Problem audio quality headphones

ili3sou9

Hello,

I have recently acquired a Komplete Audio 1 sound card that connects via USB. Up until now, I have never had any issues with the audio on my computer. The mini jack port with headphones works perfectly, and I also have a Rode NT USB microphone that connects via USB. I can plug my headphones directly into this microphone, and I have never had any problems with audio quality; everything works fine. However, with the Komplete, I plug my headphones into the headphone jack using a mini jack/jack adapter, and the sound from my computer is, to say the least, abysmal. The sound is very muddled and of very poor quality. When I switch to mono or lower the right or left output channel to 0 (noting that, for example, if I set my left output channel to 0 and the right to 100, I still get sound in both ears, so I suppose the sound my computer sends to the sound card for stereo is just two mono sounds superimposed) from the Windows settings, the quality improves but is still not great. Of course, I have installed the Komplete Audio driver multiple times, even trying with an older version, but the problem remains.

I believe I have tried everything: I changed headphones and adapters, and the problem persists. I also tried with a TRS mini jack, desperately thinking that my 4-point mini jack on my headphones might be the issue, but again, it was not. I have updated all my drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled everything, and even reinstalled my chipsets, but nothing improves the quality. This is a call for help—has anyone encountered this problem before? Have I missed something?

PK The DJ

You don't say what "my headphones" are, or what "my computer" is, but my guess (based on you mentioning the 4 way plug on the headphones) is that because the Komplete Audio has a standard stereo socket and you're plugging in a non standard jack (via an unknown adapter to boot) the audio is not being assigned to the correct channels, maybe even shorting out.

Also, microphones are typically mono, so it will be the same in both ears.