Audio jack not being powered

[humariel]

Hi,

I have a Bluetooth headset that I sometimes use with the audio jack when they run out of battery, and i found out that when I play audio with the jack the sound is all messed up.
But when I plug the USB to charge the headphones simultaneously with the audio jack the sound is fine, so I'm guessing that the problem is that my PC isn't giving the jack the 5V it should to power the headphones.
This does not happen on Windows, the sound is fine there.

Any ideas why this is happening?


Thanks in advance,
Humariel

[Holger_Gehrke]

A (three contact) headphone jack only carries ground, left signal and right signal (on a four contact jack for headsets there's one more contact for a microphone) . No voltage for an amplifier. And normally none is needed since headphones are basically just small speakers, the signal should be strong enough to produce sound.

What exactly do you mean by 'messed up' ? Weak ? Distorted ? Broken up ?

Holger

[jimmyrus]

I'm with holger here. a regular headphone jack doesn't and never has provided any power at all just audio. usb does have power rails so if you power the thing it may boost the signal which is all you need. I've had headphones
that would disconnect from my phone if I put it in my left pocket over the right so it can be twitchy.