Re: Trivial, but cool

[Raymond Pugh <rpugh@arcadia.win-uk.net>]

In article <allen_watson-230994171456@watson.apple.com>, Allen Watson III (allen_watson@quickmail.apple.com) writes:
>  [ deleted: a whole bunch of comments about listening to different 
>    albums with the funky headphones. . . ]
>
>What you have here, folks, is an accidental hookup that connects the left
>and right channels together out of phase so that the center drops out. 
>Kate and the drum kit are usually in the center, so they go away, leaving
>just the stuff that's on the sides. 
>
>
>The "broken" headphones may be putting a heavy load on the headphone amp in
>your CD player or receiver.  Listening to the surrounds (if you have 'em)
>is probably safer.
>

I suspect all that has happened is the earth wire (that's ground
for you US guys :-) ), has broken so the two speakers in the
headphones are series connected across the output amps.  As you
point out, any in-phase sounds will be cancelled out thus leaving
only the bits that normally appear off-centre.  When I was a lad
(long, long time ago), this was a standard practice for getting
cheapo quadrophonic (merely connect another set of speakers
*across* the amps.)  It should *not* cause any harm to the amps.

Of course, I could be wrong and your CD player might be about to
embed itself in your ceiling. :-)

   Ray 

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