Hi, I have a quick cabling question for you experts.

I might have to plug a mono jack cable into my synth's stereo headphone
output, to feed a stage monitor.

Would the onboard headphone amp suffer if I did this? Can you damage an
amplifier (or pre-amplifier) by plugging a mono cable into its stereo
out?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

"Omer" wrote ...
Hi, I have a quick cabling question for you experts.

I might have to plug a mono jack cable into my synth's
stereo headphone output, to feed a stage monitor.

Would the onboard headphone amp suffer if I did this?
Can you damage an amplifier (or pre-amplifier) by
plugging a mono cable into its stereo out?

Plugging a mono jack into a stereo connector will
short the "ring" (typically the right channel of the
headphones) to ground.

Shorting the output of a headphone output (or a line-
level output) in most modern equipment will not
damage it.

But if the headphone output is sending MONO to
both the right and left sides of the headphones, they
may have just connected the tip and ring together.
In this case, plugging a mono plug into this connector
will short all the signal, leaving you with nothing.
I wouldn't rely on this arrangement unless I tried it
before the show to confirm that it will work.

If you're worried, you can always use a stereo-to-two-mono adapter, then
use just one of the two resulting outputs.

You may want to audition this before you go on stage, since some stereo
synth patches sound distinctly different when only one channel is heard.

Omer wrote:
Hi, I have a quick cabling question for you experts.

I might have to plug a mono jack cable into my synth's stereo headphone
output, to feed a stage monitor.

Would the onboard headphone amp suffer if I did this? Can you damage an
amplifier (or pre-amplifier) by plugging a mono cable into its stereo
out?

You can, makes the amp shut itself off after a while ( and I have
read not to do this in some older equipment manuals that you can damage
their headphone amps by doing that. (I think that was for some Tascam
gear.)

Newer gear may be better designed, but I dunno. But if you know
you need a stereo 1/4" jack with only one side wired up for this
purpose, I'd just make one. You know, prepare in advance.

Regards,

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio For Video/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits