Why on a pro audio device is the headphone jack 3.5mm and not 6.5mm??
Is this because we are into the Igeneration??.
Not only is it small, my BB’s jack seems to be of questions quality, where lightly touching the jack plug causes one side to drop in and out or some distortion to occur
Tried the same headphones on all the kids iphones and was not able to replicate the dropout/distortion so its does seem like the BB phone jack is a bit suss.
The more I insert the jack plug, the better it seems to get so maybe there is just some grunge or solder fouling it up.
It is a minor issue, but does mean I cannot use my ‘built like a russian tank’ pro phones without an adaptor plug, and cannot stand upright with the only pair of crappy 3.5mm phones I own, with its diminitive 1m lead.
When i ran a small recording studio, it was guitarists bending down to adjust their pedals, standing on the phone lead, then standing up and ripping the phones off their head (or the leads out of the phones) that contributed to the death of every pair of ‘domestic’ phones ever bought.
Once i gave up trying to glue/solder headphones back together and got the AKG’s with replaceable parts and russian army spec leads, i never lost another set.
I am yet to rip the headphones off my head using BB, but it won’t be long I’m sure.
The last thing a 3.5mm jack needs is the leverage of an adaptor and a 6.5mm jack plug hang out of it, especially considering this is the jack closest to the foot pedal switch and the most likely one to get stomped on my mistake.
I very rarely use it, I suspect it is small because of space and most users have headphones with a 3.5mm jack. I have a very nice Beyerdynamic DT770 which has a 3.5mm jack but comes with a 6.5mm adapted that screws onto it.
If you need to use the headphone output I would get a short adapter cable with 3.5mm jack male to 6.5mm jack female - that way there will be less strain on the socket.
When someone (hint hint) releases a "norbert hack’ plug and play internal wiring mod for remotely trigering the main pedal to allow mic stand or desktop placement of the BB, no further mods will be needed to support existing common pedal hardware.
"One other reason to make it a 6.5mm jack…
When someone (hint hint) releases a “norbert hack’ plug and play internal wiring mod for remotely trigering the main pedal to allow mic stand or desktop placement of the BB, no further mods will be needed to support existing common pedal hardware.”
I’m gonna weigh in also with the “Headphone Jack Quality” topic. When I first got the BB, I used the headphone jack the first evening to sample/hear the built in drum loops. Super crappy quality! I took the pedal apart thinking I would replace the jack with a good quality Switchcraft or Neutrik jack - no love. Jack is mounted to the circuit board.
Here’s an idea - put a new 1/4 jack into your BB ala the Norbert hack but wire it up with the existing headphone wires, then use the existing 3.5mm for the add-on extension footswitch - I just discovered a couple of momentary footswitches that use 3.5mm jacks instead of 6.5mm jacks (on Amazon). This is the best of both worlds for you - you get the extension foot switch and a 6.5mm jack for headphones.
I personally wouldn’t do it - I’m fine with 3.5mm jacks for headphones and would prefer to keep the heavier 6.5mm jack for the Norbert footswitch.
I think i got ahead of myself on this whinge… Not once (except on day one) have I used headphones… nor am I likely to.
I like sound in the stereo image I was born with and enjoy not being snuck up upon, and hearing the magpies and noisey minor birds singing along outside my open window.
If headphones were the only option, the signal would probably be taken from somewhere further down the audio line anyway. via a 6.5mm jack.
Given a choice in the matter, I’ll never use a 3.5mm jack, least of all for my gig rig.
As per 8daypsalmist’s post, the headphone jack appears to be mounted directly to the board, so no wires.