KVR Audio

Passante · Post by **Passante** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 3:56 pm

Hi everyone.
I was wondering what type of cable is the typical 1/8inch - 3.5mm cable implemented in the PC headphones for general use? Are they usually balanced or unbalanced. Are they susceptible to signal interference? I'm asking because I'm suffering from massive input lag while using my computer. Removing the front audio from my motherboard had a positive effect on this.

So I was curious to know whether there is a way to remove any more potential interference from the audio path. I know for instruments TRS cables are implemented in such cases, if I am correct. So I would like to know, is there a way to bring this concept to headphones for general use?

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 4:08 pm

The "input lag" is probably latency ... an ASIO soundcard (or driver) is the solution. You could also try reducing the size of your soundcards audio buffer.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:39 am

FIY: headphone cables are always unbalanced. There are three conductors: one ground and signal conductors for the left & right ear.

RF interference doesn't stand a chance on headphones. The power of RF interference is relatively very low. Microphone & instrument signals first need to be amplified, so there you should take precautions. But with any signal of line level strength or higher, further shielding has nearly no effect on the sound quality.

fluffy_little_something · Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:53 am

Is the lag also there when you connect loudspeakers (you know, those small computer speakers) to the headphone connector?

Passante · Post by **Passante** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:26 pm

Hey fluffy, yes. The input lag is present whether I use my little speakers or headphones. The reason I'm focusing on the headphones is because at first I was using them with an audio splitter for mic/headphones, after I removed it, I got a drastic reduction in input lag.
In these months I replaced every single component of PC without any effect on the issue. Updated every single driver, the only thing that affected this so far was removing the audio splitter and plugging in the headphones directly in the back. My pc feels heavy and sluggish. I don't know what to do anymore, I'm a little bit desperate at this point. Some kind of signal interference is my only explanation as of right now.

@BertKoor, thank you for the detailed explanation. I don't know what to do anymore.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:34 pm

Can you explain what you mean by "input lag"?

skipscada · Post by **skipscada** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:57 pm

You answer fluffy and BertKoor, but it's thecontrolcentre's comment you should concentrate on. Assuming your CPU is moderately powerful, a quality soundcard running an ASIO driver should give you the opportunity to test different settings and find one that gives adequate latency without dropouts.

Google audio latency and you will find guide like this: https://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/what-is-audio-latency

skipscada · Post by **skipscada** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:03 pm

By the way, electricity running through cables has no latency - it's nearly light speed. Changing the headphone cable affects only the analog signal, i.e. electrons moving at near the speed of light regardless of the type or quality of the cable, so it has no effect on latency. Latency comes from the digital side of things - conversion from digital to analog and vice versa, plus processing of the digital signal.

Headphones cable