x220 headphone issues

Hi everyone,

I'm having a little issue with the conexant audio inside my x220. When I plug my headphones into the jack to listen to audio, the sound is very echoed and distorted. I figured out that if I change the balance to 100% right (or left) and the other to zero, it fixes the problem. This problem doesn't happen out of the speakers. I've tried reverting the drivers from the lenovo supplied to the windows supplied, no luck. I've also tried different pairs of headphones, same problem. Interestingly, I also have the same problem when I boot into ubuntu linux. Any thoughts? Can anyone else confirm that they're having the same issue? I'm a medical student, so I'm sort of dependent on listening to audio on my headphones. If anyone could figure this out, it would be a huge help and I'll make you better when you're sick lol.

 

does the actual headphone port look damaged in any way?

 

Great question, but no it doesn't. I'm considering of opening it up again to make sure nothing is shorting inside. I put a msata hard drive in there when I first bought it.

 

After seeing this thread I hooked up my Sony MDR-V300 headphones and cranked up some soft music only. Absolutley no distortion or echoes. I have my equalizer set where the 500hz and 1khz are increased slightly only and all other settings at default except the night mode was turned off(That's the little half moon icon on the lower left side of the Smart Audio equalizer program). I know this does not help you but did you adjust the equalize at all ?

 

not really about shorting, sometimes the soldering gets damaged, like if the headphone was plugged in and then it got bumped against something. back in the days when i had a walkman that happened, the symptoms sounded same as what you're describing

 

@sr45: I tried the same sound settings in the equalizer, no change in the problem.
@afhstingray: Great point. I also tried adjusting the distance that the headphones are plugged into the port. What perplexes me is that this problem is corrected by changing the balance in software, rather than always occuring. I get proper left and right sound when the balance is adjusted.

 

yea but the fact its present in Ubuntu as well makes it sound like a hardware issue methinks

 

Plugging in my Sony MDR EX-71 earbuds (sensitivity 100 dB), I didn't notice any distortion but volume seemed a bit on the low side. Not surprising really because volume is low outputting the speakers too. Makes me suspect that there is either something wrong with the Conexant driver or the manner in which Lenovo have implemented it.

There are reasonably cheap and decent usb DAC's/ headphone amps on the market, which would plug into a usb socket of the X220, such as the nuforce uDAC:

NuForce Icon uDAC

Another alternative is to buy an Expresscard soundcard. The choice isn't that great though. A pricey one is the Echo Indigo:

Echo Indigo I/OX ExpressCard soundcard at Gear4Music.com

or cheaper one is the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3326/2...-Notebook-Expresscard-Sound-Card/Product.html

...although the latter didn't get a great review here (no ASIO driver):

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Creat...iew_creative-sound-blaster-x-fi-xtreme_Page-2

However, you will be using the Creative driver instead of the Conexant one. So audio out of the X220 speakers and headphones should be improved and even LOUDER!

I intend using a usb DAC, which is on the way to me. I'm hoping there will not be any problems using it because I bought the X220 with audio in mind.

 

Using any additional sound device will NOT affect the audio coming from the X220 speakers or headphone output. I have read that there are issues with the shipping conexant audio driver - try updating to the latest driver.

Failing that (and maybe if you really care about your audio anyway), you should look at getting a USB soundcard/DAC. There really isn't much choice in expresscard devices, and they all stick out considerably any way - better to get a quality USB bus powered interface.

I'm considering an RME Babyface. There are much cheaper devices available, especially if one doesn't need inputs, but RME is great quality.