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How does a sound card determine if headphones are plugged in?

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 202610249 views
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Problem

This is actually two questions in one. First, how do soundcards (the cheap ones) "detect" whether the headphones are plugged in? By measuring resistance or by some other technique? Second, can I somehow have different sound outputs sent to the speakers and the headphones? I'm guessing no, at least …

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Fix for: How does a sound card determine if headphones are plugged in?

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The audio ports detect that something has been plugged in by monitoring for a change in resistance across the port. When nothing is plugged in the resistance is infinite, but when a coil is plugged in (speaker or mic) there is now a measurable resis…

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