Headphones

[Trumpetmajor]

Hi, does anyone know how to make the headphones sound louder on a Yamaha DGX660?
It seems a little too quiet when I plug them in and the volume is up full.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

My first reaction is to caution you not to turn the volume up too much when using headphones, so you don't damage your hearing.

Check the following pages in your owner's manual to see if any of the described settings help you get better sound and volume through your headphones:

Page 57 - Selecting an EQ Setting for the Best Sound
Page 58 - Setting the Output Gain Level
Page 59 - Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC)

Another thing you might want to look into is the volume setting for each individual part-- i.e., the Main Voice, Dual Voice, Split Voice, etc. Each of the preset voices has default settings associated with it, including volume, and some of the voices will have default volumes which are much lower than other voices. When you select a particular voice for a particular part, it's a good idea to go into the settings for that part afterward and adjust the part's settings to your liking, such as increasing the part's volume. You might also want to adjust the volumes of all the parts to get a pleasing balance between them. Once you've got the volumes of the parts to your liking, use the Master Volume knob to adjust the volume of the keyboard as a whole-- i.e., the volume going to the speakers or headphones.

 

[The Y_man]

@Trumpetmajor

What sort of headphones?
Do they sound louder on other devices?

The Y-man

 

[Trumpetmajor]

@Trumpetmajor

What sort of headphones?
Do they sound louder on other devices?

The Y-man

I have used both wireless and wired headphone and dine all the settings as per the other kind post but not made any difference really.

 

[Biggles]

Sounds like the Yamaha has a fault on the preamp section of the headphone input.

A seperate headphone preamp should enable you to boost the gain applied to the headphones, if you do buy one then do make sure you can return it for a full refund.

 

[Bouncingogre]

I also own a DGX660, and would also heavily caution you against increasing the headphone volume level, which is already extremely loud on its factory setting.
You only get one pair of eyes, and ears in life, and it's easy to get carried away with a loud headphone performance and damage your hearing irreparably. Not worth the risk.

Check your manual P58 for output gain settings as already suggested.
Some headphones have additional volume capability... I would not be happy using them with the very capable DGX660.

 

[Eric Barker]

If you are commonly practicing in a loud environment, I would recommend getting some passive noise-dampening headphones (no active circuit) like Sennheiser 280Pro/380Pros. I've been using Senn 280s for years (along side other headphones), and I highly recommend them if you need to isolate yourself from external sound. They're closed back and acoustically built to cut out as much sound as possible without using active noise canceling (which has it's own problems). This makes it one of the safest headphones to use because you're less inclined to turn them up to get over external noise. I recently purchased their newer 380 model, which is a little more expensive ($150 vs $100), but they sound a bit better and are quite a bit more comfortable for long periods of use. All the best sounding headphones in the world are open back, but these are about as good as closed backs get (though I'm also really partial to AKG271s, but those don't cut out nearly as much sound).

As everyone else says, you only have one pair of ears and they WILL degrade over time, no stopping that. However you can save them as long as you can by managing what they hear, and one of the easiest places to do that is getting the right headphones for the job and the environment.

 

[delaware dave]

Plug the main outs of your keyboard into a Rolls MX28, then plug your headphones into the headphone jack of the MX28. The MX28 offers about 20Db of additional gain, plenty enough to get your headphone output up. I purchased mine used for $30 a few years and have had no issues with it.