 2mA though and with the phones' impedance being 32 ohms, that should minimise the power involved.(I've made up electret mics with a 1k resistor on 1.5 volts)
> So the first thing I will do is make up an extension that will be permanently plugged in.
> I unplug the phones every day because I use it on the speaker at night ...
> ...


Might it be easier to change the jack on the headphones to one that matches the socket?
NB. I haven't read your reply properly/don't really understand what you are talking about


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

joustmaster said:


> Might it be easier to change the jack on the headphones to one that matches the socket?
> NB. I haven't read your reply properly/don't really understand what you are talking about


It'll still make contact on the way in and out - but yes, that's what my extension will have.
I had no choice with my previous phone because it had a funny plug.
I basically removed the crap earphones and fitted a socket.


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## gentlegreen (Jan 18, 2013)

gentlegreen said:


> Wasn't it loud enough before ?
> 
> 
> Which one did you get ?


Actually in my case it will allow me to have it *quieter* - sometimes the lowest volume setting isn't low enough.


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## tombowler (Jan 18, 2013)

My first HTC wildfire fried the left speaker on my headphones the first time plugged them in. the wildfires I am now using has not done this.


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

gentlegreen said:


> Actually in my case it will allow me to have it *quieter* - sometimes the lowest volume setting isn't low enough.


This *probably* wouldn't work so well if you were using hard dance mixes to push you through a one-hour workout in a busy gym?


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## gentlegreen (Jan 19, 2013)

mrs quoad said:


> This *probably* wouldn't work so well if you were using hard dance mixes to push you through a one-hour workout in a busy gym?


Get fit, but at the expense of your hearing ?
In my case I would need to be drugged to get me into the gym in the first place.


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## stuff_it (Jan 19, 2013)

mrs quoad said:


> This *probably* wouldn't work so well if you were using hard dance mixes to push you through a one-hour workout in a busy gym?


But other posters may wish to know which one... *ahem*


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

stuff_it said:


> But other posters may wish to know which one... *ahem*


Oh! Sorry.

FiiO E11.


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

An addendum: I googled / searched out a few reviews before going ahead, mostly comparing other fiiO models. IIRC, I'd seen a previous incarnation of an iPhone 4 _case _that included a battery pack / charger and amplifier. But which - obviously - wouldn't fit an iPhone 5, and that's what I mostly use as an MP3 player down the gym.

FiiO were the brand I kept on coming across, and reviews / comparisons of various models up to about £50 seemed to suggest that there was a pretty substantial difference (and gain) in sound quality between the E11 and, erm... two cheaper FiiO models (the E5 and E7?). So after a lot of dithering, I went for that. And am very happy. It goes up louder than I'd conceivably want, and it turns out that at least one pair of my earphones can handle all the bass I might possibly want to put through them (tbh, I probably wouldn't've bought a new pair late last week if I'd known how much of a difference the amp would make...)


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

gentlegreen said:


> Get fit, but at the expense of your hearing ?


Basically, yes. I might as well waste it on something I enjoy. And I properly CBA with piss poor weedy tinkling at the edges of my hearing. It makes a world of difference to what I'm doing in the gym to be driven along by respectable bass.

If it stood up to a decade of hard-arse three-day-non-stop clubbing and nine months in Ibiza, I'm sure the precious little darlings will bear out for the odd hour or so during the week.


> In my case I would need to be drugged to get me into the gym in the first place.


Have you asked around the df? They could probably find you something suitable.

They might know of some interesting ways of addressing house slugs, too.


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

I'm pretty damned sure MP3 players have got quieter over the last decade, too. Increasing deafness aside.

I wonder whether or not this has had an impact: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8410302.stm

e2a: lazy google (perhaps uncoincidentally post-2009 hits)



> A friend of mine recently bought an Ipod 160GB classic and I took it home to put some music on it for him. Anyhow after I did the transfer of the music to the Ipod, as usual I decided to test it, all in all it worked good but I was very shocked and dissapointed about the Vol level/loundess on this thing as it was weak as and gutless, I had to crank the Vol right to max to get a decent hearing level.


 


> Hi, I have had an iPod classic 5th gen (purchased in the USA) for a few years now, no problems with it, I recently got a new 7th gen (purchased in England) to replace it, hoping it would have better sound quality, and an overall improvement. But sweet Lincolns mullet, what's with the low max volume? It's so tame its almost pathetic, and the bass is massively reduced, I'm assuming all English purchased iPods are the same? Is there any way around this?


 


> I have just got one of these, used to have a 2nd Gen 8GB Nano (UK model also). The volume (even after removing the volume limit - or rather setting it to be the highest point on the scale) is lower than my old Nano.
> 
> Maybe im going crazy but im really struggling here. I go to the same gym as before and I really struggle to hear it now. Many songs I play I am on MAX volume and thats not really enough...
> 
> Today I just picked up some new Shure E3G earphones in the hope their low imepedence/sound isolating design would help but no.


 


> I noticed this also. My old 30GB 3G iPod was replaced by a 80GB Classic past weekend and I noticed that the volume is much lower too. I used to use my 3G iPod while riding my motorbike as the foam earplugs hurt my ears after a while but with the Classic I can hear the wind rushing past my ears as well as the music. I'm using a pair of Sony E71's which I was using on the old iPod.
> 
> I accept the hearing part about not having it too loud. Only idiots and fools need the volume up so loud, but the old 3G iPod was usually set to 3/4 volume and isolated me from the wind completely and is much louder than the new one at full - again as with the previous post - with the volume limiter reset to full.
> 
> I'm investing in some new more expensive headphones to see if that helps but disappointed so far. I am not sure why this difference should be so. Both iPods were bought from Apple Stores here in UK.


 
I am beginning to wonder if the change in max volume has been a part of the reason that I long considered a pair of Sennheiser IE7s raw shite. (tbf, the fit was difficult / problematic, so replacing them with Klipsches certainly made best use of the lower volume limit.) They seem to've become far, far better since routing them through an amp.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 19, 2013)

mrs quoad said:


> I'm pretty damned sure MP3 players have got quieter over the last decade, too. Increasing deafness aside.
> 
> I wonder whether or not this has had an impact: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8410302.stm
> 
> e2a: lazy google (perhaps uncoincidentally post-2009 hits)


 
Your link is broken for me, but is about European Regulations?

I had to change the firmware on my Sansa to remove the volume limiting from it.


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## mrs quoad (Jan 19, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> Your link is broken for me, but is about European Regulations?
> 
> I had to change the firmware on my Sansa to remove the volume limiting from it.


Yep. And I feel your pain


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## gentlegreen (Jan 19, 2013)

I can't exercise without music - as I've often said before - I even want to turn my cycle commutes into something more like dancing, but when I used to step out of an evening, I had to wear earplugs and stay near the back of the room.


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