Headset volume extremely low

[Rambaron]

I have a Crystal Fusion soundcard and am running Windows Me. When I have my speakers hooked up to the soundcard the volume is perfect, but when I hook a headset to them the sound is too low. I used to have a cheap mono headset that had this problem, I thought it was a problem with the headset, so I bought a Plantronics .Audio60 Stereo NC Lightweight PC Headset. Today I hooked them up to receive the same unpleasant surprise; the sound volume was still extremely low. I have maxed the sound volume in windows, applications and the volume on the headset itself. It did get a little louder but its still too low. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[DragonQ0105]

You could try this:

Go into Control Panel
Go into Multimedia Settings
Go to the Audio Tab
Click "Advanced" in the Playback Section
Choose Headphones from the list.

Choosing headphones from this list "Optimises" Audio Output for Headphones. It may help, but it may not.

In Windows 95 (Bare with my crappy temporary PC ), there is a tab in Multimedia called "CD Audio", and in that, there is a Headphone Volume slider....I guess this is only for the headphone socket on the CD-ROM Drive, but it's worth a try.


If not, you may have to buy a "Headphone Amplifier" to increase volume before the signal gets to the Headphones....ask your local electronics shop for one.

 

[Rambaron]

Yea, i've tried all that, except for the headphone amplifier, why can't the damn things work without me having to buy extra harware. If there is anything else I can do other than spending more money please reply.

 

[DragonQ0105]

I don't think so.

I guess each Soundcard's Base Volume is different. For example, with my Speakers, I use them on less than 1/4 of their Max. Volume for games etc., whereas when I used them on my old PC, they needed to be on 1/2 of their Max. for normal operation.

Your sound card's base output volume may be particularly low, so any Speakers/Headsets without Amplifiers won't be very loud...

 

[Rambaron]

An amplifier worked perfectly thanks for the help. I acually found one sitting around in a pile of junk.

 

[DragonQ0105]

No problem - lucky you found one! I always seem to throw away old stuff a week before I find I need to use it again...sigh...