[Mike Rivers]

On Nov 8, 7:04 am, wrote:

I have now determined that
it is only the headphone socket in the card that crackles.
If I move the plug around in the socket a bit there's a position
in which it sounds fine. What sort of problems can develop here?

You will hear crackling and dropouts in the headphones. Is that a
problem? (I think so)

hoping that the contacts are simply dirty, but probably the headphone
socket is loose.

Mini jacks are a disaster ready to happen. Your jack is worn out.

How does one clean a 3.5mm socket? ...they're too
small for a standard cotton bud/Q tip.

You wipe some contact cleaner on the plug and work it around in the
socket. But if this helps at all, it will only be temporary. Chances
are it won't work.

If the socket is loose can it be repaired?

That's between you and E-Mu. Those cards aren't built for service so
they'll probably tell you that it's out of warranty and might offer
you an "out-of-warranty-repair" price on a new one.

There really is no good solution to this because of the size of the
card. I suppose it's possible to make a card with a lump on the outer
edge that contains a more robust 1/4" jack, but as far as I know,
nobody does that. These things are designed to be compact, and because
of the way they build compact jacks, they're expendable (and priced
accordingly, though you may not think so).

When you're ready to accept that it's permanently broken, consider
replacing it with a USB or Firewire interface with a 1/4" jack and
screws holding the case closed so that if the jack (chances are it'll
be a cheap one) fails, it can be replaced.