Headphones unusable with G2 engine

windchill

I never noticed before, because I normally go through a mixing desk, but my G2 engine is virtually unusable with headphones plugged directly into the headphone socket. I've tried 4 different headphones ... but with all of them the level is way too high. The G2 manual contains a special warning to engine users to keep the patch level down because there is no master volume - but this is no use when you click on a variation and the patch level jumps back up to full and nearly perforates your eardrum - or when you load a performance and quickly turn down the volume in slot A only to find after being deafened that the audio is routed to slot D! I ended up having to constantly take the headphones off while I loaded patches and turned the levels down.
I'm very disappointed as it means I will now have to carry round some sort of amp to attenuate the headphone level and it seems rather pointless having a headphone socket at all - as I might as well then use the standard outputs - surely the team at Clavia must have known that it's not as simple as "turning the level of the patch". Has anybody else had this problem with the engine?

blue hell · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 7:04 pm Post subject:

Yes, after some serious bangs on my eardrums I declared the headphone output to be "verboten", it's too dangerous to use for me.

The "good" news is that the phones output is on the back, which means that it is not easily accessible.

The engine should have had a phones output with a level pot, both on the front panel. What it now has is nonsense.

And the editor should have had at least all volume pots for the slots visible at all times and preferbly a master volume as well.

Wow that almost reads like I was in rant mode or something. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not completely alone in this Very Happy

dorremifasol · Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:48 am Post subject:

Agree, when I tested my first G2 Engine for the first time I almost got deaf and my headphones (shure e2c) almost broke as well, specially with Dasz sequences Very Happy

That's one of the reasons that I can't sell my G2 Engine, along the lacking of a small LCD and buttons to select sounds.

If the Engine was designed more as a programmable sound module rather than a red shoe box I think it would have been sold much better.

Fozzie · Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:29 am Post subject:

I agree with you that the headphone output s*cks bigtime, but there is one way that it can be used: there are these headphones for portable devices with a passive volume control halfway in the signal cable (just a very small slider). No need for an extra amp for attenuation this way. Keep it down to a very low level by default; only turn it up when patches are really low in volume.

capfindus · Joined: Sep 04, 2006 Posts: 8 Location: Italy

did someone try with high-impedance headphones?

dasz · Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:25 am Post subject:

the problem with headphones with a slider in the middle of the cable is that the slider does wear out and this can affect the audio connections.

Another reason is that the volume is not in one place (unless you tape the headphone volume housing to something), so you may not be able to react quickly enough and your ears might get exposed to unexpected volume.

The best solution is a small headphone amp.
/Dasz