External speaker outputs on Howard D910 produce abysmal sound

[RbtWagner]

Rather than replacing the falling apart speakers in my Baldwin Howard D910, I tried to hook it up via the left and right outputs at the rear of the organ to my excellent subwoofer which then connects to my monitors. I was not ready for the result. Horrendous! Even worse than the really bad sound quality was the fact that it… Well if you played with two hands on one keyboard some of the notes canceled each other out. The only way you can get differentiation was to play on the two keyboards.
I am not ready to give up yet, the sound produced through the headphone jack is quite good in notes are differentiated. So I'm thinking there must be a solution. I see two solutions ... Maybe, so here are my questions:

Beneath the console where I plug in headphones there is another set of left and right outs, due to their proximity to the headphone jack, I was hoping these would yield a similar output. Before I go through the moving of the subwoofer to try my short cable, can someone tell me if the sound coming from these alternate outputs is different from the ones the back?

Or, can I just get a cable with a single stereo plug on one end that will plug into the headphone jack receptacle and have a right left splitter on the other end of the cable to plug into the subwoofer.Then I would know the sound emanating is good. I am not sure if this is kosher though, is it okay to plug the signal coming from the headphone into externally powered speakers? Does this create a problem? If not this seems like an ideal solution.

Option one or option two or am I dead in the water and just have to replace the flaking apart speakers?
Thanks again,
Bob

[arie v]

Hi,

I'm not sure how you are setting up your external speakers, but you should audio signals to the outputs that are if anything better than what you get from the phones or internal speakers.

The rear audio outs and the audio outputs under the key desk are the same, at least according to the schematic.

The audio signals that feeds the internal amps and headphones go through an additional op-amp and some circuitry.

The only thing that may be a problem would be bad connectors, or bad connections. Are you making sure that you are not getting signal and ground mixed up in the wiring? Maybe your speaker setup is not all that it is cracked up to be.

AV

[RbtWagner]

I don't see how I could have the wiring wrong. The back of the organ has quarter-inch jacks for right and left output, my subwoofer has quarter-inch inputs for right and left. The only thing that could be wrong is maybe I have a right and left switched, but that shouldn't make any difference. The two quarter-inch to quarter-inch cables that I bought are balanced would that make any difference?
Speaker system works just fine when attached to computer through M-Audio interface to USB. Sounds phenomenal.
Don't know the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables could this be the problem?

[NoTalent]

… Well if you played with two hands on one keyboard some of the notes canceled each other out.

Sounds like a speaker phasing issue.

Greg

[RbtWagner]

Greg,

Are you saying it is as simple as making sure right is to right and left is to left?

[indianajo]

Frankly, speaker phasing problems sound like the bass potentiometer is turned down, not "horrible".
I would buy a $1 head phone, and a 1/4 to 1/8 headphone adapter, or put a 1/4 stereo plug on the headphone, and listen to it that way out of the headphone jack. If It still sounds horrible I would start checking the power supplies. A Howard is old enough to start having deterioration of the electrolytic caps. Also, if any of the deteriorated speakers were played until the windings shorted, then some output transistors could be blown in the power amp. Once output transistors are blown, many other components in the power amp have to be checked, since they are often not rated to sustain the rail voltage. See this thread about transistor amp repair basics. https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/soli...de-manual.html If that is true you need to back up and use your plug of your sound system input as a sound probe. Protect it with a .047 uf >100v capacitor and probe around the input of the power amp to see if the sound is good coming into it. Don't poke around the power amp this way, the voltage on that can be lethal until you learn the one hand rule etc. www.aikenamps.com/safety.html is the basic safety training for newbies. If the sound going into the power amp is bad, you need to buy a schematic diagram .

[RbtWagner]

There is a phase switch on the back of my subwoofer KRK 10s. 0 or 180 is this what you mean. Flip the switch?

[RbtWagner]

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me out yesterday with this issue. I ended up taking the easy way out and using a y cable: stereo to split right-left mono and plugging into the headphone jack receptacle and then to the subwoofer left and right input. Worked like a charm.Only issue that remains is the non functioning cresendo pedal.

Thanks again
Bob