I have a pair of Sennheiser HD598s, generally connected to the front panel of my case via an Asus Xonar DG.
Everything was copacetic until recently. I used to be able to control the universal Windows volume with buttons on my keyboard, and anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of max was the sweet spot, depending on the program.
Now, the sound is tilted heavily toward the right earphone unless I turn the Windows volume all the way up and control the volume of each individual program through the control panel. This is a rather slapdash and annoying band-aid for the issue. I’ve also experimented with shifting the balance in the Xonar software, but I have to raise the left side volume to the point that it becomes slightly muddy.
I’ve tried both the Sennheisers and an old Razer Carcharias headset, and I’ve tried each in both the front-panel jack and the jack located on the card itself. All configurations showed the same issue.
I’ve done some googling, but found nothing definitive. The closest analogues to my problem seem to suggest that the headphone amp on the sound card is shot, in which case I’d just need to replace the card. It’s only 20 bucks at the moment, so that wouldn’t be a total disaster. Still, I figured I’d post here to see if any of you have had a similar issue and/or had any suggestions.
Can you try another output. Not sure on the Xonar cards if the outputs can be configured in the fly like most onboard chipsets these days (plug cable in then a pop up asking if it is front speaker, centre, rear, etc).
My current board had a problem getting sound to both channels on my new headphones and it turned out to be a failed socket on the chipset. Well, techincally I think something in the chipset is failed on that channel as the problem would persist via front panel audio as well, which redirects the primary L/R to the front. Any other socket on the back works fine when configured as another front L/R output. Weird I know.
Huh I have had sennheiser headphone cables fail multiple times in this way (lose one side or one side becomes intermittent) but if you have tested with multiple headphones that is ruled out.
I did not actively quote any text at all. From memory I think I used the thread reply button. I’ve actually seen this couple of times in the last day or so from other posters and figured they screwed up a text highlight, now I am wondering if there is some other cause…
