What to do if headphones have different volumes. Solving headphone problems. The difference in the sense of space

2015-08-13 11:13:00

This week I found that one of the headphones in my headset sounds 2 times quieter than the other. In-ear (also called vacuum and plugs) headphones from Panasonic with soft unbreakable wires have served me for 2 years without obvious problems. I started looking for the reasons for this effect, and here's what information I collected:

1) Headphone meshes clogged with earwax... One of the plugs is hammered harder, so it sounds quieter. It is very easy to clean the mesh with the help of available tools, which everyone probably has at home.

• Hydrogen peroxide... The ears are cleaned with a solution of this substance, as it perfectly dissolves sulfur plugs. Sold in pharmacies. This means that the peroxide will clean out the nets of your headphones. Can be used alcoholas it also dissolves fat well.
• Bottle cap... Perfect as a container in which we will bathe headphone nets.

I collected everything I needed, poured a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution into the bottle cap, filled it a few millimeters and immersed the part of the earphone that had the mesh in it. It is better to remove the rubber bands from the headphones during the procedure. Having fixed it so that the solution did not get into the speaker, I waited 10 minutes. Then I repeated the operation with the second "ear".

Attention! Do your best to keep the solution out of the speaker. Keep the earbuds upright with the mesh downward until they are completely dry!

After drying them thoroughly, I inserted them into the socket and turned on the test melody. The headphones sounded like new! So the method worked!

2) Damaged wires... Try wiggling the headset cords around both the jack and the earphone cord entry. If you hear a crackling sound or feel a fluctuation in the volume level, then the problem is poor contact due to a damaged wire. If the earpiece speaker does not sound at all, then 100% of the matter is a cliff!

Of all the types of audio devices I have dealt with, only the headphones have been difficult. In many of the panel tests I have done for Sound & Vision, and the ones I now do for The Wirecutter, there are huge differences in how people perceive the sound of certain headphones. After reading reviews and comments, you can see that there are more different opinions than it seems. Even excluding the opinions of the "trolls", it is still obvious that different people hear sounds differently.

There are several reasons for this. I described one of these a few months ago in the article “Why Headphones Sound Different To Different People. Part 1". I promised I would write part 2, and so I did it. Part 1 was lost during the ongoing redesign of About.com, so I'll include it below as part of this article.

No pair of identical ears

Reason 1: The auditory canals are very different

Jacob Soendergaard, G.R.A.S. Sales Agent Sound and Vibration (the company that makes my headphone test tools) told me about this phenomenon and was kind enough to show me a very interesting PDF documenting the development process of modern hearing and head and torso simulators.

The scientist S.K. was very wise and witty. S.C. Dalsgaard from the University of Odense, related to the above project - he said: "We are modeling human perception with a very large error."

Soendergard elaborated:

“Every minute change in the geometry of the ear canal (shape of the ear canal, number of folds in the canal, aspect ratio, location of double bends, size of the tympanic membrane, etc.) affects the auditory perception - especially the perception of high frequencies with very short lengths waves ".

You can see this in the graph above, which is a simplified version of the schematic presented in the PDF I mentioned. The graph compares the readings obtained inside the ear canals of 11 subjects with the readings of a device designed to test hearing aids. For each tested frequency, you can observe the frequency response of the device (solid line), the average sound pressure values \u200b\u200bfor 11 test objects (circle) and the amplitude of the impact (a piece that looks like a wide letter H laid on its side).

As you can see, the sound pressure on the auditory canals at frequencies below 1 kHz does not change much compared to the performance of the device, at frequencies above 2 kHz, the differences become larger, and at frequencies above 10 kHz, the difference is simply huge and amounts to + \\ - 4 decibels. Objectively, I will say that a difference of + \\ - 2 dB, say, while simultaneously lowering the bass by 2 dB and increasing the high frequencies by 2 dB, is enough to affect the tonal balance of the headphones.

Soendergard and I analyzed the measurement data - we had to conclude that everyone's hearing is different, because our eardrum is a measuring device, the principle of which is similar to a microphone in a hearing simulator. As Soendergard said, if you move the eardrum of a person by even a millimeter, then a study at frequencies from 10 to 20 kHz (the hearing threshold of the human ear) will give completely different results.

Thus, differences in the shape of the ear canal, as well as the fact that headphones are used by people with different ear and ear canal shapes, can affect the perception of high frequency sound. A difference of only 1mm can affect the quiet sound of the headphones and make it either too pronounced or too muted.

I experienced this firsthand a few years ago when a composer (whose name will remain unknown) told me that he really liked some in-ear headphones. These were headphones that sounded incredibly dull, and most reviewers agreed. The measurements I have taken have confirmed the deviations at 3 kHz. I have collaborated with this person in the past, and we both came to the same conclusions regarding on-ear and full-size headphones, but his conclusions regarding in-ear headphones were radically different from mine (later the audiologist said that the shape of his ear canal was extremely unusual).

Everyone's sense of space is different, at least with headphones

Reason # 2: The transfer function in the brain works differently for everyone

Your brain uses the transmission function of your head to detect sound in three dimensions. The function takes into account differences in the time it takes for sound to reach each ear, differences in volume for each ear, and differences in frequency response caused by the acoustic effect of your head, shoulders, and ears when sound comes from different directions. Your brain processes and interprets all of these signals to tell you where the source of the sound is.

The use of headphones eliminates the influence of acoustic effects of the body and alters the signal arrival time and its volume compared to listening to music through a speaker system or at a “live” concert. Unfortunately, your brain cannot simply turn off the transfer function. When you put on the headphones, your brain keeps trying to identify the source of the sound, and cannot do it correctly, as a result, it feels like the source of the sound is right in your head.

I realized that everyone has their own unique head transfer function when I visited Virtual Listening Systems in early 1997. To create a headphone processor that would later become Sennheiser Lucas, VLS studied the perception properties of hundreds of people. To do this, they placed tiny microphones in their ear canals and put them in a soundproof room. A small speaker on the robotic arm reproduced an M-sequence of sounds. The robot moved the speaker to one of 100 different positions, at different angles, emitting a series of beeps each time so that the microphones in the testers' ears could “hear” how the body and ears were affecting the perception of sound.

(Headphone enthusiasts may notice that this procedure is similar to the measurement method used by Smyth Research and used to create the A8 Realiser processor)

I passed the VLS test myself. The company's scientists loaded my results into a processor that alters the audio signal to match the transfer function of the head. The result was amazing, I have not heard that at least one audio processor used by the headphones reproduced something like that. I heard an accurate, perfectly centralized picture, as if the vocalist was directly in front of me - not even Dolby headphones had such an effect on me.

VLS took readings from hundreds of people and created 16 different presets for the Lucas processor, each simulating a transfer function. Going through each of them in turn, it is difficult to stop at any one. I remember that some of the settings were clearly better than all the others, but it was difficult for me to choose one among the best four or five. But none of them gave the same result as the one selected individually for me in the VLS laboratory.

Probably for this reason, most headphone processors have a lot less settings, and they operate according to some average transfer function. Maybe you are lucky and your transfer function will be close to this approximation. Or not, then the sound will seem too rich to you, and maybe too weak.

Since everyone has their own head transfer function, so in the same way, each has a different compensation curve that affects the sound - a kind of equalizer. When your body characteristic is superimposed on the compensation curve, the result is the sound you hear every day. If you eliminate the influence of body parameters by using headphones, then your brain will rely only on the compensation curve. And since each of these curves is individual, the effect of the same headphones is different for different people.

No isolation - no bass

Reason # 3: The shape of the headphones changes the sound

Good sound reproduction is highly dependent on the shape of the headphones. In particular, on how the ear cushions of full-size headphones are wrapped around the ears, how the on-ear headphones sit on the auricle, or how comfortable the in-ear silicone or foam material is in the ear. If your headphones have good noise isolation, then all the bass they can produce will go to your ears. If there is "sound leakage" somewhere, the bass will be less pronounced and you will notice how the tonal balance will shift towards the high frequencies.

In part, the physical characteristics of your body determine which headphones are right for you. For example, if none of the interchangeable earpieces of in-ear headphones fit you, then their sound will not sound good to you. This can be a problem for me because my ear canals are unusually large, and for my colleague Geoff Morrison because he has unusually small ear canals. For this reason, I always thank the headphone manufacturers who put five or more different earbuds in the headphone box. So if you're unhappy with the sound of your in-ear headphones, you might want to take a closer look at Comply's foam pads.

Poor fit over-ear and over-ear headphones are also not uncommon. I dare to suggest that this, to a greater extent, concerns the latter, since in order to achieve good noise insulation, many factors must be taken into account. Such factors include long and / or thick hair, glasses and even earrings in the ears. Take the ear pads even a millimeter away from your head, and some of the bass will disappear, which will noticeably affect the sound quality of the headphones.

Over-ear and on-ear headphones work better for some people than others. Some headphones for music lovers, such as the Audeze LCD-XC, have ear pads so large that they can completely wrap around the ears and part of the cheek of relatively small people, especially women. At the same time, some supposedly full-size headphones are not even able to cover large earlobes like mine.

It is worth noting that poor sound insulation can also have a positive effect. Slightly reduced noise isolation can make bass-heavy headphones sound smoother - we found this out in our Best $ 100 In-Ear Headphones review for The Wirecutter. Of the headphones reviewed in that topic, my favorites are the Grain Audio IEHP, which for me produces excellent smooth and natural sound. I decided the IEHP sounded so good because the silicone earbuds provide good noise isolation. Although, for everyone else, IEHP's bass was too strong. Apparently, the pads did not provide me with the proper noise isolation, but provided it to others, and this radically changed my attitude towards headphones for the better.

Reasons that do not depend on headphones

Reason # 4: Personal preference

Of course, there are reasons, which apply not only to headphones, that people differ in their perception of sound.

The first reason is the most obvious: different people have different tastes in music. Some people like a little more bass than you, or more treble. Obviously, you will choose different headphones.

Continuing the theme. In addition to the usual, normal taste preferences, some people have a wrong, or, frankly, wrong opinion about sound. We've all met people who think good sound is nothing more than ridiculously loud bass. Some enthusiasts prefer strong high frequencies, which they mistakenly regard for accuracy and detail. I've been through this myself, but the invaluable work of J. Gordon Holt has put me on the right track.

Whatever makes such listeners happy, it has a right to exist, but their opinions about sound can be useful only for those who have similar extreme tastes, and such people try to justify their choice with unprofessional and unfounded judgments.

Reason # 5: Hearing capacity changes with age, depending on gender or lifestyle

Although most of us are born with roughly the same hearing capabilities, they change throughout life.

The more you are exposed to loud sounds, the more likely you are to lose some of your sensitivity to high frequencies. This is especially a problem for people whose leisure time (going to loud concerts, driving a racing car, hunting, etc.) and / or work (construction, military affairs, manufacturing, etc.) are associated with loud sounds.

The older you get, the more likely you are to lose perception of high frequencies. This is especially true for men. According to the article "A Study of Gender Differences and Age-Related Hearing Impairment" from the Journal of the American Acoustic Society: "... the hearing sensitivity of most frequencies decreases more than twice as fast in men as in women ..." Partly because men are more likely to work than women. where they are exposed to loud sounds, such as the one mentioned above. Studies have also shown that men perceive loud sounds much better, 6-10 decibels above the sound level comfortable for women.

Obviously, the perception of the characteristics of an audio device will change according to changes in hearing. For example, the distortion of high-order harmonics, which occurs at frequencies 5 or more times higher than the fundamental frequency of sound, will obviously bother a 25-year-old woman more than a 60-year-old older man, in addition, he may not even hear a 12 kHz sound. but it will be unbearable for a 25-year-old woman.

What can we do about it?

The obvious question arises: "How can you evaluate any headphones so that it is informative and useful for any listener?"

Unfortunately, no way. But we can try.

In my opinion, the key is to take readings from a multitude of listeners with different shapes of heads and ear canals. This was done by Lauren Dragan in a headphone review for The Wirecutter, and we did it when I was at Sound & Vision.

I'd love to do it here at About.com Stereos, but unfortunately it's not financially profitable to do it, given the small number of headphones I review and how much I get paid to do it. So the best I can do is link to my other reviews whenever possible. My articles for About.com Stereos and headphone reviews for SoundStage! I supplement Xperience with laboratory measurements to give an objective idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the frequency response of headphones is.

The Gold Standard must take into account the opinions of many participants and laboratory measurements. I did this when I was working for Sound & Vision, but at the moment I don't know of a single publication that does it.

One simple rule follows from all this: Be careful before making fun of other people's opinions about headphones.

Special thanks to Jacob Soendergaard of G.R.A.S. Sound and Vibration and Dennis Burger for their help and feedback on this article.

If your headphones suddenly stopped working, do not rush to the service center, do not rush to call the repairmen. Often the reason is not so difficult, you can correct the defect yourself. Let us analyze the reasons why the device is quiet or there is no sound at all, how to increase the sound in the headphones, remove the noise. We will correct the situation depending on the detected error.

Headphones

Your speakers on your computer / laptop are working normally, but there is a problem with the headphones: when you connect them to the USB port, they do not transmit sound. What to do when there is no sound from headphones?

• In the taskbar on your PC desktop, at the bottom right in the notification area, look for the speaker icon. Right click on it.
• In the menu that appears, select "Playback Devices".
• The "Sound" window has opened. When you connect a device to the USB port, its icon should appear in the window. If there is no icon, then you need to connect. Click on an empty field in the RMB window, select "Show disconnected devices".
• You will have a device icon, but it will be inactive, gray, with the inscription "Disabled".
• Right-click on the icon, select "Enable" from the menu.
• The button became active, a check mark appeared in a green circle on the icon, which means everything is done. At the same time, the icon with a check mark on the speaker button will change to an icon with a handset, which means that the speakers are turned off at this time, do not work.
• To configure the work, click on the RMB headphone icon, in the menu go to "Properties".
• Enter a name in the line, set the desired icon.
• The line "Device Application" should read "Use this device (incl.)".
• Apply the changes and go to the "Levels" tab.
• In the Speakers setting, move the knob to the maximum value. Make sure that the loudspeaker icon next to this control is in the on position (there is no red circle on the icon indicating the off state).
• Go to the "Balance" button, you also need to increase the parameters to 100%, check that the values \u200b\u200bof the regulators there are maximum.
• Apply the changes, go to the "Additional features" tab, uncheck all the boxes there, so you will remove possible noise.
• Going to the "Advanced" tab, you can check the sound in different formats, choose one of the proposed ones.
• Uncheck the boxes in the "Exclusive Mode" section.

You have set up your headphones and they now work correctly for you. If at the next connection to the port they were again inactive, right-click on them and set the default work in the menu. The headphones will then automatically turn on each time they are connected.

Headphones do not work when connected to the front panel

You connected the device to the front panel, but it does not work, there is no sound from the headphones. We act according to the algorithm:

• Go through the "Start" menu to "Control Panel".
• Go to the "Hardware and Sound" section.
• There go to "Realtek HD Dispatcher".

Go to the "RealtekHD Manager"

• The dispatcher window will open.
• You will see that the front panel is inactive. Click on the "Connector Options" folder. Both parameters must be checked there. Mark them to activate the front panel.

You can also go to additional settings and adjust everything there, as mentioned above, to remove noise and interference.

The sound is dull, quiet

The headphones work, but some files come with a low sound, dull. When you unplug the plug from the computer / laptop, when the sound passes through the speakers, the same files start to sound normal. How to cure such a problem, how to amplify the sound in headphones?

• Go to the Control Panel located in the Start menu.
• We pass along the path: "Equipment and Sound" - "Sound" - "Control of sound devices".

• Go to the "Recording" tab, select "Stereo Mixer".
• You need to increase the volume on the "Levels" tab, set the maximum value, on the "Balance" button also set 100%.

The problem should be eliminated: the quiet sound in the headphones will be corrected, the volume will become optimal.

Noise, interference

In case of incorrect sound reproduction, when noise, interference is heard, it is easy to correct the situation if it is caused by all sorts of default effects. If there is noise in the headphones on the computer, how to remove it - consider this issue.

• Go to device properties.
• Go to the "Additional Features" tab, disable all effects.
• Return to the list of devices, go to the "Communication" tab.
• Set the value to "No action required".

The playback should improve, the sound should be clearer, the noise should be removed.

Driver problems

Sound problems may be caused by improper operation of sound card drivers. Because of this, unnecessary noise may also appear when connecting devices. If the previous measures did not help, use updating or reinstalling drivers, install compatible drivers, even if they are "non-native".

If the problem occurs after installing an update or utility, roll back the system. Open the properties of the sound card, on the "Driver" tab, click "Roll Back". You will return to the previous working state of the driver.

You can use another method: completely remove the sound card drivers, in the device manager, click "Update configuration". The system automatically finds and installs the required software.

If the system does not find the driver you want, install it manually. Find the driver on the official website. If the sound card of the laptop does not work, look for this particular laptop on the manufacturer's website. If the card is built into the motherboard, look for the driver on the motherboard manufacturer's website. If the card was purchased separately, check with the card manufacturer for drivers. When looking for drivers, pay attention to the coincidence of the system bit: x64 or x86.

To re-install the software and not just update, first remove the sound card in Device Manager.

If there is a driver, but intended for an earlier version of the OS, then run the installation through compatibility mode. This mode is in the properties of the driver on the special tab "Compatibility". Specify the parameter of the downloaded driver and start the installation. The launch must be performed with administrator privileges.

Thus, without calling specialists, in most cases you can solve the problem of poor sound or its absence on your own, reduce noise, increase the volume. Do not rush to resort to drastic measures - reinstalling the drivers right away, perhaps the reason is simpler. Based on the situation, choose a means of restoring the normal operation of devices.

With headphones, many listen to music, play games, without disturbing others. However, it often happens that a headset that initially has an excellent volume will lose it over time. Listening to music brings discomfort: you have to strain your hearing. What if your favorite headphones, which we almost never part with, began to play quietly, and why is this happening?

Because of what the headphones quietly began to transmit sound, it is not as easy to find out as it seems at first glance. There are several reasons.

1. If one earphone works a little worse - a quiet sound, extraneous rustles, then perhaps it contact closes on the case... It is necessary to check the plug for breakdown.
2. One of the speakers is demagnetized, so the sound became much quieter. For quality products, the probability of such a defect is reduced to zero, but devices from China sometimes suffer from this - repairs are impossible, just buy a new product.
3. During long-term use, the headphones may accumulate foreign debris, which screens the sound and does not let it through, the product must be disassembled and cleaned with a brush.
4. When the sound is different - one of the headphones has a quieter sound, then try check balance.
5. If there is a violation of the volume towards the left or right device, then you need to check them on another product, for example, connect to a laptop - everything is in order, then the settings in the phone are to blame.
6. Excessive humidity, falling or mechanical damage cord may cause temporary lulls in one or the other.

Having certain skills in working with electronic devices, you can independently dismantle the product and find out the state of the sound card, otherwise you need to contact the service technicians.

Human factor

There is a tendency among young people to listen to their favorite tracks with headphones turned on at full power. With this habit, even small "pills" inserted into the ears can damage your membranes over time. After a long time of such hectic listening, your hearing becomes dull, and it seems to you that the sound becomes quiet with headphones, or one earphone is louder than the other. Rest for a few days - your hearing will return to normal. If not, then urgently consult an otolaryngologist.

The yellow-brown lubricant protects our hearing organs. But when it gets on headphones for internal use, it can clog the metal nets and it seems that the product now has a quiet sound or does not work at all.

There are times when only one is clogged more strongly in the headphones - this is due to the anatomical features of the user's ear canals.

There is only one method to get rid of this problem - rinse and clean the mesh with improvised means according to a simple technique.

Check the quality of the flush visually and connect the device to the phone - the headphones began to work, the sound became the same, which means that all actions were performed correctly. Enjoy listening.

Of the many audio devices I've dealt with, only the headphones have been problematic. The panel tests I did for Sound & Vision, and that I do for The Wirecutter, show great differences in the way people perceive the sound.

There are so many different opinions that it is simply impossible to understand them. And this can be seen from the numerous comments. Even if we do not take into account those who openly "troll", it is still clear that the sound of headphones is not the same for everyone.

And there are several scientific explanations for this phenomenon. I already wrote about this in the first part of the article on headphones, but unfortunately, it was lost. Therefore, I will describe everything anew in this material.

Everyone's ears are different

1. Reason: - each person's auditory canals have a number of individual differences

Sales agent for G.R.A.S. Sound and Vibration Jacob Soendergard told me in detail, and even showed me with the help of one amusing file, the process of developing hearing stimulants.

As S.K. Dalsgard is the scientist who develops hearing stimulants:

"We simulate human hearing with large inaccuracies."

He clarified that even the smallest feature of the auditory canal (shape, number of folds, aspect ratio of the canal, etc.) strongly affects how a person hears the world around him. This is especially important for the perception of high frequencies with short waves.



The graph above is a simplified diagram of what Jacob Soendergaard showed me. This graph shows the readings that were obtained inside the ear canals of 11 subjects. This data is compared with the reading on a hearing aid tester.

Each frequency has its own frequency response, indicated by a solid line. The average sound pressure values \u200b\u200bfor 11 test objects are a circle, and the amplitude of the impact is a symbol that looks like "H" laid on its side.

On this graph, you can easily see that at a frequency of 1 kHz, the data of the "live and electronic ear" practically do not differ. At 2 kHz, the differences become very noticeable. And at a frequency of about 10 kHz, the difference is very large. It is approximately + \\ - 4 decibels. It can be fairly noted that a difference of + \\ - 2 dB with a simultaneous decrease in bass by 2 dB and an increase in high frequencies by 2 dB is enough to have a tangible effect on the tonal balance of any headphones.

Soendergard and I realized that everyone has a different hearing, because the eardrum is a device similar to a microphone in a hearing aid. And if you move the eardrum at least 1 mm at a frequency of 10 - 20 kHz, the study will show completely different results.

It turns out that differences in the structure of the ear canal, together with the different shape of the ears, affect the perception of high frequency sound. Even a slight difference can make the headphones sound too loud or rather dull.

And I experienced all this on myself. About a year ago, a composer told me that I have decent in-ear headphones. These headphones sounded very quiet and muffled, and most of their testers agreed with this. But when I made all the necessary measurements, then I found a difference of 3 kHz.

In the past, we have had the same opinion about overhead and full-size devices. But his opinion about in-ear headphones was significantly different from mine. As it turned out later, the shape of his ear canal was very unusual.

The difference in the sense of space

1. Cause: Our brain's transfer function works differently

The fit of over-ear and over-ear headphones can also be different. This is especially true for the latter. After all, in order to achieve good sound isolation, many factors must be taken into account, for example, long hair, earrings in the ears or glasses. If the ear pads do not fit snugly against the head, then a significant part of the bass will be lost.

Over-ear and on-ear headphones may be better suited for many people than in-ear headphones. At the same time, both devices that capture almost half of the cheek and specimens that barely cover the ears are considered full-size.

In some cases, poor noise isolation can improve the sound of the headphones. Indeed, due to the loss of bass, the sound becomes smoother. And many people like this.

Causes independent of headphones

1. Reason: Personal tastes

Everyone has different tastes, and this affects the choice of headphones. For example, a person who prefers bass will not agree to use a device where high frequencies will dominate.

Many people have too extreme musical preferences. There is a whole category of music lovers who want their music to consist of practically one bass. But these and other extreme people are seriously mistaken about what the ideal sound should be in the conventional sense.

1. Reason: Everyone has their own hearing characteristics

A person's hearing abilities change over the course of life.

If you often deal with loud sounds in everyday life, then your sensitivity to high frequencies will be greatly underestimated.

Hearing also dulls with age. Moreover, in men it happens faster than in women. At the same time, men are more resistant to the effects of loud sounds.

Perfect headphones. How do I create them?

It remains to add that in order to create the ideal headphones, it is necessary to conduct large-scale research with a large number of subjects. This process is quite expensive, and few people are willing to do it.

I did a similar job at Sound & Vision. But now I don't do it.

Therefore, you should not rely on someone else's opinion about headphones until you have checked them yourself. Indeed, today universal audio devices simply do not exist.