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Earbud plug weirdness

First my daughter's iPod starting sounding strange. When she let me listen (took some negotiation), it seemed as if the sound had dropped either all, or a significant chunk of, the bass response. Singers no longer sounded autotuned (!). Wiggling the plug in the 1/8" connector sometimes helped, as did changing earbuds. Then tonight, on a flight home, I experienced the same problem with my own (otherwise perfectly reliable) earbuds on the aircraft entertainment system: very attenuated bass and midrange. Instant bad karaoke.

What could be going on with the connector? I could understand crackle and complete loss of signal, but this seems very frequency selective. If the input stage has a high-pass filter on it, wouldn't increasing impedence lower the cutoff frequency, not raise it?

Reply to
Douglas Beeson
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Are they clogged with ear wax ?

G=B2

Reply to
Glenn Gundlach

Are they clogged with ear wax ?

G²

If they are coated with earwax, be careful, our dog has eaten two sets of earbuds. He seems to like the wax, nom nom nom....

Reply to
Dennis

Broken ground or plug not inserted deep enough

Reply to
Blarp

This is the most plausible explanation.

With missing ground connection, the two headphones are in series and fed with the L-R stereo difference signal.

A typical stereophonic recording does not contain much bass directional signal, thus, when listening on the differential signal only, there is not going to be much bass.

Reply to
Paul Keinanen

It could be that the earbuds (more likely the cord somewhere) themselves have failed. Unless very expensive, repairing the earbuds cord is unlikely to be cost effective and a serious case of frustration.

Reply to
JosephKK

You opened one up to see what wire they use?

Grant.

Reply to
Grant

A couple of times. The wound foil on plastic fibers (sometimes concentric) is a real MF to deal with. With spiraled conductors on the outer concentric layer just as bad.

Reply to
JosephKK

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