[LUG] Headphones

[Neil <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I recently acquired a mini laptop to use downstairs, thanks MJE. 
Yesterday I was using it and got moaned at because I was watching a 
video, and the sound was annoying someone. (No prizes for guessing.)

Upstairs I have my desktop and my full sized laptop. The desktop has 
some external speakers attached. There is an output port on the speakers 
for some headphones, so I use that for videos and music.

So, first, I thought to try out the phones on my mini laptop. Great, the 
sound was better and when unplugged the inbuilt speakers came back on. 
That should please someone, and it was just as expected.

There is also a headphone port on the tower for my desktop, so I thought 
I would test that too. Yes, that worked, but when I removed the plug the 
speakers no longer worked. In the end I had to close down the computer 
and then start up again. Weird.

So how about the full size laptop. Again the phones worked fine, but 
when I removed the plug the inbuilt speakers no longer worked. It took a 
bit of messing about with the volume control package, and finally 
shutting down and restarting to get the sound back. Again, weird.

Why is sound on computers so complicated?

While I am at it I am considering getting some new phones. Mine are 
years old now. Any suggestions?

Neil

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