It sounds like time to make some phone calls. Perhaps someone still does television repair (I'd look for TV repair in the yellow pages) and can work on HB's stereo. That might wrap up the thread, at least on HB's part.
That's my vague, demented advice.
321 lines of text. I gather you're not familiar with trimming text?
Worth noting, is that Stumped usually deletes any post over 100 lines of text. So, when HB does the double lines and sends 300 lines of text, SM usually just deletes the post as having no value. If HB would trim text, then SM might read HB's posts.
D'oh! But you said the problem isn't with the TV. Wotta maroon!
Hehe.
That's more than a little rude and I believe what irks you is largely the fault of Google Groups. Although I've never cared one way or another about who uses what to post, it seems Google's going out of their way to make trouble for Usenet and people using standard newsreaders. AFAICT, they are inserting control characters into the message stream that control indenting via their own interface but can make replying via a plain text editor extraordinarily difficult. I found I could not reply in-line to HB's message without tabs appearing where I didn't want them.
If Google Groups are going to be *that* unfriendly and inflict a proprietary framework on the NNTP protocol, then they should be shunned.
It happens to a lot of people venturing into unknown territory. It's part of the learning process. I think you're being a little hard on the Beaver, Ward. (-:
True, but it did communicate a sense of exasperation caused, in part, by the way Google Groups mangles quoting. And by the fact that a lot of people jump into the thread somewhere in the middle and don't read through all the previous "asked and answered" information.
I was pretty sure she switched enough things around to eliminate most potential problems. Eventually. And if she wasn't thorough enough in her testing, guess who gets to pay for that inattention to detail? She does. Sometimes that's a very good teacher. Just like there are people who have lost an entire PC and religiously backup and there are people who haven't YET lost an entire PC and don't religiously backup. Yet.
I would guess that it means "The only problem was in the jack on the stereo" (she's referring to her HK receiver as a "stereo" - pretty common usage).
How, exactly, does someone with no expertise in a subject differentiate good advice from bad advice? She's probably much better off evaluating what's been offered after having some time to digest it. I wouldn't go charging off sandpapering chromed contact fingers because they'll *definitely* give you trouble soon after exposing the spring steel beneath the chrome to oxidation.
As for opening the unit up and rebending the contacts, good luck with that. If they weren't "springy" enough to resist deformation once, why would they resist further deformation after being bent around some more? If that's the problem it's bad design or material choice.
As Tony mentioned, pulling and replacing with a better quality jack is the right answer. There's an incredible quality difference between a cheap jack and a quality one. How would HB know that unless she's removed, soldered and replaced lots of plugs, mini-plugs, PITA ultramini plugs and their matching jacks?
Good of you to be helpful and point out which is which. Oh, wait. You didn't!
Let me translate that into what I call the "You Bad Dog" posting method, which I think is self-explanatory.
Yes, it has. But not the way you think . . . Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
Yup. Nothing gets by you! Master of the obvious.
No, any more than misspelling is the fault of a bad spell checker, or bad penmanship is the fault of a leaky pen. Higgy Bozo chooses to post utter crap. It's not like anyone is forced to use gurgle gropes. What "irks" me, as you call it, is an idiot posting incoherent gibberish, and blaming the idiot's own ignorance on Usenet.
Then why are you so intent on defending some cretin who insists on posting gurgle grope gibberish?
And whose fault is it that Higgy chooses gurgle grope? Yours? Mine? No.
Poor baby. New around here?
OK, guess away!
In fact, early in the thread, I did. Read much?
So now you'll go off into a fantasy world, entirely of your own invention, and pretend that somehow you're "translating" my posts. You're not. Get a grip.
>
f-
Where did you see that? Speakers do NOT turn off when headphones unplugged . They BLARE loudly enough to bring the house down. So I have to manually tu rn the volume down when listening w/o headphones.
Interestingly (maybe the mavens can explain) when the headphones ARE plugge d in, the volume has to be turned WAY up! Is this normal?
None taken. I've said repeatedly on this thread that I know zip about elec tronics. Had to have neighbor set up sound through stereo in order to use headphones.
Now it would be nice to know what's under the hood in case you decided t o get it repaired, but I'd still go with other options like wireless headp hones or a small dedicated headphone amplifier box. I would be tempted to open it up and check it out but I also might be equally tempted to buy a $
25 headphone amplifier box with RCA inputs and 1/4" stereo headphone outpu ts.Specs duly noted.
Report on this morning's application of liquid (Memorex head cleaner, not W D 0):
Jiggled plug around; basically no change. The maddening thing is that the ? on the jack that controls the R channel IS alive! It gives a brief snatch of sound if I press the plug against the R side of the jack.
As jack was deteriorating - R channel disappearing - (recall that it worked fine at first), I'd jam it so R. channel came through. This is what you, Bobby G? or another?mentioned about "bracing" the plug so it wouldn't move. Alas, found out too late!!!! Didn't know about internal structure of jac k.
HB
Remedial reading instruction, Higgy. Go get a lot of it. You'll benefit more from some rudimentary education than you will from kookdancing on Usenet, which you obviously aren't smart enough to handle. Or you could just continue your kookdancing and kapslocking and gurgle groping.
HB has sent at least three or four posts today which were over 100 lines. I've deleted any posts over 100. Averaging
130 or so.Bobby G. thanks for your civilized reply to previous poster. The Internet seems to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others.
[...thread snipped....]Might be time to w "I might be equally tempted to buy a $25 headphone amplifier box with RCA inputs and 1/4" stereo headphone outputs."
VERY IMPORTANT: Before proceeding, I need to know: Where is the headphone amplifier getting its sound, if the stereo jack cannot be used? Not from the POS TV speakers, one hopes!
I read several articles on-line on "how do headphone amplifiers work" but did not find the above basic info. Any info/referencs appreciated.
HB
... and you're clearly one of those "others."
Don't bother. Any reasonable correct answer will be too big to fit inside your tiny microcephalic head.
Probably from the TV. Duuuuuuuuuhhhhh.
Not from the POS TV speakers, one hopes!
... and you didn't understand a word.
Just give up. You're just not smart enough to comprehend.
I though you said it was time to wind up the thread. And then, there you go with more vapid ignorance.
If your TV sounds like shit, get a better TV. Of course, even that simple solution might be beyond the comprehension of an ignoramus like you.
seems to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others.
(-:
headphone amplifier getting its sound, if the stereo jack cannot be used? Not from the POS TV speakers, one hopes!
The headphone amp will take its audio input from the same place the Harmon gets its input from now, the TV. Your TV is *capable* of putting out very high quality audio. The TV decodes the audio from the broadcast or cable TV signal. Then it is routed both to the crappy speakers found in many slim TVs AND to a set of jacks on the back called "AUDIO OUT" or "LINE OUT". These jacks are what your friend (I assume) connected to your HK's "AUDIO IN" jacks using RCA patch cords (usually red and white cables that look like this):
To use a headphone amp, you would disconnect the cables that go to the "AUDIO IN" connectors on the HK and reconnect them to the "AUDIO IN" jacks of the headphone amps. You are essentially removing the HK from the loop and sending the high quality audio signal to the headphone box now.
(NB: this will make the HK unable to play audio from the TV as it will be rerouted to the headphone box.)
If you need to have the HK still play the sound from the TV through the speakers connected to the HK, you'll have to purchase some $5 "splitter cables" that will allow the high quality audio signal from the TV to feed both the HK "AUDIO IN" jacks and the headphone box's "AUDIO IN" jacks. Very easy. Those splitters look like this:
did not find the above basic info. Any info/referencs appreciated.
I've been looking for something with diagrams to better describe what to do without luck. I'll keep trying. It would be pretty simple to demonstrate with some freehand sketches, but alas, Usenet was never very image friendly.
TV tuner audio ---------> HK ----------> Headphone jack --------->Headphones TV tuner audio ---------> Built-in crappy speakers (not because of bad signal, just bad speakers)
With a headphone amp the first line of the above paragraph will read:
TV tuner audio ---------> Headphone amp ----------> Headphone jack --------->Headphones
The second line stays the same.
If you want to still route the audio through the HK's much better speakers you would split the audo output from the TV to look like this:
TV tuner audio ---> splitter ---> HK ----------> speakers > Headphone amp -----> Headphone jack -------> Headphones
Again, line two stays the same and the TV can still play through its own speakers. It may be very possible, if your TV supports it, to buy some slightly better bookshelf speakers and power them directly from the TV. That's what I've done and it sounds magnitudes better than the built in ones. What was the TV make and model again? (-:
Show this to the person who hooked up the HK to the TV and they will know instantly what I am describing.
Some of the old jacks were open, so you could see the works. Likely it's not that way.
Greg
I've bought cheap integrated amps, like old radio shack units, which have a headphone jack. Most amplifier units tap off the main speaker outs with resistors to attenuate the level suitable for headphones. No power is taken with input jacks, its just converted from a voltage source, to something hat can supply required current. Want to check eBay ?
Some amplifier units have a separate headphone amplifier, but not as common.
I got one one of the simplest headphone DIY circuits on the Internet. I designed it as a , well why not ? There are many who took it steps further for improvement, but that defeated my desire for simplicity. My project started about 1985, now hundreds of users built it.
Greg
structure of jack.
One thing's for sure, the jacks I reclaim from 20 and 30 year old equipment are made of sterner stuff than the cheapo replacements you find on Ebay. The sheet metal used for the contacts is thinner now, and more likely to deform than jacks of old and the old build quality was just better, overall. Solder eyelets, in particularly, are really much worse than they used to be. Often stamped off-center and needing reaming because the hole was plated closed. In my day . . .
There's never going to be an end to it - it's all part of the great bean counter v. engineer design principle of "build it cheaper until we hear it's started to fail in the field." Part of the problem of that theory is that a company's reputation is also failing in the field at the same time. What you save in making it cheaper can end up cheapening your company's name.
Compaq was one of the few that resisted cheaper engineering for a long time - my 1980's SLT still runs my Ratshack PC "Metex" and SW flawlessly. It gets cranky if I don't start it up every six months but that's the drive. I want to retire it but it just keeps on working, decade after decade. The display is pretty "Etch-a-Sketch" by today's standards, but I use it mostly to capture meter readings over time to a *floppy disk* so it really doesn't matter. The plastic has NOT gone brittle or turned green or brown.
Admittedly it's in what amounts to a retirement home for old PCs (my electronics bench) but it's still an impressive record. In fact, even if the HD dies, as it threatens to, I can still run the Metex meter SW from the floppy with considerable room left for the data. You don't see code like that anymore.
As for cost-cutting in general, I've used up a large number of small space heaters since the '70s and nowhere is cost-cutting design more apparent than in successive generations of that product. Every fraction of a renminbi that could be shaved off in the way of weight or manufacturing costs has been. Sometimes it's "wow, how clever" and other times it's "that's pretty scary!" (-:
I've been trying to determine how her Harmon Kardon is connected to her TV. I suspect it's by RCA phono patch cables, but it could be a speaker tap or something else.
I think I have a dead HK upstairs I can check - no wait, it's a Sherwood. My advice to HB is of course dependent on how she has the TV connected to the HK. I assume it's line level audio out coming from jacks on the TV. Most slim TV's I've seen acknowledge how crappy their built-in speakers and provide one or more ways to "export" audio to a better reproduction device.
While most wireless headphones are equipped to "drop in" to a circuit made with RCA patch cords, oddly, the only thing I have been able to find in the wired department are four channel headphone amps. These take the signal via RCA patch cables from a device's "AUDIO LINE OUT" jack and distribute it to four separate headphone jacks with separate volume controls.
This one's $44 but a single channel unit should be out there for around $25. Higgs can search and submit candidates for approval as an exercise for the student.
So where's the darn URL, Greg?
If HB wants to learn, building a simple circuit is the way to go. If not, maybe someone will voluteer to build it for her for cost.
I got my feet wet with the remarkable 555 chip, which wasn't very accurate but certainly was very versatile (and CHEAP, too). First project was a variable speed reversing relay control for my Uniroller film developer complete with status LEDs (which sad to say were pretty new at the time) and (completely superfluous) beeper.
As an aside, today I got an HDMI to composite device for $20 that solves the problem of my new CCTV recorder having only VGA and HDMI outputs. Now I can pump the CCTV output through the analog TVs throughout the house like the old DVR did. I was pretty surprised when I went to connect the RCA "VIDEO IN" cable of my home distribution network and there was no "VIDEO OUT" on the new DVR as there was on the older one.
It was a reminder that like PC's, the connector that's been there for 20 years might disappear next year. I didn't even think to check the specs to see if the new unit had a composite video out. Now I get to find out if the unit supports simultaneous video output to both HDMI and VGA. I have my fingers crossed (but no M-M VGA cable so far to test with).
Some time ago a guy was setting up a headphone web page, by the name CMOY. Was asking for designs for amps. He also has his version of an integrated portable device. The site is Headwize or Headwise ? Lots of headphone stuff. I sent many emails trying to get specifics on my amp. You can just google szekeres amp. It's simple, but I don't recommend it for beginners.
Greg szekeres
Asking everyone. Is this really true that one can damage the jack pulling on the headphone cord? Maybe I'm consistently gentle, but I can't imagine pulling on the headphone cord hard enough to bend anything in the jack. The plug doesn't move enough (in any direction but in and out) to bend anything.
I don't mind pulling on an electric cord to pull it out of the receptacle. (No cord has ever suffered but if one did, it's easy enough to replace the plug.) So I'm not that gentle.
Perhaps cheap materials lose their springiness?
And HB have you ever actually pulled on the headphone cord hard and at an angle?
I can't imagine bending what's inside the jack by bumping the plug against something, even one's hand or fist. The parts inside the jack, the tangs, are meant to bend as the plug is pushed in and the wider part of the plug pushes them out of the way, so to be bent more than that, they'd have to be pushed even more yet.
HB have you ever hit the plug when it's in the jack, accidentally it would have to be, with your hand or fist, enough to bend something/
This one has 3 male ends. There are, of course, similar things with one male end and 2 female ends, probably more useful here.
There are no bad speakers. Only speakers who do bad things. Check with most psychologists, especially electronics psychologists.
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