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I have normal stereo headphones which work fine

On a specific PC running Windows 7 the external speaker and USB speakers work fine too

But when I plug in the headphones, all I hear is muffled music, no voice track? It sounds like it is being split into 5.1, and I am getting just the L & R components, and not the centre voice channel?

In the Playback devices (sound) control panel, I can adjust stereo or 5.1 for external speakers or USB speakers, but not for the headphones. The config button is grey out for them

Is this the problem, if so how do I fix it?

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Seems Related: superuser.com/questions/194017/… – techie007 Oct 24 '11 at 14:19

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Make sure Windows is picking up the headphones within Control Panel/Sound (it should tell you where you've got them connected)

If you have other ports (check the front of the PC for any green ones) then use these before any rear ports. Do you have a 5.1 system connected? If so see if it has a headphone port built in.

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Using front port, rear port running stereo speaker OK. No 5.1 systems connected, have not ever chosen 5.1 on any existing audio device – TFD Oct 24 '11 at 19:58
It sounds like your system cannot identify your headphones, i'm at work with no audio devices connected yet my machine shows 'Speakers/Realtek High Definition Audio/Not Plugged In' and 'Headphones/Realtek High Definition Audio/Not Plugged In' - both are greyed out. If i right click on either and select 'Properties' it still tells me where i should connect each device, does yours display this for the headphones? – HaydnWVN Oct 25 '11 at 8:00
up vote 1 down vote

As you use 5.1 channel speaker set, the default setting in the driver (for me it is "Realtek HD Audio manager") would be 5.1 channel and *that is what you need to change to 'stereo' or 'headphone' mode before switching from 5.1 to regular headphones.

For Windows 7: Go to Control Panel > Audio Driver manager (Relatek audio manager) > Choose the tab "Speakers" > Speaker Configuration > Change 5.1 to "stereo" or "headphone".

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up vote 0 down vote accepted

Un-installed driver using "Device Manager" and re-booted PC

Works fine now. Corrupted driver or settings?

edit

It started again much latter, I have since found it to be a hardware problem with jack. Rear jack on computer works fine

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