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Is my sound card broken or is this issue software related? (uneven headphones volume)

sirbardo
Level 7
Hello everyone. My girlfriend gifted this soundcard (Solo version) to me a few months ago. I only ever used it with Razer Tiamat 7.1, which don't use the headphones out jack, so I never happened to use that plug. A few days ago I ordered a Sennheiser HD650, that I am about to receive.
Yesterday I tried to plug my Senn hd201 to the headphones out ampedplug (on the back of the card) and... bad news.

Basically, volume output from my left channel is about 5% of my right channel. It's almost completely silent. Now, before I try to use my warranty, which, living in Italy, will probably take a LOT of time, I'd prefer to try and fix the issue myself, if possible.

Things I tried:
Reinstalled the drivers. (I AM RUNNING WINDOWS 8.1). Many times. Tried lots of different drivers, including the one who just came out.
Checked if headphones are working properly (obviously).
Disabled on-board sound card, uninstalled its drivers aswell.

Things I will try soon:
Try the card on another computer I have, who is now rocking a essence stx.
Try the card on win 7 x64 ultimate.

If anyone has any idea of what is causing the problem, and if its hardware related of software related, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Just in case, this is my motherboard: Asrock Extreme 4 Z77.

Please excuse some minor mistakes in English, as this is neither my native nor my main language.
701 Views
17 REPLIES 17

panzer21z
Level 7
Same problem with my card too :x

Same here with my Phoebus Solo (speakers OK, headphones only right channel). My second Phoebus is OK. Windows 8.1 x64, 8.1.1.35 drivers.

Jeeves
Level 7
I have this problem too! I have no bass on the right side with a Tiamat 7.1 but very good on the left.

I have this problem as well just started a day ago!! works in speaker jack in both ears, headphone jack left ear does not work but right does..please fill us in if problem is solved please thanks GoldenDrako

jon4480
Level 7
Me too, it's driving me crazy but so far I also tested with onboard supreme fx, asus dgx, creative sbx, ALL have left channel louder, and I cannot balance manually because it's also trebble and bass!!!!! @Raja: I'm surprised you did not heard of it before, maybe I you would still hang out in the rampage motherboard section, you would have seen me complaining about this and seeking for help a long time ago!!! Mad mad customer

If all the soundcards enumerated have left channel louder then the problem is your headphones, you cannot simply think that 3 different soundcards on the same headset have issues with left channel being louder.
i7-4790k + Corsair H80i | Asus Maximus VII Ranger | 16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866 | Sapphire R9-290 OC Vapor-X 4GB | Asus Xonar Phoebus + Audio Technica M50 | 1xSSD Corsair 120 GB | 4x1 TB Seagate HDD | Corsair CX750M | Corsair Carbide 300R | Razer Taipan + Logitech G11 | Windows 10 64bit

ZL0I
Level 7
Most likely the problem in headphone amplifier.
More details can be found here.....

This Problem just happened since yesterday for me.

Asus Xonar Phoebus, on 10.0.1.40. Problem persists with 4.28 today.
Headphones work just fine in the Speaker output but plugged into the headphone output i can only hear incredible silent noises from the RIGHT channel.
The left one seems to work on its normal volume.
Changing the gain doesnt make any difference to that problem.

To understand this properly: Does the phoebus has seperate amps for each hp channel ?
I wouldnt bother that much if the hp amp just broke completly to have even hp volumes. But this huge difference, you simply cant hear the other ear, makes wearing headphones impossible.

Sadly the has been bought a quite a while ago, 3 years and 3 months, so rma is not an option.

Is there a way to fix this, in any given way ? Maybe does someone know how to break the amp completly to have even volumes on both ears ?
Or according to the link below, is it possible to try flash the firmware ?

edit:
There has been a second, older post about the same problem:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?30893-Uneven-volume-output-between-left-and-right-headphon...

edit:

the link from ZL0I above me was helpful for my electronic engineer master friend to look at some schematics of the DAC and OPs and AMPS and ... (the heck i dont know much about that stuff :/)
And hes certain to measure where the faulty parts are and be able to replace it.