Receiver Thinks Headphones Plugged in When they Aren't -- Fix?
"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
. ..
"Andrew Barss" wrote ...
I have an Onkyo receiver, which I use for playing audio from DVDs,
as well as music.
I regularly use headphones at night, and recently there has been a
problem.
When the headphones are not plugged in, the audio will sometimes cut out
from
the speakers. I'm quite sure the problem is the headphone jack, since
touching the jack with a finger will cause the audio to come back. (I
don't
know enough about headphone jacks to know if this is due to mechanical
movement of the jack, or electrical conductivity of my finger).
Is there an easy fix for this? I thought maybe it was a loose solder
connection, but I would think that would have the opposite symptoms
(just disabling the headphone jack, not the symptoms described).
It seems quite likely that the "normaling" contacts (the ones which
connect the speakers when the headphone jack is withdrawn) are
dirty, which causes the kind if intermittent operation you describe.
You could try acquiring some contact cleaner in an aerosol (spray)
form and squirt it into the jack, then insert and withdraw a plug to
exercise (and ~clean) the contacts. Better would be to gain access
inside the equipment and spray the contacts directly.
Not exactly. Modern receivers like the Onkyo have sensing switches which,
when the headphones are plugged in, communicate to the microprocessor that
the speakers should be turned OFF and (generally)the multiple channels
should be downmixed to stereo. My guess is one or more bad solder
connections at or very near the headphone jack, or the headphone jack itself
could have sustained some minor damage from usage.
Mark Z.
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