Advice needed

[IMC1980]

Morning people,

I have just joined the forum and wanted to ask a quick question as my google searches brought up nothing. I wanted to use my HT-5R last night with the headphone out, I connected the headphones and turned the power on leaving the amp in standby, but could only hear a humming. I switched it off and back on before realising I had connected the headphones to the speaker out connection next to it. I connected it to the headphone jack and it appears to be fine; I also played through the internal speaker this morning and it sounds normal.

My question is if anyone thinks there may have been any damage in the time both the internal speaker and headphones were connected to the speaker outputs? I don't think there will be as the amp was in standby anyway, but I want to be sure.

Thanks!

[thephantum]

If the amp never came out of standby, there is no possibility of damage.

Basically standby cuts plate voltage to the power tube, but leaves the heaters on (to keep the tube hot). With plate voltage cut, the tube cannot amplify a signal...much less send a signal to the output transformer.

[IMC1980]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah it was just in standby to use the headphones, once I had turned the power on a second time and I heard the hum again, I decided to check my connections before I did anything else.

Any idea why the headphone out sounds loads better than emulated out? I use Audio Technica ATHM50x headphones and it seems a lot less "fizzy" through them, with a more defined low end. When I listen to the direct monitoring of my Focusrite 2i4 with the same headphones via the emulated out, it sounds weaker and fizzy. I have got the gain up on my interface as high as it will go without clipping and the input is at line level, rather than instrument or "hi-Z".

As far as I am aware, they should be the exact same signal, so I am not sure why there is a difference.

[thephantum]

Unless they changed something recently, it's the same jack/output on the HT-5R:


That's the head, but the combo is just reversed/upside down (with the AC input on the left).

[IMC1980]

Yeah, that is what has me confused; the same output has a different sound through my interface. It sounds a lot better direct through the headphones, but I am not sure why.

[thephantum]

Ah. I see what you are saying. The fact that you are using the same headphones and the difference is the interface....that tells me the interface is not very transparent.

Most lower to moderate cost audio interfaces have pretty crappy preamps in them (that's how they keep the price down). The EO is line level, so you shouldn't need the preamp in the 2i4 anyway. Try turning the pads off and the gain (preamp) all the way down. Then adjust the amps channel volume to a point where is doesn't clip. My guess is it will sound better. If not then there might be something up with the 2i4.

[IMC1980]

So it is the pre-amp in the interface which is causing the problem then. I haven't tried it with the gain on the pre-amp at zero actually; I will give it a go tonight. It makes sense though what with the signal already being amplified by the amp, any further gain added at interface level is going to sound nasty.

Thanks Phantum!

[IMC1980]

It didn't make a difference, it is probably just because the signal is hotter straight into headphones, which is tricking my ears in to thinking it sounds better. I ended up running a line out of the FX Loop to the 2i4 and used power amp and cab sim plugins, that sounded pretty good.