Headphone Output only outputs to right ear...

Max_H

Max_H

Inspired
I was setting up my Axe FX to have two guitars run through it at the same time as I was going to have a guy over for some lessons, but now I only get sound in my right ear of the headphones.

1) I tried multiple headphones, and they all now do this, so it's not 3rd party hardware

2) I had one guitar in the front input and the second in the rear FX loop

3) This is absolutely due to me messing with the I/O settings but after much twiddling I am unable to regain the lost sound

4) I did the system reset in the utility page but nada

5) I had a 3.5mm splitter that we were going to use so I don't know if that messed anything up somehow

What have I done wrong?
I know I messed something up and dont know how to correct it, any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Huh how strange, i switched back to "old" 1/4'' to 3.55mm adaptor and used yet another pair of headphones and it worked fine.

Is it possible that the splitter I used fried the left side of two pairs of headphones?
 
Doubtful. Sounds more like a connection issue. Cheap headphone adapters are often slightly out of spec and won't work with certain jacks and plugs. What kind of adapters and splitter are you using? Also did you verify that the pairs of headphones are fully functional with other gear? I can't even count how many pairs of earbuds I've killed by accidentally yanking the cord. I finally wised up and started using wireless buds that run behind my head while working outdoors and such.

I'm not sure what the actual impedance range for the Axe II's headphone out is, but some headphone outputs don't handle passive splitters very well. They put the two pairs of headphones in parallel, which lowers the total load on the headphone amp. If both pairs of headphones are very low impedance, the total load can then sometimes be too low for the amp and can cause it to overheat. The Axe II probably has built in protection against that, but it's something to keep in mind. A dedicated headphone distribution amp can sometimes work better and will also give independent volume controls for each output. Something like this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...l0K897-QLCISQ27Fq58LpFatdN_pts-VS8RoCisnw_wcB
 
Max_H said:
I was setting up my Axe FX to have two guitars run through it at the same time as I was going to have a guy over for some lessons, but now I only get sound in my right ear of the headphones.

1) I tried multiple headphones, and they all now do this, so it's not 3rd party hardware

2) I had one guitar in the front input and the second in the rear FX loop

3) This is absolutely due to me messing with the I/O settings but after much twiddling I am unable to regain the lost sound

4) I did the system reset in the utility page but nada

5) I had a 3.5mm splitter that we were going to use so I don't know if that messed anything up somehow

What have I done wrong?
I know I messed something up and dont know how to correct it, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Hope it works out. Customer service had to send a replacement part for my headphone connection a couple years ago after the same issue occurred. Easy fix if you have to go down that route.
 
mr_fender said:
Doubtful.
I'm not sure what the actual impedance range for the Axe II's headphone out is, but some headphone outputs don't handle passive splitters very well. They put the two pairs of headphones in parallel, which lowers the total load on the headphone amp. If both pairs of headphones are very low impedance, the total load can then sometimes be too low for the amp and can cause it to overheat.
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I think what you meant to say was that putting two pairs of headphones in parallel lowers the impedance, not the load. It increases the load. The lower impedance causes a higher current flow, which is what causes it to overheat.
 
mr_fender said:
impedance = load
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Not according to Ohm's law. Replace the word "impedance" with "resistance" (basically AC vs DC), and it's easier to see how lower impedances are heavier loads. They're not equal - they're inversely proportional. At a given voltage, the higher the impedance, the less current flow you have. It follows that the lower the impedance, the more current flow you'll have. Put two loads in parallel, the impedance drops in half, so the current doubles. Zero impedance (a short circuit) would be the heaviest load possible.
 
Cagey said:
Not according to Ohm's law. Replace the word "impedance" with "resistance" (basically AC vs DC), and it's easier to see how lower impedances are heavier loads. They're not equal - they're inversely proportional. At a given voltage, the higher the impedance, the less current flow you have. It follows that the lower the impedance, the more current flow you'll have. Put two loads in parallel, the impedance drops in half, so the current doubles. Zero impedance (a short circuit) would be the heaviest load possible.
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Cagey - where were you when i took physics in college????
 
In terms of current, you are correct. They are indeed inversely proportional. In a general sense though, a speaker's impedance is often referred to as the speaker load, technically incorrect as it may be.

In vague terms, the load is the portion of the circuit that consumes power, though this too is not strictly accurate because in reality all parts of a physical circuit will have some amount of resistance and with therefore consume some minute amount of power. Heating losses to wires and other components and such are often ignored since the power consumed by them is typically tiny compared to the amount consumed by a speaker driver for example.
 
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There is no Left only Output mode, just Stereo, Sum L+R, and Copy L>R. If you've got an amp block active, you'll get output to both channels unless it's manually panned to one side or the other.
 
So it appears that my headphones simply crapped the bed. Dont know why, a different pair of headphones with the same adapter work fine. How odd that this happened right after I used the splitter.

In any case, the axe fx works as usual (amazingly) and it was simply my 3rd party gear that isn't up to snuff
 
Max_H said:
In any case, the axe fx works as usual (amazingly) and it was simply my 3rd party gear that isn't up to snuff
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It's a very Fractal-centric phenomenon, where owning an Axe-FX shows you how crappy all your other stuff is. Cables? crap. Headphones? garbage. Speakers? Potatoes. Car? Junker. House? Refrigerator box.
 
USMC_Trev said:
It's a very Fractal-centric phenomenon, where owning an Axe-FX shows you how crappy all your other stuff is. Cables? crap. Headphones? garbage. Speakers? Potatoes. Car? Junker. House? Refrigerator box.
Click to expand...

It's equally funny and un-funny how much this post applies to my life. It's like you know where I live haha
 
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