Juno DS - low volume/choppy sound

[vasilevasile]

Output level is a different issue from impedance. But amps get damaged from driving too little impedance, not too much, and the line input of an amp would be high impedance. So plugging into that amp from a headphone jack would not damage the headphone output. But while connecting a headphone out to an external amp won't damage the headphone out, you'd want to keep the keyboard volume quite low so as not to risk overloading the input of the amp (or sending a signal that could blow its speaker).

But anyway, there is no reason one should need a mixer to get a usable level of sound out of the DS, and it certainly wouldn't affect the level of the DS' headphone out.

Just a thought... do you have an expression pedal plugged in, which may be lowering the volume? That would be another thing that could result in lower volume through the main outs and the phones... though it wouldn't explain any distortion, nor your faint beeping sound, so you have something else going on regardless.

No pedal attached yet.

Both sounds that I’m having issues with come via usb - from a stick and usb MIDI from the pc. This would be the common denominator, I guess..

 

[anotherscott]

Both sounds that I’m having issues with come via usb - from a stick and usb MIDI from the pc. This would be the common denominator, I guess..

Okay, now I'm totally lost. I thought you were having problems playing the Juno's own sounds, whether through the its headphone jack or connected to an amp. USB should have no bearing on any of that. Disconnect from your PC, remove any USB stick from the Juno, and see if the Juno works. Let's at least begin from a simple starting point with nothing else connected, so there's no question as to what your sound source is.

 

[vasilevasile]

The Juno internal sounds come out on speakers and headphones fine in the end and with a mixer I can manage the relationship with the speakers a lot better. That is sound advice from this forum, appreciated.

The only remaining issue, is that whatever I play as audio, either reading it from usb from receiving it from the pc, comes out heavily distorted over the headphones.
The distortion is the same on the mixer/juno headphones jack but there is no distortion during the same play on the speakers.

 

[vasilevasile]

The Juno internal sounds come out on speakers and headphones fine in the end and with a mixer I can manage the relationship with the speakers a lot better. That is sound advice from this forum, appreciated.

The only remaining issue, is that whatever I play as audio, either reading it from usb from receiving it from the pc, comes out heavily distorted over the headphones.
The distortion is the same on the mixer/juno headphones jack but there is no distortion during the same play on the speakers.

So playing/rehearsing over an external input backing track while listening to headphones is out of the question I haven’t tried the other audio input via 3.5 jack, I m unable to do so at the moment.

 

[vasilevasile]

After more experimenting, I noticed that if I plug in the headphones jack only halfway in the mixer, the audio sound is not so distorted, almost feels normal while and the sound of the keys is somewhat lower.

I ve been using headphones with an impedance no higher than 32 ohm. Could this be the issue causing the headphone distortion?
Is it possible to have the difference in quality of sound between audio and internal/keys sounds because these two signals are output with different impedance via the same headphone out?
Is this making any sense?

 

[delaware dave]

Okay, now I'm totally lost. I thought you were having problems playing the Juno's own sounds, whether through the its headphone jack or connected to an amp. USB should have no bearing on any of that. Disconnect from your PC, remove any USB stick from the Juno, and see if the Juno works. Let's at least begin from a simple starting point with nothing else connected, so there's no question as to what your sound source is.

exactly how i read the opening post, that it was a juno output issue. now 15 posts later we learn that there is a pc/daw in the middle of all of this ..... probably would have led to different solutions and certainly not my suggestion of purchasing a mixer as that is not going to solution this problem.

 

[vasilevasile]

There was no daw or mixer when I first started this post . Now I m just testing all the features.

The output of the Juno was my main concern because of two compounded ‘issues’:
1. Output on the headphones- which was/is distorted.
2. Output on the line out- to speakers which was low.

No 2 is not a concern anymore as the level of each sound (keys or audio) needs to be managed on its own. Using the internal eq and a mixer, the sound/volume is as advertised/expected.

No 1 is still an issue and it happens both on the juno and the Q502usb mixer which the juno is connected to, the Q502 having its own headphones jack.

The distortion is identical on both headphones outputs.
The distortion is identical on the Q502 headphones output when I run sounds from the Juno or another source connected to it.

I suspect it is an impedance issue as the Q502 can output 150 ohm while the headphones that are currently available to me are lower than 32 ohm.

I don’t know what the impedance on the juno headphones output is, that is not advertised anywhere.

I could test this theory with some high impedance headphones, but I don’t have that option for the moment.

My only remaining question is if a headphone amp, would help reduce the impedance of a system (juno or mixer) and bring it down to a level compatible with 32 ohm headphones?
The amp I have in mind is this one:

LD Systems HPA 4 LDHPA4

LD Sytems HPA 4 - a compact and powerful headphone amplifier The LDHPA4 has small dimensions, can handle up to 4 headphones and has an output power with no equal in its class. That means high volume with no distortion. With these...

www.adamhall.com

 

[vasilevasile]

The headphone amp did not solve the problem.

After more research I suspect it has to do with the fact that every headphone set that I ve been using has a TRRS jack (somehow!)
TRRS has an extra ring for the mic connection and if plugged into a device which has TRS only output (i.e. a device that has a dedicated mic input), the audio (l/r) and the mic channels will get scrambled, causing sound distortion.

The mixer(Behringer q502) and the juno both have 6.3 headphones output and I use an adapter for 3.5.. When I plug in the 3.5 jack only halfway in the adapter(mixer) the sound is as it should be. Basically in this case the last section of the headphone jack(which is usually for the mic signal) is not used.

Will get the cheapest TRS jack headphones tomorrow and perform the test to confirm.

All my equipment is brand new, cables are all Cordial with gold plated connectors.

 

[vasilevasile]

Confirmed. When used with TRS only jack, the sound is fine.

Thanks and enjoy your Juno.