Headphone volume controls

[Maters]

So my pc has one audio-out which I have split to my speakers and headphones. The speakers have a volume control built in, but my headphones do not have a volume control. I dont like having them always on while using the speakers and reconecting the headphones everytime i want to use them is kind of a pain. So I wanted to make a simple enclosure with an on/off switch and a potentiometer to control the headphones.

Could you tell me what kind of a potentiometer should i be looking for?

My headphones are Superlux HD681 if that helps.

I dont have any amps or anything like that connected.

 

[Maters]

So I have done a lot of research in the past day and learned a lot.

Im going to answer my own question and maybe help others who might come by this post later.

So the potentiometer (pot) I would use in my case is a logorithmical or a audio taper (log) potentiometer which is double ganged. Double ganged means it's actualy 2 pots on one axel. Needs to be double ganged because you want to control both sides (stereo) of the headphones with one knob.

There are potentiometers that are linear but they are not used for volume controls in this fasion. So you need to make sure that you have a log pot.

The resistance of the pots I have not yet fully understood and there is not that much info about this online. It all depends on where you look. Some say you can only use 500-1k ohm pots and other say that you can use up to 10k ohm pots.

For now im just planing this project of mine and when i get to actualy building it I will test what resistance pots work best and update this post with the results.

 

[basroil]

Avoid those things at all costs. Just get a keyboard with proper media keys.

 

[Maters]

Avoid those things at all costs. Just get a keyboard with proper media keys.

Would be nice if you could tell me the reason why to avoid them.

 

[basroil]

Avoid those things at all costs. Just get a keyboard with proper media keys.

Would be nice if you could tell me the reason why to avoid them.

Unless you get a properly made device that will cost you more than a new keyboard, you're going to get lower audio quality. Also, good luck driving headphones with in-line 10kOhm pot... Most motherboards cap out around 150Ohm, and even high end ones can't go over 600Ohm. You'll be looking mostly at something with 100-500Ohm.

Changing the pre-out volume in Windows using media keys (if your keyboard supports macros, it also supports binding them to media keys) will avoid most issues (still not perfect) and it's much easier